NYT’s public editor slams Nocera column on Buffett

Margaret Sullivan, the public editor at the New York Times, is critical of columnist Joe Nocera for his recent writing about billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

Sullivan writes, “It’s understood that nobody needs to feel sorry for Mr. Buffett, one of the world’s wealthiest people, nor does he suggest anything of the kind. ‘I’ve got more ability to respond than most,’ he told me, in an understatement. Given his stature, his actions are fair game for legitimate criticism. But if you’re going to impugn someone’s integrity, you’d better have your facts straight.

“In this instance, because the second column is so intrinsically flawed, a standard correction didn’t get the job done.  Mr. Nocera should have devoted at least part of another column to telling his readers what happened and why. In his email to me, Mr. Nocera referred to the second column’s fundamental mistake as ‘bad/dumb/embarrassing.’

“Such a forthright admission should not be confined to an email answer to the public editor’s question, but should be published in the same Times pages where the two columns ran. Ideally, the online version of the second column would provide a clear link to the mea culpa.  That would go a long way toward making this right.”

Read more here.