On Sun, Oct 5, 2014 at 4:49 PM

To: The New York Times

From: James Savage
On Oct. 2, I sent an email to the Executive Editor and Public Editor of the New York
Times noting a significant error in Matt Bais story in the New York
Times Sunday Magazine of Sept. 18, 2014 entitled, How Gary Harts Downfall Forever
Changed American Politics.
Please consider this follow-up a formal request for a correction of false statements in that
article published in The New York Times based on my personal knowledge of the facts.
I was the Miami Heralds Investigations Editor in 1987. I made the decision to pursue
the story about Gary Hart that is the subject of Mr. Bais article and I edited that story.
The key error in Mr. Bais story begins with the following paragraphs:
In the history of Washington scandal, only a few quotes I am not a crook, I did
not have sexual relations with that woman have become as synonymous with a
politician. In truth, though, Hart never issued any challenge to The Miami Heralds
reporters, or to anybody else, really. The words were spoken weeks earlier to E. J. Dionne
Jr., who was then the top political reporter for The New York Times and was writing a
profile for this magazine. Dionne discussed a broad range of topics with Hart and then
reluctantly turned to the rumors of affairs. Hart was exasperated and he finally told
Dionne: Follow me around. I dont care. Im serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on
me, go ahead. Theyd be very bored
As it happened, Dionnes cover story was set to appear Sunday, May 3, the same day
the Herald published its front-page expos. No one at The Herald had a clue that Hart had
issued any challenge on the previous Monday when Fiedler heard from his anonymous
tipster or when he continued to chase the story during the week or when McGee flew off
to Washington and began prowling outside the townhouse on Friday night.
All of this they did on their own, without any prodding from Hart.
It is untrue that, No one at The Herald had a clue that Hart had issued any challenge
on the previous Monday . And the paragraphs that follow, based on that statement,
are also false.
Tom Fiedler, who shared the Herald story byline with Jim McGee, received a prepublication copy of Mr. Dionnes story no later than Thursday of that week, read it
and on Friday afternoon showed it to Mr. McGee, an investigative reporter on my staff.
Mr. McGee read the Dionne story that contained the follow me around quote from Mr.
Hart on Friday, before I decided to send him to Washington to pursue the story.

I had asked Mr. McGee on Friday to meet with Mr. Fiedler to review everything he knew
about the proposed Hart story and tell me if he thought the potential story was worth a
trip to Washington.
Mr. McGee and Mr. Fiedler have told me within the past several days that they have clear
memories of sharing the pre-publication copy of the Dionne story from the New York
Times before I decided to send Mr. McGee to Washington to pursue the story.
My decision to pursue the story was based, to a great extent, on Mr. McGees
recommendation after he considered all the story details Mr. Fiedler had gathered from
his anonymous source and other sources and, finally, the Dionne story.
To understand the significance of Mr. Bais factual error, I include the following portion
of his article based on his false premise:
In those days before the Internet, however, The Times circulated printed copies of its
magazine to other news media a few days early, so editors and producers could pick out
anything that might be newsworthy and publicize it in their own weekend editions
or Sunday shows. And so it was that when Fiedler boarded his flight to Washington
Saturday morning, eager to join the stakeout, he brought with him the advance copy of
Dionnes story, which had been sent to The Herald. Somewhere above the Atlantic
seaboard, anyone sitting next to Fiedler would probably have seen him jolt upward in his
seat as if suddenly receiving an electric shock. There it was, staring up at him from the
page Hart explicitly inviting him and his colleagues to do exactly the kind of
surveillance they had undertaken the night before.
This, again, is untrue. Mr. Fiedler had read the Dionne story days earlier and brought his
copy on the plane to Washington Saturday morning. I sat beside Mr. Fiedler on the plane
and he was fully aware of the story and did not, as Mr. Bai suggests, jolt upward in his
seat.
The Bai article continues on this false premise:
The discovery of Harts supposed challenge, which the Herald reporters took from the
advance copy of The Times Magazine on Saturday night and inserted at the end of
their Sunday blockbuster so that the two articles, referring to the same quote, appeared
on newsstands simultaneously probably eased any reservations the editors in Miami
might have had about pushing the story into print before they had a chance to identify
Rice and try to talk to her. Soon enough, as The Herald would put it in their longer
reconstruction a week later, Gary Hart would be seen as the gifted hero who had taunted
the press to follow me around. Everyone would know that Hart had goaded the press
into hiding outside his townhouse and tracking his movements. So what if The Herald
reporters hadnt even known about it when they put Hart under surveillance? Harts quote
appeared to justify The Heralds extraordinary investigation, and thats all that mattered.

The difference here is far more than a technicality. Even when insiders and historians
recall the Hart episode now, they recall it the same way: Hart issued his infamous
challenge to reporters, telling them to follow him around if they didnt believe him, and
then The Herald took him up on it. Inexplicably, people believe, Hart set his own trap and
then allowed himself to become ensnared in it. (When I spoke to Dana Weems, she
repeatedly insisted to me that she had only called The Herald after reading Harts follow
me around quote, which was obviously impossible.)
And this version of events conveniently enabled The Heralds reporters and editors to
completely sidestep some important and uncomfortable questions. As long as it was Hart,
and not The Herald, who set the whole thing in motion, then it was he and not they who
suddenly moved the boundaries between private and political lives. They never had to
grapple with the complex issues of why Hart was subject to a kind of invasive, personal
scrutiny no major candidate before him had endured, or to consider where that shift in the
political culture had led us. Hart had, after all, given the media no choice in the matter.
Mr. Bai is free to express his opinions about the Heralds Gary Hart story as many others
have, but he cannot change the facts. Thats why I call on you, editors of the nations
newspaper of record, to correct his factual mistakes.
I would be happy to discuss any questions about this correction request.
Mr. Fiedler and Mr McGee have told me they would be happy to discuss this requested
correction with any representative of The New York Times.