Stanley Yes, Patricia No, Says Times Editor

At the New York Times, public editor Clark Hoyt's rebuke of reporter Patricia Cohen is stinging:

I asked [former National Archives supervisory tapes archivist Frederick J.] Graboske how he was certain Kutler mixed the two tapes on purpose. To have done it, he said, “would have been the height of sloppiness, and Stanley is a sloppy researcher or he did it deliberately.” That is a different answer than he gave Cohen. If plain error was a possibility, I do not think The Times should have printed the charge without strong evidence. Journalistic balance, giving both sides, did not produce fairness here.