She used her “Public & Private” column on the Op-Ed page to attack directly the editors of the Times. Specifically, she criticized the editors’ treatment of Patricia Bowman, the woman who had accused William Smith of sexual assault in the “Palm Beach rape case.” Quindlen wrote that the Times’ news coverage of the woman’s story—which used Bowman’s name and recounted her bad-driver’s record and sexual history (“she had a little wild streak,” the story noted)—was “beneath the traditions” of the paper. Quindlen also accused the editors, in their own paper, of sexism and snobbery and of being voyeurs in the bargain. The editors were not named; but everyone in the Times newsroom knew that Max Frankel had initiated the story and that Al Siegal had supervised the editing as the copy moved toward deadline. Quindlen’s column appeared in the Sunday editions of April 21; as is the custom of the Op-Ed page, Quindlen wrote the headline over the column herself. “A Mistake,”
