Kennedy caught by fake mayor’s letter

When the New York Times received a letter from the Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, the subject was not French politics nor even the strength of the euro – but a denunciation of Caroline Kennedy's attempt to take over Hillary Clinton's New York seat in the Senate. "I find Caroline Kennedy's bid for the seat of senator Hillary Rodham Clinton both surprising and not very democratic, to say the least," the letter began. "What title has Ms Kennedy to pretend to Hillary Clinton's seat? We French can only see a dynastic move of the vanishing Kennedy clan in the very country of the Bill of Rights. It is both surprising and appalling."

The letter, which was published on Monday, went on to accuse daughter of John F Kennedy of acting in "very poor taste" before concluding: "It seems that recently both Republicans and Democrats are drifting away from a truly democratic model … Can we speak of American decline?"

Strong stuff, but it turned out that the New York Times, normally renowned for its stringent fact checking, had been well and truly duped. "This letter was a fake," the paper meekly admitted on its website later on Monday, revealing the letter had been e-mailed to the paper and that staff sent an e-mail back to the mayor to verify it, but did not hear back. "At that point, we should have contacted Mr. Delanoe's office to verify that he had, in fact, written to us," the paper said. "We did not do that."

However, before the Times posted its correction, Greta Van Susteren, a Fox television anchor, blogged about the letter, headlining her post "Sticking his nose in our business". Kennedy, 51, will not be heartened by the response to Van Susteren's item: it attracted more than 180 comments, most of them siding with Delanoe.
 ·