DEATH TOLL UNTOLLED

It’s not schadenfreude behind the noting of occasional myopia at The New York Times. For some it’s outrage over the Times’ presumed liberalism and slanting of the news; when I draw attention to a lapse it’s because the skill and experience one assumes of the Times staff make the flubs mysterious and funny.

I was particularly mystified by the “Postwar G.I. Death Toll Exceeds Wartime Total” in the Iraq coverage of the Oct. 30 edition. The following two paragraphs, which you can, of course, skip, are the first paragraphs of the article.

“BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 29 -- American military casualties spiked Tuesday night into Wednesday with a new round of mortar attacks, roadside bombs and shootings that left four soldiers dead and more wounded.

“The American death toll since President Bush proclaimed the end of major combat operations now exceeds the 116 American combat deaths in the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein. The tempo of the attacks has increased as well, to an average of 33 a day over the last week from around 12 a day in July, a military spokesman said.”

Now, call me small-minded, but I read through the remaining 18 paragraphs of the story thinking it would tell me what the death toll was. You know, a number. Something to compare with 116. Maybe it would show up in the last paragraph, as a “by the way” kind of a thing? But the article -- the point of which, I think, was to point out that “Postwar G.I. Death Toll Exceeds Wartime Total” -- does not reveal the figure.

Was it in paragraph 19, which didn’t make the cut? Paragraph 300? Was it considered unimportant? Was there too much other valuable information to fit in?

Or did the reporter, Susan Sachs, and however many editors and copy editors reading the article before publication miss the fact that information was missing? The mind boggles.

As a postscript, the article included another forehead-wrinkler, if not head-scratcher: When discussing who may be organizing the attacks on U.S. and U.N. personnel, the Times notes that one suspect, once a general in Hussein’s forces, “is the highest-ranking former member of Mr. Hussein’s inner circle who is still at large.”

Except Hussein himself, of course.