A former government official wants the WSJ to correct an eight-year-old story

David Folkenflik of NPR writes about how a former U.S. Department of Education official has been trying to get The Wall Street Journal to correct an eight-year-old story that he argues is false and has hurt his reputation.

Folkenflik writes, “Attacks on Shireman have arrived seemingly from many fronts — Republican senators, liberal public interest groups, corporate interests. And they have continued as recently as this past spring, from a pro-industry group and a senior U.S. senator. These rebukes have often taken inspiration from and derived credibility from the Wall Street Journal’s earlier report.

“The Journal has turned down Shireman’s request to post a thorough correction or a new article. ‘We are receptive and responsive to objections raised (no matter how old),’ Steve Severinghaus, a spokesman for the newspaper, writes in an email for this story. ‘In this particular instance, we fully investigated the complaints Mr. Shireman brought to us, and after a full review concluded that no corrections were warranted.’

“Several news organizations have started reviewing some of their past news coverage when people question whether they were portrayed fairly in those stories. The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Boston Globe and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, for instance, have recently instituted formal policies to review such coverage from many years ago, beyond narrow corrections.”

Read more here.