The Times made two key factual errors in its recent profile of Andrew Breitbart. And yes, both errors mirrored phony spin that Breitbart has been pushing.

As Media Matters noted earlier this week, the newspaper erred when it reported that as part of his Shirley Sherrod smear campaign last summer, Breitbart claimed that in the videotape he posted of her addressing an NAACP audience, members “applauded” when Sherrod told a story of not helping a white farmer. (In the full telling, she ended up aiding the man.)

But the applause claim a lie, one Breitbart has been peddling for some time. (Go watch the video and see/hear for yourself; there is no applause.)

The Times now concedes that point:

Some audience members nodded and murmured in apparent approval; they did not applaud, although Mr. Breitbart stated that they did.

Unfortunately, the Times remains mum regarding the error the paper made in the same story when it reported ACORN workers caught on undercover tapes made by James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles were guilty of “offering advice on how to evade taxes.”

That's simply not true. In fact, if you read through the transcripts for the ACORN videos, workers again and again stressed just the opposite; that O'Keefe and Giles had to pay their taxes, even if their income was earned from prostitution.

But at the time of the right-wing media's ACORN smear produciton in 2009, the talking point about workers counseling visitors on how to “evade taxes” was cemented in the press. So much so that two years later the Times is still getting the story wrong.

Then again, the Times has a long and embarrassing track record when it comes to Breitbart's odd ACORN tale.