Regret the Error

The Year In Crunks

Though we've only been publishing since October, that certainly won't stop us from joining the year-end pile on. While there was nothing of Blairian proportions to report in 2004, we did manage to catch few nasty mistakes, some downright hilarious corrections, and a few instances of journalistic fabrication. We therefore present to you our first Year In Crunks. Enjoy. See you back for new postings on January 3.

Correction of the Year
Perhaps the easiest pick of all for our round-up was this amazing correction from Kentucky's Lexington Herald-Leader. On the 40th anniversary of the passing of the Civil Rights Act this year, the paper published this amazing apology: "It has come to the editor's attention that the Herald-Leader neglected to cover the civil rights movement. We regret the omission." Simple, elegant, brave. Better late than never.

Headline Crunk of the Year
This is a tie and it goes to The Chicago Tribune and...The Chicago Tribune. Their first award-winning instance was using the word "cunt" in a headline. The second was for its "GLs" headline here:

Most Puzzling Behind-The-Scenes Look Thanks to a Correction
The Washington Post ran this correction, and let readers in on how things work for their "Gatherings" column:

"In the Oct. 17 Sunday Source, the 'Gatherings' story described a Republican barbecue held to watch a presidential debate. The item reported 'the possibly unprecedented occurrence of a young woman in a cowboy hat pretending to make out with a poster of Dick Cheney.' The item should have explained that the woman was asked to pose with the vice president's picture by the photographer working for The Washington Post. The woman also did not pretend to 'make out' with the picture; at the photographer's suggestion, she pretended to blow a kiss at it. The item should have explained that the party was hosted in response to a request from The Post, which discussed the decorations and recipes with the host and agreed to reimburse the cost of recipe ingredients."

Best Numerical Error
Anytime you send readers of your family newspaper to a phone sex line, it's pure Crunk gold. Thank you, Florida Times-Union for this:

A toll-free number to a non-partisan organization tracking the election turned out to be painfully wrong. Instead, the wrong number referred callers to a sex talk service. Of course, this never should have happened, since the newsroom's policy is that all phone numbers should be called before publication.

Best Hoax
Another tie for this award. The first recipient (or victim) is the Associated Press, which sent an Internet hoax regarding singer R. Kelly streaming into newsrooms and into a few editions:

An item in Saturday's People column incorrectly reported that R&B singer R. Kelly had been hit with a summons by the family of singer Ashanti, for allegedly making sexual advances toward her younger sister while backstage at a recent awards show.
''This is an Internet hoax and was never reported by The Associated Press,'' said Kristin Gazlay, AP deputy managing editor for national news. "It's all over the place.''
There is no truth to the item; no charges are pending.

But credit must also be given to Yes Men, a group of pranksters who fooled the BBC into believing one of them was a spokesman for Dow Chemical. The BBC ran this apology:

Earlier this morning, our news bulletin here (on Radio 2/4/5 Live) carried an extract from an interview with someone purporting to be from the Dow chemical company about the disaster twenty years ago at Bhopal in India.
It is now clear that the person did not, in fact, represent the Dow company and we want to make clear that the information he gave was entirely inaccurate.

Best Copy Editing Mistake
Congratulations, Christian Science Monitor:

Most Biased Attempt at Fiction
The US election provided us with much fodder, but this ridiculous attempt at satirical writing by one Fox News correspondent takes the cake for creative bias. As we reported back in October:

Carl Cameron, Fox's chief political correspondent, penned a pleasant little ditty (since removed from the Fox site) that used fake quotes to mock Kerry and his supposed penchant for manicures. The fake story quoted Kerry saying, "Didn't my nails and cuticles look great? What a good debate!" and "I'm a metrosexual -- he's a cowboy."
Fox issued this apology on their site: "The item was based on a reporter's partial script that had been written in jest and should not have been posted or broadcast. We regret the error, which occurred because of fatigue and bad judgment, not malice."

Best Sin of Omission
Big ups to the Dallas Morning News for this one:

"An Oct. 19 article on songwriter John Bucchino incorrectly stated that he doesn't read. The sentence should have said he doesn't read music."

Best Use of Correction as a Weapon
Editorial writer and columnist Patrick McGann of the Lewiston Morning Tribune in Idaho penned a column attacking a US House of Representatives candidate whose campaign ran a rather nasty ad. At the end of the column, he appended this notice:

An Oct. 1 editorial referred to Washington state Rep. Cathy McMorris, R-Colville as a "classy candidate." This page regrets the error. -- P.M.

