MBP of the Week: New York Times (yet again)

The New York Times last week published a story about statewide school budgeting. (Stay with me... I’m building to something.)

Apparently, the deal cut by the Republican-controlled state Senate gave short shrift to Westchester County, which is represented by a newly elected Democrat, Andrea Stewart-Cousins.

Republican leader Dean Skelos said it wasn’t a partisan power play, but that Ms. Stewart-Cousins and her fellow Democrats “fell asleep at the switch.”

Ms. Stewart-Cousins responded: “When you have Dean Skelos even pretending that somehow I sat in the chamber and said nothing – as if this were some discussion that was open and aboveboard – it is absolutely ridiculous.”

None of which means a damn thing to me.

Except that the Times ran a photograph of Anita Hill (remember her?) misidentified as Andrea Stewart-Cousins (bottom photo).

Here’s how the New York Times corrected the error today:

“A photograph with an article last Sunday on the Around Long Island page, about the formula for financing schools in the new state budget, was published in error. It showed Anita F. Hill, a professor at Brandeis University, not State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat from Westchester.”

Proving that the Misidentified Black Person phenomenon can occur in the best of newspapers. Again and again.

UPDATE (04/16/07): This week’s MBP runner-up is the Associated Press. Hat-tip to Craig Silverman at Regret the Error, which today reprinted the following correction from the Advocate newspaper (Baton Rouge, La.):

“The Associated Press incorrectly identified James Harris as Willie Brown in the caption of a photo that ran on Page 1C of Thursday’s Advocate. The Advocate regrets the error.”

Both Willie Brown (left photo) and James Harris played football at Grambling College (now Grambling State University); both had successful careers in the NFL (Mr. Brown is a Hall of Famer); and both attended the funeral last week of legendary Grambling coach Eddie Robinson. I guess this mistake was inevitable.