In a glaring front-page blunder, The Daily News yesterday reported that a staggering 1,700 cops and firefighters have filed lawsuits against the city for health problems stemming from 9/11 – when only nine such suits are in the courts.
The embarrassing goof prompted an unprecedented effort by the city’s Law Department to set the record straight by firing off an e-mail “clarification” to reporters and editors across the city to rebut the false claims.
According to the Law Department, there never were 1,700 lawsuits to begin with. Rather, there were once 1,700 notices of claim – which put the city on alert that suits might be filed – of which 1,500 led to lawsuits.
But of those 1,500 lawsuits, all but nine were later dropped so the complainants could be eligible for the federal 9/11 victims compensation fund.
The News also said some of the lawsuits blamed 9/11 for cancer – which none of the nine existing ones actually do.
In fact, none of the nine lawsuits was even filed by a firefighter – they all come from cops.
Law Department spokeswoman Kate Ahlers O’Brien said she dashed off the memo because of the torrent of calls she received from news outlets following the Daily News so-called “Special Report.”
“I think there was just a miscommunication in explaining the difference between a notice of claim and a lawsuit,” said Ahlers O’Brien. “We do stand by our information.”
Daily News Police Bureau Chief Michele McPhee wasn’t as gracious.
“It’s correct information. It came from Kate [Ahlers O’Brien],” McPhee said. “It’s absolutely her mistake.”
This is McPhee’s second whopping error in recent weeks.
In a front-page story on the release from prison of Michael Dowd, a dirty former cop, the paper ran a front-page photo of the wrong man.
Calls to Daily News editorial director Martin Dunn were not returned yesterday.
Yesterday’s error could have been avoided had editors at Mort Zuckerman’s troubled tabloid read their own stories. A November 2003 Daily News story reported that hundreds of 9/11 lawsuits had already been withdrawn.