The New York Times Web site has been hosting an article since May 2000 claiming that I was fired from Microsoft in January of that year. I complained several times that this was wrong -- I wasn't fired, I quit in good standing (and, for the record, voluntarily, not some "quit now or you'll be fired" deal) -- and I showed the NYT editors a copy of my personnel file from Microsoft which has "Term. type: Voluntary" and "Term reason: Resignation" printed on it, but the paper has still not corrected the article. (I had other issues with the article as well -- it made it sound like I had stolen proprietary information from Microsoft and published it, when in fact it was a security hole that I found independently after leaving the company. But the most clearly wrong statement was the statement that I had been fired.)
When the New York Times created the position of Public Editor in 2003, to "restore reader confidence" after the Jayson Blair scandal, and hired Daniel Okrent as the first Public Editor, I figured that would be a good time to raise the issue again, since the paper was trying to rebuild its reputation for accuracy. I wrote to the Public Editor's office and gave them the link to the article which was still being hosted on the NYTimes.com web site. I also told them that recently one of my employers found the article by Googling my name and thought I had lied about my employment history, and I only dodged that bullet because my employer looked up my Microsoft reference and determined that I was telling the truth. After several weeks of getting the runaround from the Public Editor's assistant, Arthur Bovino, I got the following response:
Mr. Borders said that after quite a bit of investigation involving Mr. Brick and editors at the paper and at NYTimes.com, he is satisfied that the piece that offended you those years ago never appeared in The New York Times and that a correction is not warranted.
As far as this office is concerned this matter is resolved.
Sincerely,
Arthur Bovino
Office of the Public Editor
The New York Times
Perplexed, I immediately wrote back protesting that (a) we had established at the very beginning of the conversation that the piece appeared only on the Web site, not the newspaper, and that's why I was trying to get it fixed; and (b) besides, what difference should it make whether the piece appeared in the paper, if it's on the Web site and people are still finding it? Mr. Bovino replied,
Dear Mr. Haselton,
I checked in with Mr. Okrent and he indicated that we've said all we have to say on this subject.
Sincerely,
Arthur Bovino
Office of the Public Editor
The New York Times
I realize this sounds like something out of Monty Python, so for the record, I have published an archive of all the email correspondence between myself and the Public Editor's office.
The Public Editor's office can be reached at public@nytimes.com but I don't know if they will comment publicly on this matter. In May 2005, Byron Calame replaced Daniel Okrent as the Public Editor of the New York Times, and I have sent him a copy of my Microsoft personnel file and a link to the incorrect article, but I have yet to receive a response from him.
I'm not under any delusions that this is a "significant" story, but my feeling is that if the New York Times can't even correct something this straightforward, they can hardly have much credibility with regard to more important stories.
Public Editor, my ass.