Best Web-Related Error
A syndicated comic strip, Prickly City, ran a strip that included a URL that was unregistered at press time. But within a few hours, it had been registered and redirected to a bestiality site. It was later sent to a site supporting John Kerry. The correction:

In Tuesday's, Wednesday's and today's preprinted Tempo sections, the comic strip "Prickly City" contains a Web address, or URL, that links to a pornographic site. In a statement released Wednesday, the strip's provider, Universal Press Syndicate, explained that at the time the strip was filed, the address was "fictional and satirical" and led to an unregistered site. "Regrettably," the statement continued, "this site was registered midday on Oct. 19 following its appearance in the strip that morning. This URL now leads to an adult Web site." The syndicate added that it is "reviewing its policy of running fictional and unregistered URLs within its content." Tomorrow's strip has been corrected to eliminate the Web address.

Funniest Use of Corrections
The Stranger, Seattle's weekly paper, consistently runs the funniest corrections. Not because the mistakes are funny, but because they insist on using them as a means for self-flagellation. A few samples:

DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS: Last week, we misspelled Kim Chi Bistro in our Chow section ["Authentic Korean on the Hill," Jan 16]. We regret the error. Our food editor is dumb.

Stranger music editor Jennifer Maerz regrets drinking [blank] and [blanking] on her coffee table in heels at a Christmas party, fracturing her [blank] and making it very difficult to [blank] for four to six weeks.

DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS: In that same "Explain that Sore" article mentioned above, it was stated that a vaccine exists for Hepatitis C when, in fact, there isn't one. We regret the error, of course. Actually, we more than regret the error. We regret run-of-the-mill errors, but this error mortified us. The editor of The Stranger, Dan Savage, is a friggin' sex writer, after all. Why didn't he spot the error? Because he didn't READ THE PIECE! Can you believe it? Sean Nelson edited the Back to School Issue, and Savage figured he didn't even have to give it glance. God, what a dumb asshole.

Best Dereliction of Duty
Gillian Cosgrove, a now former society columnist with Canada's National Post, penned a fabricated ditty about the country's Governor General which resulted in her firing and this correction:

"In the first item in a column by Gillian Cosgrove in this paper on Monday, November 22, 2004, a number of fundamental errors and intentional misrepresentations appeared. The editors regret this and apologize to all concerned."

Best Ass Kissing Correction
Here's to you, Woman's Day magazine:

In the "Summertime" feature on page 114, we say that before you use the Schick Intuition razor you should lather on cream or gel. But the beauty of Intuition is its simplicity - no need for shave gel, soap, or body wash!  Intuition's All-in-One cartridge contains pivoting triple blades surrounded by a Skin Conditioning Solid(tm) that has a blend of sheer fruity notes of melon and fresh cucumber for normal to dry skin types. You can find the Schick Intuition Cucumber Melon at your local drug and grocery stores for $7.99.

Worst Misuse of the Press
Faithful readers will remember we ran a series of posts about a disturbing trend at election time -- candidates misattributing and misquoting newspapers for use in campaign materials. We're not so naive as to think this is anything radically new, but three instances were particularly troubling.

1. The Journal Star endorsed Aaron Schock, a Republican candidate, in this editorial. But that didn't stop his opponent, Ricca Slone, from skewing the paper's words into her favor and then pasting the paper's logo and the cut-and-pasted words onto a flyer, which her team then set about distributing all over the district. More here.
2. Curt Darius Williams was a candidate for the State Senate in Colorado's District 23. Included on the "major endorsements" page of his campaign site was this quote from the Rocky Mountain News: "We feel that Curt is an attractive candidate." The only problem was that the Rocky Mountain News didn't endorse Williams.  This upset the News and they let everyone know it in an editorial that included this passage: "...So we hereby take it back: Williams is not an attractive candidate. Clear enough this time?"
3. The Winston-Salem Journal had to ask Richard Burr, a Republican Senate candidate, to correct a television campaign ad that it felt was misleading. The ad apparently showed the masthead of the newspaper with the words “extremely irresponsible” attributed to it in reference to Burr’s Democratic opponent, Erskine Bowles. The problem? Those words were spoken by a source in an article, and not by the paper. More here.

Want to see a round-up of our corrections? Go here and enjoy. Hey, mistakes happen.

Thanks for reading. See you in 2005.

Citizen's apology

The Ottawa Citizen had to apologize recently for mistakes and omissions in a business story:

The Citizen reported on Dec. 15 that Sally Daub, the former general counsel of chip-maker ATI Technologies, was reprimanded and would pay $5,000 for providing misleading information to investigators at the Ontario Securities Commission. The story noted that according to the settlement, Ms. Daub said she relied in good faith on information provided to her by others.
But it did not add that the OSC concluded "evidence obtained since the Notice of Hearing and Statement of Allegations were issued revealed that Daub did not intentionally mislead Staff" and that the evidence "also revealed that Daub reasonably relied in good faith on information provided to her by others."
The story also suggested that Ms. Daub was under investigation for insider trading. In fact, Ms. Daub was never under investigation by the OSC for insider trading.
The Citizen apologizes to Ms. Daub for any hurt or embarrassment the story may have caused.

