Some people here are saying they shouldn't be praised for the retraction because retracting an error is merely doing what a publication should do. This is wrongheaded, because it ignores the fact that in the actual world in which we actually live, rather than a fantasy world that we would all like to live in, it's a rarity. We need much more of it than we have. Punishing the Times at the moment they do good by issuing a retraction will just encourage more publications to be in the camp that do not admit error. The cost of admitting error will be seen as too high.

That isn't to say that the Times shouldn't be held to account when errors are found by others. It should, and so should every other publication. But when they find and retract their own errors, it is absolutely wrong to punish them at that moment.