NY Times publishes fake letter criticizing Caroline Kennedy

Tuesday 23rd December, 04:51 PM JST

NEW YORK —

The New York Times admitted Monday it published a fake letter purportedly from the mayor of Paris criticizing Caroline Kennedy’s Senate bid as “appalling” and “not very democratic.”

“What title has Ms Kennedy to pretend to Hillary Clinton’s seat?” the letter in Monday’s editions said. “We French can only see a dynastic move of the vanishing Kennedy clan in the very country of the Bill of Rights. It is both surprising and appalling.”

In an editor’s note posted Monday on its website, the Times said the letter signed by Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe should not have been published because it violated the paper’s standards and procedures.

“We have already expressed our regrets to Mr Delanoe’s office and we are now doing the same to you, our readers,” the Times said.

News of the hoax was first reported by France-Amerique, which published a story on its website Monday. Editor-in-chief Jean-Cosme Delaloye said an employee of the French language monthly, which is based in New York City, read it Monday morning and was skeptical.

“When we read the letter it just sounded very surprising, the choice of words sounded very surprising,” he told The Associated Press. “When we called Paris to verify the information ... they were very surprised.”

Virginie Christnacht, head of Delanoe’s press office in Paris, told the AP the letter was a fake.

“We have asked The New York Times for a denial and an apology,” she said. “Clearly, this was never sent by Bertrand Delanoe.”

The Times blamed the mistake on a failure to verify the authenticity of a letter that arrived by email.

“In this case, our staff sent an edited version of the letter to the sender of the email and did not hear back,” the paper said. “At that point, we should have contacted Mr Delanoe’s office to verify that he had, in fact, written to us. We did not do that. Without that verification, the letter should never have been printed.”

The Times said it was reviewing its procedures to avoid such an incident in the future.

Asked to comment, Times spokeswoman Catherine J Mathis referred the AP to the paper’s website.

___

Associated Press writer Joelle Diderich contributed to this report from Paris.

› Login to comment

7 Comments

Badsey at 07:10 PM JST - 23rd December

Yeah, I got this spam email letter also. I had no idea people were so gullible. No wonder why the economy is in such turmoil.
adaydream at 12:37 AM JST - 24th December

Don't they check their sources? In today's world these things have to be checked out. Such airheads to print this. < :-)
Sarge at 12:46 AM JST - 24th December

Why am I not surprised at this news?
ca1ic0cat at 05:03 AM JST - 24th December

Yep, it was a fraud that the note came from the mayor of Paris. But that doesn't reduce the accuracy of the contents.
adamantine at 11:03 AM JST - 24th December

A nice try. But mean-spirited pranks won't be enough to keep Caroline from assuming whatever office she feels the party owes her for having been born a Kennedy.
Betzee at 11:48 PM JST - 24th December

Yep, it was a fraud that the note came from the mayor of Paris. But that doesn't reduce the accuracy of the contents.

The view itself is one widely held, namely a concern over the "dynastication" of American politics. But the NYT's should have known an elected official in another country would not weigh in on it this way.

M. Dealanoe's entitled to his personal opinion of course, but it's inappropriate for him in his capacity of Mayor of Paris to voice it. Not surprisingly, the letter turned out to be a hoax.
adamantine at 01:38 AM JST - 25th December

Caroline Kennedy is worth over a hundred million dollars.

Like a well-trained Kennedy she steadfastly refuses to release any information about her income.

But as with John Kerry and John Edwards - who have even more - you can be sure she feels your pain.