Sibling rivalry

Slate.com, which was recently purchased by the Washington Post Company, runs a correction that fixes a jab it made at its new sister paper. Come on kids, play nice. The correction:

In the Dec. 22 "Today's Papers," Eric Umansky originally and incorrectly stated that the Washington Post waited until the 13^th paragraph to say that the latest prisoner-abuse documents were taken from military investigators' files. In fact, the Post mentioned this in the second paragraph.

Oh Canada

An LA Times article made Canada sound more expensive, yet closer for US tourists. The correction:

An article about Quebec City in Sunday's Travel section reversed the exchange rate for U.S. and Canadian dollars. The article said the U.S. dollar hovers around $1.23 to the Canadian dollar. In fact, one U.S. dollar is equal to about 1.23 Canadian. Also, a map located Montreal on the St. Lawrence River at the New York state border. Montreal is on the river about 75 miles to the northeast.

A Times Editor's Note

The New York Times ran a detailed Editor's Note yesterday to clarify a column about Barry Bonds and alleged his steroid use. It looks like they have a reader to thank for bringing a few things to light:

A Sports of The Times column on Dec. 7 discussed Barry Bonds’s reported claim, before a grand jury, that he believed a substance he had used was flaxseed oil, not steroids, as the federal authorities maintain. The column quoted Dr. Gary I. Wadler of New York University’s School of Medicine, who discussed flaxseed oil and said professional sports should get out of the business of drug testing and yield the field to the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The article should have disclosed that in addition to his role at N.Y.U., Dr. Wadler is a member of the antidoping agency. The column also misstated his title; it is clinical associate professor, not professor.
Dr. Wadler was also identified incompletely on June 20 in the authors’ note of a Back Talk article he wrote for The New York Times with Dr. Steven Ungerleider. That article discussed the history of anti-doping efforts and the role that the world agency has played in establishing standards for drug testing.
Dr. Ungerleider was also identified incompletely. In addition to being a research psychologist, he has served on the psychology registry of the United States Olympic Committee and has consulted with several college, Olympic and professional sports organizations.
A reader noted the omissions in an e-mail message last week.

Make the Kerik errors stop

Another Kerik error to report. This one ran in Cleveland's The Plain Dealer and apparently originated at The New York Times:

Because of incorrect information from the New York Times, a story on page A5 Wednesday about reports of missteps in the White House's vetting of Bernard Kerik as a candidate to become the secretary for homeland security referred incorrectly to a federal financial disclosure form he was required to file before he left the United States in May 2003 to serve as the interim interior minister in Iraq. Kerik did, in fact, file the form.

And here's the correction on the same item from The New York Times, which ran on December 17. Looks like The Dealer just got the memo...

A front-page article on Wednesday about reports of missteps in the White House's vetting of Bernard B. Kerik as a candidate for homeland security secretary referred incorrectly to a federal financial disclosure form he was required to file before he left the United States in May 2003 to serve as the interim interior minister in Iraq. Mr. Kerik did in fact file the form. Its contents are discussed in an article today.

On monopolies

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution didn't get both sides in a debate about meat:

A story in last Sunday's @issue section on food safety said that four companies control 80 percent of the nation's meat market and thus have a "virtual monopoly" on the market. A counterpoint piece should have said four companies owning 80 percent does not constitute a monopoly.

But more importantly, who gets to be the thimble?

A failed attempt at resurrection

We see a lot of obituary-related corrections on a daily basis. Here's a rather unfortunate one from The Guardian:

In our obituary of Frank Shelley (page 29, December 9) we said he is survived by his former wife, Susan Dowdall. Ms Dowdall died in 2001. Apologies for any distress caused to family or friends.

Elvis has left Nashville

If Elvis is indeed still alive, he's probably a little annoyed with The Wall Street Journal:

GRACELAND, Elvis Presley's former home, is in Memphis, Tenn. A Marketplace article Friday incorrectly said it was in Nashville.

Ombudsmen Round-Up

• Paul Moore of The Baltimore Sun writes about the paper's lack of communication when it made significant changes and reductions to content.
• Jeffrey A. Dvorkin of NPR writes about coverage of Bernard Kerik's nomination and calling Condoleezza Rice "Condi."
• Michael Arrieta-Walden of The Oregonian writes about coverage of foster care.
• Connie Coyne of The Salt Lake Tribune writes about quoting from court transcripts.
• Don Sellar of The Toronto Star plays a round of You Be The Editor.
• Michael Getler of The Washington Post writes about handling late-breaking news.