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The New York Times tonight added a second editor's note clarifying an Aug. 3 story about Katherine Jackson getting legal custody of Michael Jackson's children and raising questions about the executors overseeing her son's estate. The first note, appended Aug. 6, said the story "should have noted that the reporter sought a response from the executors," and also "misstated the executors’ estimated worth of Mr. Jackson’s estate." The new note picks up the tale, and suggests some behind-the-scenes rancor and delicate lawsuit avoidance:
An article on Aug. 4 about a judge’s ruling granting permanent custody of Michael Jackson’s three children to his mother, Katherine Jackson, and an editors’ note last Thursday, said that lawyers for Mrs. Jackson were considering challenging the two executors of Mr. Jackson’s will on the grounds that they allegedly took advantage of addictions that incapacitated him and impaired his judgment. That allegation was attributed to “people close to the Jackson family who asked not to be named,” and in later copies of the newspaper the original article reported that a spokesman for the executors denied it. Times editors should not have published the anonymously made accusation, unsupported in the article by any evidence or publicly available corroboration — with or without a denial.
The executors named in Michael Jackson's will are John G. Branca and John McClain.