Report: Cost-Cutting Impacting Accuracy At NYTimes

The New York Times has received a lot of criticism lately, and the fallout from a discredited book review could serve as a microcosm of the issues the paper faces as it attempts to adapt to a changing media landscape while employing fewer editors, according to Fox News.

The Times has accepted buyouts from several editors over the past few months -- which has reduced the number of usual steps taken to vet stories. The paper wanted to "shift the balance of editors to reporters at The Times," according to top editors Dean Baquet and Joe Kahn.

Media Research Center Vice President Dan Gainor told Fox News “The Times is learning something a lot of news outlets have learned the hard way: cost-cutting also cuts quality," adding that “journalism is actually very difficult” and “involves a lot of moving parts and a lot of people checking facts.”

New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg recently reviewed Vanessa Grigoriadis’ new book, “Blurred Lines,” which explores the issue of consensual sex on college campuses. Goldberg accused Grigoriadis of making “baffling errors that threaten to undermine her entire book.”

The author fired back and mocked the review in a Facebook post. “Not one charge she makes in her review is correct,” Grigoriadis wrote. “I can’t believe this person has been allowed to destroy three years of my work without consequences.”

The Times was forced to issue a pair of corrections regarding Goldberg’s review, and the embarrassing situation has made headlines in a variety of publications. Goldberg eventually took to Twitter and claimed she would “give a kidney” to go back because she “made a serious error.” The Times declined comment when asked if Goldberg was disciplined for her review.

Times editorial page editor James Bennet has also had a rough few months, getting caught up in Sarah Palin’s defamation lawsuit against the paper, receiving blowback for hiring conservative columnist Bret Stephens, and hiring Goldberg as an opinion columnist.

Citing “multiple insiders,” Vanity Fair reported that staffers wonder if “Goldberg’s errors would have, in fact, been caught if the Times still had a free-standing, centralized copy desk, as opposed to a new system in which copy-editing and fact-checking is handled by so-called ‘strong editors’ within each department.”

“There are still good journalists at the Times… but that's like a baseball team having a great starting pitcher and lousy fielders,” Gainor said. “They need people to back them up to keep facts straight.”