UPDATE: The Times has determined that this misquote came from London, but says it originated on the web site of the Archbishop of Canterbury and spread from there. Because the Archbishop’s website made the error before the Times did, the Times will not be publishing a correction.

I posted last week about a New York Times story with an Anaheim, Calif. dateline that appeared to contain no original reporting from Anaheim, Calif. The reporter, Laurie Goodstein, hadn’t been in Anaheim to personally cover any of the convention before writing the story, I noted. All of the quotes, I wrote, appeared to have been lifted directly from gay rights and Episcopal Church PR news releases.

But it turns out that one quote in the New York Times‘ article wasn’t lifted directly from the Episcopal Church’s publicity machine after all. That quote — actually a misquote — appears to have been taken directly from the British press without attribution.
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Good morning and happy Monday.

The 120-day consent process for the bishop-elect of Northern Michigan ended on July 19, and today’s July 20.

I’ll be checking with Episcopal Church national headquarters in New York and Episcopal Church diocesan headquarters in Marquette, Mich. to see if an announcement’s coming on the Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester.

Also in London, it’s the first workday for Anglican Communion ‘headquarters’ since the Episcopal Church’s decision to move forward on blessing same-sex unions. It’s been predicted that the Archbishop of Canterbury will make some sort of statement. If he does, it’ll be posted here.

UPDATE: Phone calls have been placed to Marquette, Mich. and New York City. A diocesan official told me there may be no announcement this week from Northern Michigan. When I hear back from Manhattan, I’ll let you know.

This afternoon, a reader from Columbus, Ohio stopped by BibleBeltBlogger.com, making the 300,000th visit to this website, according to Sitemeter.com.

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by this blog over the past three years.

Frank

Bishop Gene Robinson, gay-rights activists, conservative Episcopalians, conservative ex-Episcopalians, the American press, the British press, the Associated Press and bloggers of all stripes have been reporting that the Episcopal Church is dropping its three-year-old moratorium on the ordination of gay and lesbian bishops.

But Bishop Gene Robinson, gay-rights activists, conservative Episcopalians, conservative ex-Episcopalians, the American press, the British press, the Associated Press and bloggers of all stripes have it wrong, says Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. She’s sending a letter of clarification to the Primates of the Anglican Communion to clear up the confusion.

“With so much misinformation circulating through the press and other sources, it is crucial to me that I provide the Archbishop and all of you with accurate information.”

To read more about the letter, click here.

The Bishop of Arkansas says there’s been a solid theological justification for blessing same-sex marriage since the fifth century but “only in this generation have the scales begun falling from our eyes.”

“Chromosomal make-up” shouldn’t limit love, he adds.
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President Al Mohler of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary responds to the claim that personal or “individual salvation” is heresy.

And the Americans know it, Bishop Wright says in this article from The Times of London.

The Times of London’s religion reporter weighs in on the events in Anaheim.

Ruth Gledhill writes:

Arguably, this is a schism that’s been waiting to happen for 400 years. A denomination or communion founded on divorce, both of a king and of a church, is hardly one that’s predicated for infinite unity.

She hopes for an amicable divorce and a peaceful division of assets. But with the Episcopal Church budgeting $3 million for litigation against conservatives, that appears unlikely.

Stephen Bates, writing in the Guardian, says the Episcopal Church’s vote in Anaheim is a watershed.

To quote from the headline: “The Episcopal church’s decision on gay clergy may well signal the end of the Anglican communion as we know it.”

The Episcopal Church this week may condemn ‘Christian anti-Judaism’ as “expressed in and stirred by portions of Christian scriptures…”

(Here in the Bible Belt, the “Christian Scriptures” are commonly referred to as the New Testament.)

The proposal is currently slated to be debated by the House of Bishops.

Presiding bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori spoke out against heresy during the Episcopal Church’s General Convention in Anaheim. Here’s Fuller Seminary president Richard J. Mouw’s reaction:

There is good news and bad news here. The good news is that the Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop is not afraid to denounce heresy. The bad news is that we evangelicals turn out to be the heretics she is denouncing.

UPDATE: The New York Times has confirmed that this story did not comply with the paper’s dateline policy. But it says the fault lies with an editor, not reporter Laurie Goodstein. The Times also says it erred by listing Rebecca Cathcart as “reporting from Los Angeles.” Cathcart did do some original reporting at some point Monday in Anaheim, although not enough (all of the Monday quotes from General Convention in the story were attributed to Episcopal News Service, affiliated with the church’s public relations arm.) The story has been removed from nytimes.com. No correction will be forthcoming.

I just got this e-mail from Laurie Goodstein of The New York Times defending her byline and dateline on a story that contained no original reporting from Anaheim and that took all of its quotes from press releases and (often unattributed) stories by the church’s PR wing — the Episcopal News Service.

Goodstein says the Anaheim dateline is defensible because the story was written after 3 a.m. ET in an Anaheim hotel room.

