Still Guilty

Because of an email breakdown, Mel Ayton’s essay was not vetted by its author prior to publication, which is standard procedure. Some points in the version posted 11 May 2008 required clarification. A revised version was posted on 14 May, and several minor corrections and additions were also incorporated in the revision.

 

Civics Lesson

The 11 February 2008 review of The Commission stated that Philip Zelikow drafted the “Talking Points” rebuttal to Shenon dated 1 February 2008. Zelikow has denied primary authorship, claiming that Christopher Kojm, his former deputy on the 9/11 panel, “held the pen on that . . . document.”

Washington Decoded is certain only that Zelikow distributed the “Talking Points” memo immediately after it was written.

“Civics Lesson” was corrected on 19 February to reflect that fact.

Doubt and Disbelief

The 11 January 2008 article about the January 1967 conversation between President Johnson and Justice Abe Fortas was published before Gene Roberts was able to respond to queries about The New York Times’s investigation into the Warren Report. On January 22, Roberts clarified some aspects of the newspaper’s inquiry.

Roberts was the reporter in charge of the investigation, which involved several other reporters, including Peter Kihss and M.S. Handler. After extensive interviews of everyone on the Warren Commission who was willing to talk, and a thorough review of many of the questions that had been raised by critics of the report, “we didn’t come up with anything really new,” Roberts recalled. Ultimately, it was Harrison Salisbury’s decision not to run even one article, but every reporter involved in the investigation, according to Roberts, concurred in that judgment.

“Doubt and Disbelief in the Warren Report” was corrected on 22 January 2008 to reflect these clarifications.

Deep Throat 3.0

The 11 May 2007 article on Deep Throat erred in ascribing to Ben Bradlee a role really played by Leonard Downie, Jr., Bradlee’s successor as executive editor of The Washington Post. It was Downie who insisted that the guessing game was over with publication of the Vanity Fair article.

“Deep Throat 3.0” was corrected on 20 May 2007 to convey Downie’s role accurately.

The article also stated, incorrectly, that the 20 June 1972 article by Woodward instigated Zeigler’s remark about a “third-rate burglary.” Ziegler’s characterization was uttered on June 19, before the article appeared.

The relevant sentence in “Deep Throat 3.0” was corrected on 8 July 2008.