Paul Burnham Finney

On October 13, The New York Times gravely informed us that the economy was causing stress for travelers. Not just the economy in general, but specifically that the "crisis on Wall Street was the No. 1 cause of anxiety" for travelers. And, they had a survey to prove it, too. Or so NYT writer Paul Burnham Finney claimed. But, on October 21 the Times was forced to issue a little correction to Finney's tall tale. You see, it turns out writer Finney outright lied about some of his claims and quotes.

In fact, it turns out that freelancer Finney made up quite a few "facts" for his story. Finney claimed the survey he was citing proved that travelers saw the Wall Street crisis as the "no. 1" worry and claimed that the survey participants felt vulnerable "in the office and on a business trip." However, the survey did not ask such questions of participants, so Finney could not have gleaned any such thing from it. Finney also quoted Nancy Molitor, a psychologist in Wilmette, Ill., as saying that she had "never seen such anxiety" from among her "banking and business patients." But, the paper discovered that Dr. Molitor never made such a statement to Finney.

In other words, it appears that Paul Burnham Finney simply made up these "facts" to fit the theme he wanted to push in his story. Real anxiety wasn't enough for Finney. Instead, Finney massaged the story to fit the day's headlines about Wall Street in order to make his story more sensational.