The Times is pretty excited about the news that a $250 million pledge to Centre College in Kentucky was withdrawn. How excited? So excited that it reports the news twice in today's paper: Once in the national section, in a brief by Tamar Lewin, and then again in the business section, in a full-length article by Peter Lattman.
The nice thing about the Times publishing the same news by two different reporters in the same paper is that it makes it possible to check the two articles against each other for accuracy. The brief by Ms. Lewin describes Robert Brockman as "a former president of the college's board of trustees." The article by Mr. Lattman says Mr. Brockman "until recently served as chairman of Centre's board of trustees." So which is it, "president" or "chairman"? Maybe the Times can assign a third reporter or editor to referee the disagreement between Mr. Lewin and Mr. Lattman about Mr. Brockman's former title.
I was originally going to suggest that the Times have meetings or a computer system to prevent the waste of resources (paper, ink, the time of reporters) that occurs when a story is assigned and printed twice. But maybe, instead, the paper should do it more often, as a way of allowing readers to notice discrepancies between the two articles and thereby come to a closer approximation of the truth.
The Lewin brief doesn't appear on the Times Web site, so far as I can tell, but it is on page A15 of the printed paper I got here in Boston.