The New York Times takes down Anthony Weiner story

The New York Times “inadvertently” posted an article on the women involved in Anthony Weiner’s sexting scandal — and then deleted it.

“For Women in Weiner Scandal, Indignity Lingers” by Michael Barbaro was posted on the Times’s website Monday “before it was ready for publication,” according to a production note.

Text Size

  • -
  • +
  • reset

Best, worst of Weiner coverage

FLASHBACK: Weiner resigns

A Google News search shows the now-removed article about Weiner, who is running for mayor, started with the line, “Customers still taunt Lisa Weiss.”

“‘Talk dirty to me,’ they joke. ‘We know you like it.’ Colleagues still refuse to speak with her,” Barbaro wrote, according to a Google News search.

(QUIZ: Do you know Anthony Weiner?)

Weiss, a Las Vegas blackjack dealer, was one of the women involved in Weiner’s 2011 scandal. In September 2012, she posted a comment on a Facebook picture of Weiner with his wife, Huma Abedin, and their baby, Jordan.

“Please let me apologize again for any pain I caused your [sic] or the beautiful Huma,” she wrote, “It was unintentional … I still think you are our liberal hero and we need you back in politics!!”

The Times article “For Women in Weiner Scandal, Indignity Lingers” is also referenced on Google News with the sentence, “For those on the other end of Anthony D. Weiner’s sexually explicit conversations, the episode damaged careers, disrupted educations.”

Times director of communications Danielle Rhoades Ha told POLITICO in an email, “This story was published inadvertently, before it was ready. As a general rule, we do not discuss stories in advance.”

(Also on POLITICO: The good, bad & ugly coverage of Anthony Weiner)

Times public editor Margaret Sullivan wrote in a blog post Tuesday that “from what I’ve been able to piece together, there was a miscommunication among Times editors.”

“Some thought the article was ready to go, and sent it on through the editorial production cycle. At least one other editor — higher up on the food chain — disagreed about its readiness and did not intend it to be published, at least not at that point,” she wrote.

Sullivan said the Times would not “elaborate on what happened.”

“Such are the hazards of digital misdirection, as Mr. Weiner found out,” Sullivan wrote. “It couldn’t have happened to a more appropriate story.”

(WATCH: Weiner announces NYC mayor run)

Weiner resigned from Congress in June 2011 after tweeting a picture of his underwear-clad crotch. The New York Democrat at first claimed he had been hacked but later had to admit he had sent that photo and other sexually explicit pictures in exchanges with six women over three years.

Weiner announced his New York City mayoral run in May of this year. He is competing in a multi-candidate Democratic field and polls have shown him in second place.

Please see the Comments FAQ if you have any additional questions or email your thoughts to commentsfeedback@politico.com

comments powered by Disqus
Close

Send to a friendThe New York Times takes down Anthony Weiner story

  • Please enter your e-mail
    Invalid e-mail
  • Please enter a valid e-mail
    Invalid e-mail
Cancel

Popular on POLITICO

Recommended on Facebook

Wuerking Drawings

View More