Weiner Story Appears Briefly, Then Disappears, From The Times\'s Web Site

The Times has a strong policy against what it calls “unpublishing” articles. But there are occasional exceptions.

An article by Michael Barbaro on the women involved in the 2011 sexting scandal of Anthony D. Weiner, the New York City mayoral candidate and former congressman, appeared briefly on The Times's Web site Monday. Then it was taken down.

Its headline, “For Women in Weiner Scandal, Indignity Lingers,” still appears on the Web site with a “production note” that reads: An article was posted on this page inadvertently, before it was ready for publication.

In a story on Tuesday morning, the news site Politico wrote:

A Google News search shows the now-removed article about Weiner, who is running for mayor, started with the line, “Customers still taunt Lisa Weiss.”

“‘Talk dirty to me,' they joke. ‘We know you like it.' Colleagues still refuse to speak with her.”

“It was published inadvertently,” The Times's spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said, after Politico wrote about it Tuesday. (The New York Observer also had an early report.)

Ms. Murphy would not elaborate on what happened.

From what I've been able to piece together, there was a miscommunication among Times editors. Some thought the article was ready to go, and sent it on through the editorial production cycle. At least one other editor - higher up on the food chain - disagreed about its readiness and did not intend it to be published, at least not at that point. (I've commented previously here on The Times's coverage of Mr. Weiner's mayoral campaign.)

A check on Tuesday morning of NewsDiffs, a Web site that captures versions of stories for comparison purposes, did not turn up the article.

Will the article â€" or some version of it - appear soon, or even eventually?

“We don't discuss stories in advance of publication,” Ms. Murphy said.

I asked the politics editor, Carolyn Ryan, and Mr. Barbaro to comment; both referred questions to Ms. Murphy.

Such are the hazards of digital misdirection, as Mr. Weiner found out. It couldn't have happened to a more appropriate story.