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    New York Times issues important correction to Gore Vidal obituary

    By | The Lookout – Thu, Aug 2, 2012

    Vidal poses in his Italian villa in 2004. (Franco Origlia/Getty)

    On Wednesday, the New York Times published a wonderful, 2,800-word obituary of Gore Vidal, the "prolific, elegant, acerbic" 86-year-old writer who died on Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles.

    Later in the day, the Times published a not-so-wonderful, 100-word correction that Vidal would've no doubt found hysterical:

    Correction: August 1, 2012

    An earlier version misstated the term Mr. Vidal called William F. Buckley Jr. in a television appearance during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. It was crypto-Nazi, not crypto-fascist. It also described incorrectly Mr. Vidal's connection with former Vice President Al Gore. Although Mr. Vidal frequently referred jokingly to Mr. Gore as his cousin, they were not related. And Mr. Vidal's relationship with his longtime live-in companion, Howard Austen, was also described incorrectly. According to Mr. Vidal's memoir "Palimpsest," they had sex the night they met, but did not sleep together after they began living together. It was not true that they never had sex.

    To recap: Vidal did not call Buckley a crypto-fascist, was not really Al Gore's cousin and did have sex at least once with his longtime live-in companion. The Gray Lady regrets the error.

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