Oops! The New York Times admitted yesterday that it had inadvertently printed a letter critical of would-be Democratic senator Caroline Kennedy.

"This letter was a fake. It should not have been published," the paper admitted in a note printed after it had already printed it.

The hoax message was supposedly sent by Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris.

"This letter, like most Letters to the Editor these days, arrived by email. It is Times procedure to verify the authenticity of every letter. In this case, our staff sent an edited version of the letter to the sender of the email and did not hear back. At that point, we should have contacted Mr. Delanoë's office to verify that he had, in fact, written to us.

"We did not do that," the paper admitted, saying it had already apologized to Delanoë's office.

Hat tip: Thomas Stewart and Allah.