EVEN 35 YEARS AGO, THE NYT STUNK

History's first draft (Backspin)

Media accuracy isn’t only important for the here and now. As history’s “first draft,” errors in coverage can take on a life of their own many years later. A case in point is Smithsonian Magazine, now celebrating its 35th anniversary. A list of 1970 events, quotations and factoids from includes the following:

"Every Jew wishing to be reunited with his family and people in Israel should have the right to leave Russia." —Israeli Premier Golda Meir, on the alleged suppression of Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union to Israel, in the November 17 New York Times

An HonestReporting reader who contacted Smithsonian editors to let them know that the Soviets indeed suppressed Jewish emigration was told that the magazine simply lifted the quote from a 1970 edition of the NY Times, which also used the word “alleged.”