My favorite parts of the New York Times's jailhouse interview (The banks "had to know") with Bernard Madoff were these:
Both the interview and the e-mail correspondence were conducted as part of this reporter's research for a coming book on the Madoff scandal, "The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust," for publication this spring by Times Books, a division of Henry Holt & Company.
And:
Mr. Madoff's claims must be weighed against his tenuous credibility. After deceiving federal regulators and supposedly sophisticated investors for at least 16 years, he would certainly be branded as a liar by defense lawyers if he appeared as a witness against any defendant in a courtroom — a fact he acknowledged somewhat ruefully during the interview on Tuesday.
Both these points were subject to being lost today as the headline claims from the interview — the banks "had to know," while Mets owner Fred Wilpon "knew nothing" — were widely recycled on other news outlets.