New York Times Redoes Story On Horrific Texas Rape After Outrage

The New York Times did an extensive follow-up to their widely criticized story about a rape in Texas—one that the paper's own editor admitted was handled badly.

The Times caused a firestorm of controversy when it published a story about a horrific gang rape of an 11-year-old girl in Texas that critics said appeared to blame the victim for the assault. The paper's public editor sided with outraged readers, saying that the story "lacked balance."

Recently, editor Bill Keller admitted that the previous story had been "cringe-making" and "ham-handed", and that "the only way to make amends was to order up a whole new story." That new story appeared on the front page of Tuesday's paper. It was written by the reporter of the previous story, James C. McKinley, as well as a new reporter, Erica Goode.

The story differs from the previous article in that it interviews the girl's friends, family and neighbors, and avoids a few of the elements that drew so much criticism in the last story, such as quoting people who said the girl wore too much makeup. (Some, however, said that problematic elements remained in the piece.) It also contains nightmarish details about the months-long sexual abuse that the girl endured. Read the full story here.