By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Times has identified as fake a letter it published on Monday that denounced Caroline Kennedy's bid to become a U.S. senator and was attributed to the mayor of Paris.
Kennedy, the daughter of slain U.S. President John F. Kennedy, has been touring New York state in recent days to drum up support for her bid for the U.S. Senate seat of Hillary Clinton, who has been nominated secretary of state.
The letter signed by Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said Kennedy's bid to fill Clinton's senate seat was "surprising and not very democratic, to say the least."
"We French have been consistently admiring of the American Constitution, but it seems that recently both Republicans and Democrats are drifting away from a truly democratic model," the letter said, describing Kennedy's bid as "in very poor taste."
"This letter was a fake," the Times said in an editor's note on its Web site later on Monday. It said the letter had been e-mailed to the paper and that staff sent an e-mail back to the mayor to verify it, but did not hear back.
"At that point, we should have contacted Mr. Delanoe's office to verify that he had, in fact, written to us," the paper said. "We did not do that."
It said the Times had expressed its regrets to Delanoe and the paper was reviewing its procedures to verify letters.
Interest in Kennedy, 51, seeking the Senate seat has been enhanced by her family's status as an American political dynasty. One of her uncles, Robert F. Kennedy, was a senator from New York who was running for president when he was assassinated in 1968. Another uncle, Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, is one of the most powerful members of the Senate.
The fake letter was the latest embarrassment for a paper that saw its reputation hammered in 2003 when national reporter Jayson Blair resigned after fabricating quotes, falsifying datelines and using material from other newspapers.
(Editing by Doina Chiacu)
