How NYT Plans To Avoid Future Seltzers

NY Times public editor Clark Hoyt asks around the office about how Peggy Seltzer faked the paper out and scored an enthusiastic review from Michiko Kakutani for her fake memoir, Love and Consequences along with a profile in the Thursday house and homes section. Hoyt also discusses the new procedures NYT writers and editors will follow to try to prevent such a goof-up from happening again. Of which my favorite is:

“Kakutani said she will be ‘extra skeptical about such books’ in the future. If she has any questions about one, she will not review it until the publishing-beat reporter is satisfied that the work is genuine.”

If I had to make my guess, that translates to “no more debut memoirs for Kakutani,” as the publishing-beat reporter will undoubtedly have more than enough stories to cover without looking into every well-written but potentially fake memoir that comes along. Unless there’s a really good story to the fraud, of course.

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