The New York Times ran a detailed Editor's Note yesterday to clarify a column about Barry Bonds and alleged his steroid use. It looks like they have a reader to thank for bringing a few things to light:
A Sports of The Times column on Dec. 7 discussed Barry Bonds’s reported claim, before a grand jury, that he believed a substance he had used was flaxseed oil, not steroids, as the federal authorities maintain. The column quoted Dr. Gary I. Wadler of New York University’s School of Medicine, who discussed flaxseed oil and said professional sports should get out of the business of drug testing and yield the field to the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The article should have disclosed that in addition to his role at N.Y.U., Dr. Wadler is a member of the antidoping agency. The column also misstated his title; it is clinical associate professor, not professor.
Dr. Wadler was also identified incompletely on June 20 in the authors’ note of a Back Talk article he wrote for The New York Times with Dr. Steven Ungerleider. That article discussed the history of anti-doping efforts and the role that the world agency has played in establishing standards for drug testing.
Dr. Ungerleider was also identified incompletely. In addition to being a research psychologist, he has served on the psychology registry of the United States Olympic Committee and has consulted with several college, Olympic and professional sports organizations.
A reader noted the omissions in an e-mail message last week.
