Michael S. Schmidt: Difference between revisions

Schmidt was a correspondent for ''The Times'' in Iraq in 2011. In 2012, he became a Washington correspondent for ''The Times'', covering [[national security]] and federal [[law enforcement]].<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/times-journeys/expert/michael-s-schmidt/</ref> He has been the lead reporter behind ''The Times's'' articles about the [[Hillary Clinton email controversy]], some of which have drawn criticism for inaccuracies and for an alleged reliance on selective leaks from the [[United States House Select Committee on Benghazi]].<ref>{{Cite web|title = A Clinton Story Fraught With Inaccuracies: How It Happened and What Next?|url = http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/27/a-clinton-story-fraught-with-inaccuracies-how-it-happened-and-what-next/|website = Public Editor's Journal|accessdate = 2015-10-21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title = Benghazi committee leaks were attack against Hillary Clinton, Democrats say|url = http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/05/benghazi-committee-democrats-republicans-hillary-clinton|website = the Guardian|accessdate = 2015-10-21|first = Nicky Woolf in Washington|last = DC}}</ref> As summarized by [[Mother Jones (magazine)|Mother Jones]], "virtually everything ... turned out to be wrong" about a story where Michael S. Schmidt and his co-author [[Matt Apuzzo]] had reported that Clinton was the target of a criminal probe for her handling of classified information.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url = http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/12/strike-two-pair-new-york-times-reporters|title = Strike Two for Pair of New York Times Reporters|last = Drum|first = Kevin|date = 2015-12-16|work = Mother Jones|access-date = |via = }}</ref>

In December 2015, another New York Times story by Schmidt and Apuzzo (written together with [[Julia Preston]]) criticized the US government for missing crucial evidence during the visa vetting process for a woman who would later become one of the shooters in the [[2015 San Bernardino attack|San Bernardino attack]].<ref name=":0" /> The director of the FBI dismissed the reporting as "garble" and it turned out that rather than having "talked openly on social media about her views on violent jihad" as stated in the NYT article, she had mentioned these in private communications.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url = http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/12/18/new-york-times-san-bernardino-correction-margaret-sullivan-public-editor/|title = Systemic Change Needed After Faulty Times Article|last = Sullivan|first = Margaret|date = 2015-12-18|work = The New York Times - Public Editor's Journal|access-date = |via = }}</ref>

The New York Times' public editor called for "systemic changes" after these two erroneous articles by Schmidt and his coauthors (both of which had relied on anonymous government sources), describing these problems as a "red alert" highlighting the need for more diligent and skeptical reporting and editing.<ref name=":1" />