There's a new example today of Times incompetence in coverage of the Boy Scouts of America, an organization that is culturally foreign to many Times reporters and editors. (For earlier examples, please see here and here.) A Times news article and slide show describe the singer Madonna as appearing at an event of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation in a "Boy Scouts uniform."
In fact, as People magazine more accurately reported, she was in what looked more like a Cub Scout uniform.
The photos indicate that it was a blue uniform. A Times correction February 6 described the Boy Scout uniform as "tan," which is itself inaccurate because it describes just the uniform shirt and not the olive-green pants or shorts that go with it. But if the Times reporter and editor had read their own newspaper's inaccurate correction from last month, they'd realize that Madonna was not in a Boy Scout uniform, but a Cub Scout uniform. This might seem like a fine line, since the Cub Scouts are part of the Boy Scouts of America. But it's the sort of thing that just gives away a lack of familiarity with the subject in a way that the Times would find unacceptable when writing about topics that its editorial staff is more deeply invested in, such as organic produce or yoga.
There are some other strange aspects of the Times coverage of this event in addition to the inaccurate description of the uniform. The article refers to "a nearly 20-minute rambling speech from Glaad's president, Herndon Graddick." The slideshow, on the other hand, reports that "Herndon Graddick, Glaad's president, devoted much of his 15-minute speech to raising awareness of transgender issues." So which was it, a "nearly 20-minute" speech or a "15-minute" speech?
Also left unexplained is why this fundraiser merits a section-front, 1000-word news article and a 14-slide multimedia presentation, while many other fundraising dinners happen all over New York City for other causes nearly every night of the week and are either ignored entirely or covered with a photo or two in Bill Cunningham's Sunday "Evening Hours" column.