Posted by Todd Zywicki:
New York Times Descends Into Parody--Literally:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_09_09-2007_09_15.shtml#1189888278
Today's "Corrections" page in the New York Times contains the
following:
Correction Published: September 15, 2007 An article last Saturday
about Dartmouth College�s governance structure incorrectly
described a Web site congratulating Todd J. Zywicki, a trustee, for
meeting with members of the Phrygians, a secret society, and
discussing possible actions against the college administration. It
was a hoax site, not an official Phrygian site. Mr. Zywicki says he
met several times with the Phrygians, but did not discuss actions
against the administration.
The "Phrygian Society" is a senior secret society at Dartmouth--there
are several of them and they traditionally have been single-sex (by
the way, I meet with a lot of student groups). Apparently this
reporter thought that a secret society would have a completely public
website with pictures, meeting minutes, and the like.
It appears that the reporter let her political biases (which are
strongly reflected in the original story) get out in front of her
reportorial good judgment. Would you expect, for instance, that Skull
& Bones at Yale would have a website at skullandbones.org where they
posted pictures of their meetings?
For those who read the original story last weekend, therefore, please
be aware that the website that was posted was a complete hoax as was
all of the "substance" of the puported meeting that took place. My
understanding is that the website is actually set up by a member of
the Jack-O_Lantern, the Dartmouth humor magazine, and that they have
established similar sites for other Dartmouth-affiliated groups.
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