I have to give him this. He takes full responsibility and details the mistakes he made, most notably the passion to run with a hot story, something I understand very well and which is only exacerbated by the 24/7 news climate.
I think it should also be noted that only rarely has any news organization actually owned up completely to its own faults in such detail. The NYT's and Washington Post's apologies to readers for the execrable Iraq War run-up reporting is the only thing that comes to mind, and they did it years later and buried the apologies.
Ackerman is a small fish working for an Internet start-up trying to find its niche. And he did the right thing the very next day.
My enthusiasm for a hot story outpaced my professional judgment. For that I take full responsibility, retract the story and issue a full apology for its publication.
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