False ‘Times’ Report Reflects Web Era

You know times have changed when The New York Times prints grossly false reports. “Welcome to the Internet, which is not known for its source-checking,” writes Edward Jay Epstein in The Daily Beast. The Times published an opinion-page article on May 12 citing a 2010 study that found 10 percent of Wall Street workers are “clinical psychopaths”—a diagnosis that conjures images of chainsaw-wielding Patrick Batemans running amok in the financial district. But the Grey Lady didn’t properly fact check the study, which was originally published in The Week, which in turn cited another article that was the original—and false—source of the 10 percent figure. The original numbers from the study were “transformed via the blogosphere into a supposedly scientific finding noted in one of our most respected newspapers,” Epstein writes. The Times has since posted a correction in the online version of its story.