Mr. Bill Keller
Managing Editor
The New York Times
229 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036

Dear Mr. Keller:

You were no doubt pleased that the Wall Street Journal, on July 23, published your 300-word letter about the errors you said Bob Zelnick had made in his July 17 column about the Times’ article on how Florida handled absentee ballots in the last election. Did it occur to you that if a letter like yours had been received by the Times it would have been rejected on two grounds? (1) The Times won’t print letters on its editorial page correcting its errors; (2) Your letter exceeded the Times’ word limit on letters to the editor. Could you have made your case in 150 words? The space available in the Times’ p.2 correction box is even less. “Editor’s Notes” also seem limited to 150 words.

This should show you that the Times needs to revert to the policy of using letters to the editor to correct errors, allowing whatever space is necessary to make the correction clear. I urge you to press for this change.