Goodstein says the Anaheim dateline is also justified because a California colleague did some original reporting on Monday [I've scoured the story and if there's any original reporting there, I can't find it.] According to the Times’ own story: “Rebecca Cathcart contributed reporting from Los Angeles.” Los Angeles — not Anaheim. In the past year, when Ms. Cathcart has reported from a city near Los Angeles, she’s listed the name of the city. For example: Long Beach, Simi Valley, Loma Linda and even West Hollywood.

Bottom line — there’s no evidence that any reporting was done in Anaheim and there’s lots of evidence that all of the quotes were taken directly from IntegrityUSA and the public relations wing of the Episcopal Church: Not, as Goodstein claims, from wire services.

The Times owes readers an explanation.

Frank,

Well it sure would have been collegial, not to say ethical, for you to check with the subject of your “reporting” before you posted it on your blog.

So I will volunteer this information that you did not ask for: we had a reporter from our LA bureau covering the convention and the news conference last night as we realized news was breaking (she has the contributor line in our story today). I was on a plane from New York, arrived in Los Angeles after midnight LA time, got to the hotel, and wrote the story you saw on the web this morning, with the help of our reporter’s information and the wires.
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UPDATE: The New York Times has confirmed that this story did not comply with the paper’s dateline policy. But it says the fault lies with an editor, not reporter Laurie Goodstein. The Times also says it erred by listing Rebecca Cathcart as “reporting from Los Angeles.” Cathcart did do some original reporting at some point Monday in Anaheim, although not enough (all of the Monday quotes from General Convention proceedings in the story were attributed to Episcopal News Service, affiliated with the church’s public relations arm.)

Although all of the General Convention quotes in the story appeared in Episcopal Church news releases before appearing in the Times, the Times determined that was coincidental. Only the quotes attributed to Episcopal News Service were taken from Episcopal News Service. The other General Convention quotes came from watching video feeds from the convention or from posts on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s website.

The story has been removed from nytimes.com.

The New York Times is playing fast and loose with its own ethical standards. Again.

Take a look at this storyand you’ll see what I mean.

Google the quotes and see if you can find ANY that weren’t lifted off of press releases or other people’s stories — several without attribution.

I was at General Convention from Wednesday through Sunday and I never encountered anyone from the New York Times — and I was looking. In fact, I was told by church spokeswoman Neva Fox on Sunday afternoon that the Times hadn’t sent a reporter to the convention.

So I was started to see a story bearing an Anaheim dateline pop up on the Times’ website at 6:57 a.m. Pacific Time this morning. [And Transfigurations.blogspot.com says the story was already online at 4:43 a.m. Pacific Time.] That’s awfully early to be wrapping up interviews and to be putting the finishing touches on a story.

So I started Googling the quotes. None of them appear to have been captured by religion reporter Laurie Goodstein in Anaheim.

The quote in paragraph one comes from this online source.

The quote in paragraph nine comes from this press release that was e-mailed across America late last night.

The quotes in paragraph 11 were lifted (with attribution) from a story published this morning by the church’s official public relations organ — The Episcopal News Service.

The quotes in paragraph 18 were lifted (without attribution) from a July 12 story by Diocese of Kansas spokeswoman Melodie Woerman.

The quotes in paragraph 19 also are lifted (without attribution) from Episcopal News Service. (See here.)

The paraphrase in paragraph 20 was taken (without attribution) from the British press. (See here).

The quote in paragraph 21 was also lifted without attribution from numerous online sources.

This looks like a classic case of a “Dateline Toe Touch.” [Paging Jack Shafer at Slate Magazine.] It’s the type of thing that got Rick Bragg in hot water.

I’ll see if I can get more information on this and fill you in.

UPDATE: I asked Mary Ann Mueller, an online journalist covering General Convention in Anaheim, if she’s seen Laurie Goodstein yet. Mueller said she hasn’t seen Goodstein at any of the press conferences, but that she’d ask Episcopal Church officials if they’ve seen Goostein.

I just got this update from Mueller: “ACCORDING TO [Episcopal Church spokeswoman] NEVA [Fox]; Laurie is expected today.” The Times has also dispatched someone from their LA office to work with Goodstein, Mueller was told.

By RACHEL ZOLL
AP Religion Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — The Episcopal Church moved Monday toward affirming their acceptance of gays and lesbians for all roles in ministry, despite pressure from fellow Anglicans worldwide for a decisive moratorium on consecrating another openly gay bishop.
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BBC in London sees schism ahead:

“The decision seems likely to lead to the Episcopal Church’s eventual exit from the worldwide Anglican Communion. “

To read the entire article, click here.

Meanwhile, The New York Times discovered the story Tuesday. See here for details.

The Times, the Associated Press and virtually all major American news organizations have been MIA on this story over the past week. They weren’t there to hear the Archbishop of Canterbury’s warning on Thursday or to cover the House of Deputies’ vote overturning the moratorium on Sunday or the House of Bishops’ vote overturning the moratorium on Monday.

Tuesday, they’ll be playing catch up.

People who want to keep abreast of developments are turning to bloggers, such as StandFirmInFaith.com on the right or EpiscopalCafe.com on the left.