NEW YORK TIMES ADMITS SERIOUS ERRORS IN ITS WEATHER FORECASTS
Paper to Drop Weather Page Indefinitely
The New York Times, roiled in recent weeks by a shocking journalistic scandal, appeared on the verge of more housecleaning today after top editors admitted discovering "serious errors" in the Times' weather forecasts.
The errors were unearthed last Wednesday, when a "partly sunny" forecast for the New York metropolitan area turned out to be completely inaccurate, according to a Times spokesperson, Jeanine Doran.
"In point of fact, it was partly cloudy that day," a grim-faced Ms. Doran told reporters this morning.
The partly cloudy/partly sunny error motivated top editors at the Times to review weather forecasts for the past five months and led to the shocking discovery that the forecasts were correct only four percent of the time.
"Four percent accuracy, especially for something as important as the weather, is completely unacceptable at the Times and will not be tolerated," Ms. Doran said.
After a closed-door, acrimony-filled meeting between executive editor Joseph Lelyveld and the entire Times staff, the newspaper decided to suspend all weather coverage until its methodology for weather forecasting could be fully overhauled.
"In the meantime, if a Times subscriber wants to know what the weather is like, we suggest he step outside," Mr. Lelyveld said after the meeting.
In other news, scientists said today that it is impossible to determine the precise magnitude of the age gap between actress Demi Moore and "That 70's Show" star Ashton Kutcher.
The scientists said that measuring the age-gap had been made more difficult by Ms. Moore's highly successful plastic surgery, which had made it impossible to determine just how old Ms. Moore actually is.
**** ROROWITZ REPORT****
Paper to Drop Weather Page Indefinitely
The New York Times, roiled in recent weeks by a shocking journalistic scandal, appeared on the verge of more housecleaning today after top editors admitted discovering "serious errors" in the Times' weather forecasts.
The errors were unearthed last Wednesday, when a "partly sunny" forecast for the New York metropolitan area turned out to be completely inaccurate, according to a Times spokesperson, Jeanine Doran.
"In point of fact, it was partly cloudy that day," a grim-faced Ms. Doran told reporters this morning.
The partly cloudy/partly sunny error motivated top editors at the Times to review weather forecasts for the past five months and led to the shocking discovery that the forecasts were correct only four percent of the time.
"Four percent accuracy, especially for something as important as the weather, is completely unacceptable at the Times and will not be tolerated," Ms. Doran said.
After a closed-door, acrimony-filled meeting between executive editor Joseph Lelyveld and the entire Times staff, the newspaper decided to suspend all weather coverage until its methodology for weather forecasting could be fully overhauled.
"In the meantime, if a Times subscriber wants to know what the weather is like, we suggest he step outside," Mr. Lelyveld said after the meeting.
In other news, scientists said today that it is impossible to determine the precise magnitude of the age gap between actress Demi Moore and "That 70's Show" star Ashton Kutcher.
The scientists said that measuring the age-gap had been made more difficult by Ms. Moore's highly successful plastic surgery, which had made it impossible to determine just how old Ms. Moore actually is.
**** ROROWITZ REPORT****
