For the record. (Letters).

The first issue of CJR, published in fall 1961, carried an analysis of coverage of the 1960 campaign. It included a comment (which I as managing editor wrote, but did not sign) taking to task the New York Daily News for an editorial appearing days before the election that contained the following

   Kennedy contracted Addison's disease in 1954. This disease used to be
   fatal, but now can be controlled (but not cured) by cortisone without bad
   side effects. With some patients cortisone has injurious side effects on
   the mind and judgment.

With the belated revelations about JFK's ill health and treatments in the December 2002 Atlantic ("The Medical Ordeals of JFK," by Robert Dallek), CJR's analysis in 1961 stands finally revealed as, to say the least, questionable.

Our 1961 commentary parsed the Daily News paragraph phrase by phrase:

"Kennedy contracted Addison's disease in 1954." In rebuttal, CJR cited an article in the AMA's Today's Health, which Dallek now reports was based largely on assurances from Robert F. Kennedy

"This disease used to be fatal ..." CJR listed symptoms of the disease and concluded that none of these conditions afflicted the vigorous-appearing public Kennedy; Dallek makes clear that he had suffered them all.

CJR's comments implied that it was dirty tactics for the Daily News to raise the issue. In fact, we swallowed the furious defense that the Kennedy camp--Pierre Salinger, Ted Sorenson, and RFK, and two cooperative doctors --had mounted at the time of the Democratic convention.

In light of the Dallek article and other sporadic revelations of the past forty-one years, it is time to say now, even belatedly, that we got it wrong--whether out of animus toward the News as the bad guys or partiality toward the Kennedy camp as the good guys is hard to say. Maybe we were no more wrong than most of the press, but our job was to be more right. We fell short.