Regret the Error

Heads roll in Reidsville

The shockingly bad saga of made up quotes at the Reidsville Review has resulted in the resignations of the two reporters in question, Brook Corwin and Michael Pucci. They have also taken the paper's managing editor, Jeff Sykes, down with them. AP has a story with all the details, including the interesting fact that the feature they fabricated was somewhat of an advertorial. The story also reveals that Sykes learned of the made up quotes earlier in the month and "verbally disciplined" the two. That decision -- the wrong decision -- has now cost him his job. The paper's publisher has a letter of apology in today's paper. From AP:

Sykes said he learned of the deception earlier this month. He said he verbally disciplined both reporters, but now believes he made a mistake by not immediately firing them. "I was trying be compassionate," he said.

The "Two Cents Worth" feature accompanied a standing front-page ad for an insurance company. Many of the newspaper's editorial employees objected to the marriage of advertising and editorial content, Sykes said. Several employees failed to turn in copy on time and Sykes said he threatened to discipline the next person who was late.

"Those guys must have gotten behind the eight-ball and started playing tricks," Sykes said. "I just don't know what would possess them. For some reason they decided against all the training they had."

Corwin had been with the newspaper for 10 months and Pucci joined the staff in January, said Sykes, who had worked in Reidsville for three years. The newspaper publishes five days a week and has a circulation of 5,195.

12 years later, a correction

An obituary on Jan. 6, 1993, about William G. McLoughlin, an emeritus professor of history and religion at Brown University, misstated the date and cause of his death. Professor McLoughlin died on Dec. 28, 1992, not on Jan. 4, 1993; the cause was colon cancer, not liver cancer. The article also misstated the location of his World War II military service. It was at Fort Sill, Okla., not in Europe. The Times learned of the errors through a recent e-mail message from a family member.

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History lesson for the LA Times

An article about constitutions in Sunday's Los Angeles Times Magazine cited the following passage and attributed it to the Bill of Rights: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. . . ." That's from the Declaration of Independence.

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Take back your tired, your poor...

A story on Page A4 of Wednesday's editions incorrectly reported that Sen. John Cornyn's immigration plan would require all immigrants to leave the United States within five years. Only illegal immigrants would be required to depart.

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Things just keep going wrong for this guy

A story in Friday's Metro section incorrectly stated that former Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentence of former Death Row inmate Aaron Patterson. Patterson was pardoned from prison because of a wrongful conviction.

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The Atlantic offers up a lengthy correction

The Atlantic has published a rare and lengthy correction to a story from its May issue.

What, you ask, does this serious journal of literature, politics and society have to correct? Was it something to do with the war in Iraq, its article about the Supreme Court? Maybe the piece on Israel? Nope. It's about Anna Nicole Smith and her attempt to receive money from the estate of J. Howard Marshall II, her much older and now deceased hubby. It seems the magazine was unfair in its characterization of the actions of Marshall's son and "left a wrong impression of the [legal case's] outcome and of Mr. Marshall [the son]." Then there's this:

Needless to say, neither Mr. Mann nor The Atlantic Monthly have any personal knowledge of, nor have they seen any evidence that, E. Pierce Marshall was "infuriated" by his father's gifts to an "(alleged) mistress, an exotic dancer, who then died in a bizarre face-lift accident."

Full text:

An article in the May 2005 issue of The Atlantic—"The Coming Death Shortage," by Charles Mann—made reference to a case involving E. Pierce Marshall and the estate of his father, J. Howard Marshall II. The references to the case were intended to make an illustrative point for the remainder of the article, and not intended to cast Mr. Marshall in an unflattering light. The article was written before the legal process was complete, and it cited the decision and commentary of one judge in one aspect of the case. Because it did not take note of subsequent developments, which occurred prior to publication, and because it did not take note of the legal history leading up to the judge's comments, the article left a wrong impression of the outcome and of Mr. Marshall, and we apologize for the omissions.

The dancing drummer

We began our television review, page 22, G2, yesterday, with a question: "Remember supergroups? Like Cream - with Eric Clapton, Ginger Rogers and Jack Bruce." We meant to say Ginger Baker rather than Ginger Rogers, the late dancing partner of the late Fred Astaire.

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Newspaper makes up quotes for people it didn't interview

Two young reporters at The Reidsville Review, a small newspaper in North Carolina, appear to have taken images of people from a social networking site, made up quotes for them, and slapped them on the front page of the paper. The News & Record, another North Carolina newspaper, found that quotes were made up for at least six people who weren't interviewed by the paper for its regular “Two Cents Worth" feature. (It features the picture of a person and their response to a question of the day.) The paper in question isn't exactly being forthcoming about what happened. UPDATE: The two reporters and the managing editor have resigned.
From the News & Record story:

Neither Publisher Ellen Ishmael nor Executive Editor Jeffrey Sykes would answer questions when contacted Tuesday by the News & Record.
“We have five of the most educated and hardest working young reporters in the state,’’ Sykes said in a statement. “They work hard every day to bring compelling local news to the communities we serve.
“Despite limited resources and the disadvantages of our small staff, our writers manage to cover the local news more thoroughly than any other media source.”
Chris Gilfillan, 22, a sports reporter for the Hickory Daily Record, is among those whose photo appeared in the feature without his knowledge.
“That’s a little disturbing,” Gilfillan  said. “These guys were two guys I really respected.’’
Jack Wiley Westall, 22, is quoted about his summer plans in one day’s feature. Westall, of Asheville, ran high school track against Corwin. But he said he never talked to him about his summer plans or gave permission for his photo to be used.

Neither of the reporters in question -- Brook Corwin and Michael Pucci -- have been fired. And we didn't find a correction or apology on the paper's website.  When Corwin was contacted by the News & Record, he actually declined to comment because he thought that might get him fired.

Corwin had no comment Tuesday, except to say reporters had been told not to talk to the News & Record.
“There are a lot of things I want to say if I felt that I wouldn’t get fired for saying them,” Corwin said.
Pucci also declined to comment except to say the matter had been dealt with  internally.

This newspaper needs to come clean about what happened and take the appropriate action(s). Otherwise it's not worth the paper it's printed on. Let's hope an explanation and some concrete action is forthcoming.

Going postal

A report published Tuesday on Page 1B of the City & State section incorrectly stated how Wake County Clerk of Superior Court Jan Pueschel was struck by an envelope. She was struck on her left cheek.

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From parts uknown

An article in Thursday's Calendar Weekend section about sleepovers at the Los Angeles Zoo incorrectly identified the geographic origins of the bearded dragon, black rabbit, boa constrictor, black widow spider and tarantula. None of those are from Africa.

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