New York Times Mistake Affects Women & Children First

Last week, the New York Times ran a story about the behavior of children and their parents in the cafes and restaurants of Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood. The piece incorrectly stated that mothers were not attending events at the bookstore Women & Children First because children had been "kicked out for standing, talking, or sipping drinks" and "a retail clerk at the bookstore [had] asked a woman to stop breast-feeding last spring."

As Women & Children noted on its store blog, the statement was "totally false." A November 11 correction in the Times stated: "Because of an editing error," the story "misstated the site" of the interaction of the retail clerk and the customer and had also "misstated the bookstore's policy for children who break rules for story time."

But the paper's error created confusion, mistaken outrage directed at the bookstore, and possible damage to the reputation of the 26-year-old Chicago institution, all of which co-owner Ann Christophersen fears may be extremely difficult to mend.

"The errors in this story are not only egregious in 'the newspaper of record,' they are extremely damaging to us," the store stated in its blog, www.livejournal.com/users/wcfbooks. "We have spent 26 years carefully cultivating an atmosphere that supports women in all their life-choices; and the choice of our store's name was specifically intended to indicate that wherever women go, children are likely to be with them, and that we meant all of them to feel welcome and well-nurtured in our store."

Christophersen, who is a former president of the American Booksellers Association, summed it up to BTW in this way: "The whole representation of what we do here was wrong, both in what we think and what we do. We were cast in a light that was the exact opposite of who we are, and it's really a drag."

In addition to the blog post, which clarifies several mistakes, the bookstore wrote the reporter, the Times' Chicago Bureau Chief Jodi Wilgoren, and the Times national news desk and sent a letter to the Times' editor and to editors of local papers. "In the end, there's damage done that's hard to undo," said Christophersen, who was growing weary of putting out a firestorm that someone else had started. "This has taken up five complete days, and I don't know if I'll be doing anything else to respond, but that doesn't mean I won't."

Local reaction has been strong, and many are fiercely supportive of the bookstore, including area Alderwoman Mary Ann Smith. She was quoted in the article, but out of context, she said. "The article was outrageous in its omissions," Smith told BTW. "I said that we have an extremely child-friendly community. I said one business had asked a women who was breast-feeding to leave and that they were set straight quickly, but I wouldn't identify the business since they had adjusted their attitude, and [because] mentioning their name could be damaging. I didn't really talk about Women & Children First except to say that they were family-friendly to the point of perfection." Smith has since written a letter to the editor at the Times.

Another outraged by the mistake is the executive director of the local Chamber of Commerce, Ellen Shepard. "I was very upset to find out about the mistakes that were printed," she said. "It's a horrible thing to happen to an innocent bystander. I cannot picture a business less deserving of that kind of criticism. They are the model of the kind of business you want in your community. It's really a shame."

Although Women & Children First has seen much support from the community, it has received at least one e-mail from a customer who said she would never shop at the bookstore again, and several from customers who wanted further clarification. An explanation and the text of the Times' correction was sent in reply, but Chistophersen is concerned about the customers who have not e-mailed and have not read the correction.

The only positive aspect of all this might perhaps be the additional media coverage generated. The day of the article, the bookstore was visited by a CBS news crew, the Chicago Reader will be running a story in its column on the media and reporting, and store co-owner Linda Bubon gave a television interview on a nightly Chicago news show, Chicago Tonight.

After the flurry of media attention, Christophersen said she was more focused on the message of their letter to the editor at the Times. "It's really all about the larger issue from our perspective," she said. "How hard it is to be a parent with young kids in tow and how the surrounding community can be supportive." --Karen Schechner