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New York Times Finally Issues Correction on Abortion El Salvador Story

By John-Henry Westen

NEW YORK, January 8, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Five weeks after they were notified by a LifeSiteNews.com article that they had made a grave error in reporting on abortion in El Salvador, and one week after the paper's ombudsman published his corroboration of the LifeSiteNews.com evidence, the New York Times has issued a correction.  On Sunday, the New York Times magazine issued an editor's note admitting at least one of the errors in an April 9 story.

With information from contacts in El Salvador, LifeSiteNews.com pointed out in late November that the cover article in the NYT magazine of April 9 claimed falsely that some women in El Salvador were imprisoned for thirty years for illegal abortions.  LifeSiteNews published the full court ruling in the case which showed that rather than being jailed for a clandestine abortion - as the Times magazine asserted - the case study cited actually concerned infanticide of a full-term baby. (see coverage: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jan/07010404.html )

The emotionally laden piece published by the magazine carried a photo of a young woman in prison by the name of Carmen Climaco.  The caption stated she "was given 30 years for an abortion that was ruled a homicide."  Moreover, the article concluded, "She'd had a clandestine abortion at 18 weeks, not all that different from D.C.'s, something defined as absolutely legal in the United States. It's just that she'd had an abortion in El Salvador."

Complaints from LifeSiteNews.com readers prompted New York Times public editor (ombudsman) Byron Calame to investigate the Times magazine story in light of the court ruling.  After verifying that the court ruling published by LifeSiteNews.com was authentic and did in fact contradict the assertions by the magazine, he corresponded with magazine editor and the standards editor, both of whom as of the December 31 publication of Mr. Calame's article were refusing to admit their error and publish a correction. (see coverage: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jan/07010208.html )

The story spread like wildfire on talk radio, blogs, and even in the mainstream press both in America and El Salvador. (http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jan/07010507.html )  There were even assertions that the paper would remove it public editor position altogether (http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jan/07010404.html )

The pro-abortion bias of the New York Times was aired to millions.  Prominent attention was paid to the fact that Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. gave a speech to graduates of the State University of New York at New Paltz in May 2006 where he demonstrated his extreme pro-abortion and pro-same sex 'marriage' militancy.  In his speech he "apologized" to the graduates saying, "You weren't supposed to be graduating into a world where we are still fighting for fundamental human rights, whether it's the rights of immigrants to start a new life, or the rights of gays to marry; or the rights of women to choose."

The editor's note in the magazine's corrections section yesterday stated: "The Times should have obtained the text of the ruling of the three-judge panel before the article was published, but did not vigorously pursue the document until details of the ruling were brought to the attention of editors in late November."

The editor's note adds: "Ms. Climaco was sentenced to 30 years in prison for a case that was initially thought to be an abortion but was later ruled to be a homicide; she was not given 30 years in prison for an abortion that was ruled a homicide."

See the full editor's note in the NYT magazine here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/magazine/07edsnote.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

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