By: Michael Calderone

NYT Public Editor Clark Hoyt addressed an issue that the paper’s been dealing with for few years: Nicholas Kristof’s columns on former Army scientist Steven Hatfill and the anthrax investigation.

Once labeled a "person of interest" by the Justice Department, Kristof wrote that Hatfill needed to be investigated further. Hatfill sued the Times, and although the case was dismissed, at one point a judge ruled that Kristof would have to reveal his FBI sources.

Now exonerated, Kristof told Hoyt that he will write a column apologizing to Hatfill, while discussing the journalistic issues involved — such as information obtained from anonymous sources.

I asked Kristof if he regretted focusing so much on Hatfill when the point was to spur the F.B.I. to a more vigorous investigation. He said, “I think I should have tried harder to find a range of other examples to underscore the incompetence of the F.B.I. anthrax investigation.”

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