We interrupt regularly scheduled light blogging to bring you the following breaking story: NY Times public editor Byron Calame is earning his pay!

Regular readers of Don Luskin are familiar with his tireless, at times quixotic campaign to make NY Times columnist Paul Krugman publish factual information. He was sometimes successful in getting previous NY Times public editor Dan Okrent to take on Krugman, but Okrent was a sputtering type who, in his last column as public editor, accused Krugman of slicing and dicing the facts without providing specific examples. Calame is taking a more systematic approach:

An Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times who makes an error “is expected to promptly correct it in the column.” That’s the established policy of Gail Collins, editor of the editorial page. Her written policy encourages “a uniform approach, with the correction made at the bottom of the piece.”
Two weeks have passed since my previous post spelled out the errors made by columnist Paul Krugman in writing about news media recounts of the 2000 Florida vote for president. Mr. Krugman still hasn’t been required to comply with the policy by publishing a formal correction. Ms. Collins hasn’t offered any explanation… [snip]
All Mr. Krugman has offered so far is a faux correction [a “korrection”?]. Each Op-Ed columnist has a page in nytimes.com that includes his or her past columns and biographical information. Mr. Krugman has been allowed to post a note on his page that acknowledges his initial error, but doesn’t explain that his initial correction of that error was also wrong. Since it hasn’t been officially published, that posting doesn’t cause the correction to be appended to any of the relevant columns… [snip]
A bottom-line question: Does a corrections policy not enforced damage The Times’s credibility more than having no policy at all?

Answer: Having columnists like Krugman on the op-ed page — columnists whose sole contribution to the national debate is to twist the paper’s A section into Bush-bashing origami — is what damages the Times’s credibility. But since a house-cleaning is unlikely, I’d say having a public editor who holds those columnists accountable is the best we can hope for, short-term. Thanks Byron.

See also:

Don Luskin: Third Time’s Not the Charm

Media Blog: Tell ‘Em on a Friday