On October 25, The New York Times published an article correcting a false assertion made in an October 24 Times article on Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (CT) -- that Lieberman never “utter[ed] the words 'stay the course' ” with regard to the Iraq war. Media Matters for America documented several instances in which Lieberman used that exact phrase when discussing Iraq. The October 25 article noted: “Senator Joseph I. Lieberman has used the phrase 'stay the course' several times in discussing the war in Iraq in recent years, echoing a key phrase of the White House, contrary to an article published Tuesday in The New York Times.” The Times also posted a correction to the online version of the October 24 article, noting that “Mr. Lieberman has indeed used the phrase; in the hundreds of statements reviewed, it appears at least half a dozen times.”

An October 24 Editor & Publisher article noted:

The New York Times runs dozens of corrections every month, usually minor and brief. Rarely does it carry what it calls a “corrective” article, but it does so on Wednesday.

It came about after the liberal media watchdog site, Media Matters, along with various bloggers, challenged a Times article on Tuesday which had asserted that close research revealed that Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) -- now in a tight electon fight -- had never used the phrase “stay the course” in relation to Iraq policy.