Regret the Error

Grand slammed

A story that ran on Page A8 of Friday's Calgary Herald inadvertently identified a spokesman of Wendy's restaurants as a Denny's spokesman.

Quite the industry advocate

A story in Tuesday's Tropical Life section about the safety of personal-care products misstated the views of Irene Malbin of the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association. She did not suggest that shampoos and hair dyes might have cancer-causing ingredients.

Size on the mind of the Times

The Week Ahead column last Sunday misstated the screen size of Sony's new PlayStation Portable, which was introduced on Thursday. It is 4 inches by 3 inches, not 4 foot 3 inches.

Meatloaf

Two out of three? Ain't bad.
One out of three? Bad.

An article in Sunday's Section A about U.S. efforts to gather intelligence on Iran said the tri-border area of South America consists of Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay. The tri-border area comprises Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina.

Buried, temporarily

We said that Manfred Alexander had had "a spell in prison in Switzerland and a period of interment" when we meant internment ('An act of true friendship, G2 page 2, March 29). Interment is burial, internment is detention.

Chronicle rapped by judge

The San Francisco Chronicle has published a lengthy correction after it apparently "mischaracterized" comments by a judge in a case against the Catholic Church. "Sensationalized" may be a better description.

A March 11 story about a lawsuit filed against the Catholic Church in Oakland, alleging the diocese allowed two brothers to be molested by a priest the church knew to be a child molester, mischaracterized comments made by the judge in the case.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Harry Sheppard did not "rip" the actions of the church, as stated in the headline.

The story also mischaracterized Judge Sheppard's comments when it stated: "Calling the Catholic Church's conduct 'outrageous, oppressive and malicious,' an East Bay judge ruled Thursday that two alleged sexual abuse victims may seek punitive damages against the Diocese of Oakland." The judge's full remark was: "The conduct of the church as alleged text: and I'm not saying what's going to be proven, because I don't know what's going to be proven text: but as alleged, the conduct is outrageous, oppressive and malicious as alleged, and it was done with a conscious disregard for persons that they were entrusted to protect, being children."

The story further mischaracterized Judge Sheppard's comments when it stated: " 'The church knew Father Ponciroli was a serial sexual predator, but it allowed him to supervise and counsel these youngsters,' the judge said. 'They deliberately hid a violating priest for their own benefit.' " In those comments, the judge was paraphrasing the allegations of the plaintiffs, having prefaced the comment by saying that "the gist of (the plaintiffs') complaint is that ..."

In his ruling, the judge did not make any findings of fact, but merely ruled on the sufficiency of the allegations to state a legal claim. Those allegations have yet to be proven.

 

Backyard blunder

Okay, this is technically an AP error. But when a flub like this makes it into The Washington Post, you'e got to give them some credit as well:

An Associated Press item in the March 26 Washington in Brief column misstated the number of Democrats in the Senate. There are 44 Democrats, not 45; 55 Republicans; and one independent.

Because all rockers are the same

The two long hair rocker American Idol contestants appear to melding into one super contestant:

Bo Bice's profile contained information from Constantine Maroulis's profile. The story has been corrected.

Michael Eisner -- not as hated as you think

AT WALT DISNEY Co.'s annual meeting last year, 45% of the shares voted withheld support for Chief Executive Michael Eisner's re-election to the board. Last Wednesday's Business column incorrectly said holders of 45% of all the company's shares withheld their votes.

Schiavo -- the name the media can't get enough of

A photo caption accompanying an article in Sunday's Section A about House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's family experience with an end-of-life issue misidentified Bobby Schindler, Terri Schiavo's brother, as Bobby Schiavo.