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The Times reported on the front page of the paper today that Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack approached Citi chief Vikram Pandit on Tuesday night about combining the two banks. "We need a merger partner or we're not going to make it," Mack allegedly told Pandit. True? Probably not! Remember when Times said that Zoe Cruz would succeed Mack as Morgan's CEO and then she was fired 19 days later? Exactly. Well, the Times has since backpedaled: "The Times's two sources have since clarified their comments, saying that because they were not present during the discussions, they could not confirm that Mr. Mack had in fact made the statement. The Times should have asked Morgan Stanley for comment and should not have used the quotation without doing more to verify the sources' version of events." Maybe the Times also should try and spell names correctly when issuing corrections? [NYT]