At last we know what New York Times editors really think about George W. Bush. In a Richard L. Berke story a couple of weeks ago on the large number of policy experts going to Austin, Texas, to advise Bush for his run at the GOP presidential nomination, there was this catty line about all the expert advice Bush was getting: "There may never have been a 'serious' candidate who needed it more."
The explanation for this astonishing editorial comment came a week later in an Editor's Note: "As published, the article included an opinionated sentence casting doubt on [Bush's] mastery of the issues. The sentence was sent as a message between the editors after the article was written, and the reporters were never aware of it. The comment was typed in a nonprinting computer script, but converted into print through a command error."
It would be a service to readers if the Times made public more of the editorial opinions that shape its news stories.