This image was lost some time after publication.

For the longest time, we didn't quite understand why the Times continued to let Alessandra Stanley write about television. She has paid her dues as a foreign correspondent, sure. She's been at the paper for years, fine. But, apparently, she suffers from a congenital inability to get anything about television — names, dates, facts — correct. So why, we wondered, did they allow her to continue? Then we saw last night's Colbert Report, on which host Stephen Colbert made this commentary:

Now, before we start, there is something else I need to talk about, this correction in yesterday's New York Times. Let's go full frame with this.

You see, the Times mistakenly reported that in the first episode of this show, "The Colbert Report," THE WORD was "trustiness." It was, in fact, "truthiness."

Trustiness? That's not even a word!

Doesn't surprise me one bit the "New York Times" hasn't heard of truthiness.

I'll tell you one thing, somebody better go to jail for 85 days over this.

You know what, New York Times? Apology not accepted.

So let's go straight to THE WORD, which tonight is something even the New York Times can't possibly get wrong. Cat. C-A-T, cat.

I'll give the guys over at the "Times" a second to write it down.

And suddenly it made sense. Every minute the TV comedians spend mocking Stanley is, inherently, a minute they can't spend mocking Judith Miller or Arthur Sulzberger or Plamegate or Bill Keller or WMD or anything else engulfing the paper.

And, for folks on 43rd Street, those few Judy-free moments must be a blessing.

Corrections [NYT (Nov 1., 2005)]
Earlier: The Alessandra Stanley Watch: Tomorrow's Corrections Today, Part 2