RE: Reporter faked the news.

[David Goodman <dgoodman@Princeton.EDU>]

Fortunately, no one owns the historical record.
 
The NYT can at most delete the material from its own copy of the
electronic archive. There remains the paper copies, by the thousands.
There remain the electronic copies of all those who have saved or printed
the material.  There remain, furthermore, the news items other
organizations have published about the matter.

This emphasises the need for the NYT and all other publishers to license
to libraries the absolutely irrevocable rights to the material they
publish, and for us to store it in such a way that it will not be affected
by physical or legal processes.  To what extent the US offers a favorable
environment for such preservation is somewhat unclear, but other places
exist. Over the long run, no one archive can be trusted, and no one
country.

Dr. David Goodman
Princeton University Library
and
Palmer School of Library & Information Science, Long Island University
dgoodman@princeton.edu