SAY WHAT YOU WILL ABOUT THE MIRROR, but this is certainly the kind of forthright admission of error (for its publication of fake photos regarding Iraqi prisoner abuse) that we don’t see enough of in the news business.

The Mirror’s actual <a href=”apology contains a certain amount of weaseling, but in light of the front page I’m not going to complain too much.

I think that some American papers could learn from this example. And I can’t help noting how often media people — from the BBC in the Gilligan scandal, to The Mirror and The Globe this week — have gotten themselves into humiliating positions as a result of being too anxious to run things that they hope will make the war effort look bad.

And, speaking of the Globe, Sherrie Gossett, who broke the fake-photo story there, says that yesterday’s Ombudsman column was dishonest and is a case of “playing dumb to save face.”