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October 13, 2004

Students lied, NY Times editors died

N.Y. Times Deceived by Students' Letters

A professor had his students write letters to the NY Times without disclosing that it was for a class project. Big whoopee doo!

But the NY Times letters editor feels violated.

Thomas Feyer, letter editor for the newspaper, said students, at the instruction of [Prof.] Duckenfield, wrote the letters about subjects ranging from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to American consumption as if they were submitted from their hometowns instead of Durham.

"They are clearly smart and good writers -- they wrote very nice letters -- but I want people to be up front," Feyer said. "The professor was urging them to deceive us, and it undermines the credibility of the paper if it's discovered as it was in this case."
The credibility of the NY Times? Paging Jayson Blair.