The CutlineWhat happened to NYT’s ‘Patriots crumble’ story?
On MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Tuesday, co-host Joe Scarborough mentioned that a New York Times story on the New England Patriots appeared to be pulled from the paper's website.
Although the piece wasn't pulled completely, it was significantly changed from the version that had appeared the night before.
The original Times headline — "The Day the Patriots Empire Began to Crumble" — certainly didn't reflect the team's 45-3 massacre of the Jets on "Monday Night Football." Earlier links to William Rhoden's piece with that headline were now redirected to a much-revised story based on the game's outcome: "Patriot's Romp Stirs Questions, and Not Just for Jets."
Times sports editor Tom Jolly explained what happened in a statement to The Cutline.
"As is common practice when games are played at night, Bill wrote an early column for the first edition and the Web and then updated it to reflect the outcome," Jolly said. "This column obviously needed more updating than usual, since Bill went out on a limb in his early version."
(Photo of Patriots quarter Tom Brady on Dec. 6, 2010: AP/ Charles Krupa)
