The Ransom story rekindles debate on history of Haiti

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The Ransom story rekindles debate on history of Haiti

The New York Times'multipart series on Haiti, The Ransom, has rekindled a debate over how comprehensively journalists should credit the experts they speak to during the course of reporting and how extensively they should acknowledge the work on the subject that has been done in the past.

The Times series, on the suffocating debts that France and the United States imposed on Haiti after its independence, built on more than a century of scholarship. Many historians, economists, and others who have studied these issues were quoted directly in the articles. Many of the books, articles and other writings by historians, economists and others were cited in a 5,000-word companion article that The Times published on the original documents it relied on, along with dozens of books, articles and other writings that The Times drew from in the course of reporting.

The Times noted the new findings it added to the historical discussion, including what historians said was the first systematic calculation of what Haiti paid its former slave masters for generations and how much that amounted to in lost economic growth over the centuries. The Times also published, and identified, the source for, every piece of data it used to make the debt calculation, along with the assessments of the many economists and financial historians who reviewed the data, methodology and conclusions.

The goal was to give others tools to look into the issues that were addressed in the project. Several historians who spoke to The Times during the course of its reporting said they should have been credited for it.