GEORGE MEAGHER NEW YORK TIMES UPDATE: This quote-recycling-and-relabeling story, originally mentioned here, and with a followup here, has now drawn comment from New York Times public editor Daniel Okrent here. Excerpt:

I would have liked to have seen a less artful and more complete mea culpa. The subject of the correction was Mr. Meagher’s political affiliation, but the larger issues were the propriety of using the same quote twice; using it in two different contexts; using it in two different versions (look at the phrases preceding “when I think about 500 people killed” ); and, most of all, not addressing the appropriateness of a single one of these points.

This was a correction written on the head of the pin. Readers have reason to expect The Times to be a little less defensive, a little more forthcoming, and a little more reflective.

Okrent is right, and I’m glad to see him acknowledge the Times’ error more forthrightly than the original correction did. As I said before, though, the thing that bothers me most about this story was the way in which Meagher’s quote was slotted in to fit an obviously predetermined story line.

UPDATE: Check this Los Angeles Times correction cock-up, too.