The New York Times today ran an Editor's Note that admitted the paper published a photo of an art exhibit with museum staff members appearing to be visitors to the museum.

The original article ran Oct. 1 and was about “Abstract Expressionist New York: The Big Picture” at the Museum of Modern Art

The note published today states:

A photograph with an art review on Oct. 1 about the show “Abstract Expressionist New York: The Big Picture” at theMuseum of Modern Art, and several other pictures in an online slide show, appeared to show museum visitors viewing the exhibit.

In fact, the people shown were museum staff members, who were asked by museum officials to be present in the galleries to provide scale and context for the photographs. The photographer acknowledged using the same procedure in other cases when an exhibition was not yet opened to the public.

Such staging of news pictures violates The Times's standardsand the photographs should not have been published. (While pictures may show previews or similar situations before an exhibition opens, readers should not be given a misleading impression about the circumstances.)