I commend Jon Albrecht for his letter of May 25. The Bush government, he states, used lies and deceit to get us into war. The New York Times on May 26 printed a confession of sorts. Its editors admitted they had published stories about pre-war Iraq that were based on false information. They now regret burying in back pages reports that later on contradicted some of these dramatic stories.

The effect, according to this confessional piece, was to contribute to an atmosphere of deception and war fever. The New York Times has the people, power and resources to ferret out the truth about news stories, but for whatever reason, it fell short.

Regional papers, even those as respected as the Lewiston Sun Journal, are unable to report directly on national and international happenings. I assume they must rely on wire services and on stories from a few national newspapers, like the New York Times. If that is correct, and if a newspaper like the Times sees fit to admit that it was fooled, then what action should be taken by newspapers that are dependent for news on the larger ones?

Inadvertently, the Sun Journal, too, must have misinformed its readers on some of the stories cited by the New York Times. Those stories must have appeared on the front page too. Should the Sun Journal follow the lead of the Times and set the record straight?

William T. Whitney Jr., South Paris

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