Regret the Error

Nice place, loved you in Teenwolf

Because of an editing error, the Sports of The Times column on Monday about the dedication of the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Ky., referred incorrectly in some copies to Michael J. Fox, the president of the center. He is a veteran museum director, not the actor. Link

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered toenail fungus...

EDGAR ALLAN POE'S middle name was misspelled as Allen in a page-one article Monday about a man who wrote a book about his battle with toenail fungus. Link

Below average medium

A story about a psychic fair in Monday's edition of The Bee misquoted séance attendee Neil Buist. He said a medium told him to get on with his life and stop "faffing around." Link

The Australian goes after the wrong immigration official

The apology:

THE Australian of October 6 published an article titled "Trio behind Alvarez cover-up", concerning the Comrie-McMillan report into the deportation of Vivian Alvarez. The Australian is informed and accepts that Natalie Catlin, who was not based in Brisbane, is not one of the three immigration officials the subject of adverse comment in the report and that she performed her duties in relation to Ms Alvarez diligently. The Australian apologises for any hurt or distress suffered by Natalie Catlin.

The things they wrote about her that caused the apology:

THREE middle-ranking immigration officials have been blamed for covering up the wrongful removal of Australian citizen Vivian Alvarez and could face the sack.
A damning report into the Immigration Department's handling of the affair by Victoria's former police commissioner, Neil Comrie, has cited three public servants who failed to raise the alarm after they discovered in 2003 that Ms Alvarez had been removed...
The report recommends the public servants' actions be examined under the Public Service Act, which carries disciplinary penalties including dismissal and suspension.
It is understood the three are receiving legal advice.
Ms Alvarez, who was finally discovered crippled in a hospice in Manila in May, was previously last seen in February 2001 dropping her youngest child at a Brisbane kindergarten.
She was sent to The Philippines five months later after immigration officers deemed her an unlawful entrant and a suspected sex worker...
Another Immigration officer, Natalie Catlin, who was based in Brisbane, discovered Ms Alvarez had been deported in 2003. This followed numerous requests from Mr Young via Queensland police. But Ms Catlin's only act in passing on the information was a call five weeks later to a missing persons hotline after Channel Nine screened Ms Alvarez's details.

A lesson in ethics

In an article in The Daily Telegraph yesterday, Anthony McClellan, of AMC Media, was quoted as saying Michelle Leslie's story "is definitely worth paying for".
Mr McClellan was answering a question based on Leslie not having a conviction. He believes that those with convictions should not be paid for their stories. The Daily Telegraph apologises for the error.

Paper posthumously honors living man

Another senseless death at the hands of a newspaper:

For years, former University of Akron President Dominic Guzzetta has joked with friends that he checks the paper daily to make certain his name isn't among the deceased. On Monday, it was.
A correspondent incorrectly wrote inThe Scene that Guzzetta had been posthumously honored at "A World of Nations and Cultures One Night" -- an event on Saturday to raise funds for the International Institute.
By noon Monday, Guzzetta had received at least 25 telephone calls.
"I guess they wanted to be among the first to extend their condolences,'' he quipped, being a good sport. "I look forward to reading about my resurrection."
Our sincere apologies, Dr. Guzzetta.

Link

Somebody walked on the moon?

In stories Nov. 19 and Nov. 21 about a new biography of astronaut Neil Armstrong, The Associated Press erroneously reported the date of his moonwalk. It was July 20, 1969, not July 30.

The case of the imaginary Oreos

Was Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, now a candidate for the US Senate, pelted with Oreos at a gubernatorial debate in 2002? It was reported to have happened at the time, and many times since, but now not everyone is so sure. Here's the lead from a story in the Baltimore City Paper:

Media reports of Oreo cookies employed as a racist taunt during a 2002 Maryland gubernatorial campaign debate have recently come under dispute. Now, the media that reported the story—in many instances without independent confirmation or transparent sourcing—is struggling to explain how a racially charged (and apparently controversial) claim by Republican politicians became an accepted fact in major newspapers across the country.

Another story by radio station WTOP has a comment from Steele:

On Tuesday, Steele told WTOP that he was never hit with Oreos and said the incident has been exaggerated.
"I've never claimed that I was hit, no. The one or two that I saw at my feet were there. I just happened to look down and see them," Steele said.

But the City Paper story gets better/stranger:

After UMBC political science professor and liberal commentator Thomas Schaller expressed doubts earlier this month about the veracity of the Oreo-slinging incident, [Governor] Ehrlich decried what he described as “dangerous” attempts at historical “revisionism.” During a Nov. 12 appearance on WBAL (1090 AM) radio, the governor insisted that Oreos were indeed thrown and urged listeners: “Just go ask people who were there.”
Sun reporter Andy Green was already doing just that. In a story published the next day, Green quoted several nonpartisan sources who were at the event and who disputed the governor’s account and that of his spokesman, Paul Schurick, who is quoted in the story as saying, “It was raining Oreos. They were thick in the air like locusts. I was there.”
“That’s insane,” says former Sun reporter Sarah Koenig, who covered Ehrlich in the 2002 campaign, and who says she didn’t see any Oreos that night. “The air was not thick with anything except political bullshit.”

That's quite the nifty sound byte at the end. Gadi Dechter, the City Paper's media columnist, went trolling through Nexis and found many papers who have repeated the alleged incident over the years:

That hasn’t stopped The Washington Times, The Washington Post, The Sun, the (London) Daily Telegraph, the Associated Press, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, and this paper, among others, from reporting as fact, without transparent sourcing or attribution, some version of the incident over the years.
Of the two newspapers that have most frequently discussed the event, the Sun’s reporting has been largely circumspect, typically reporting the incident as a claim made by Republicans. The Washington Times, by contrast, has more freely propagated the most incendiary version of the incident, repeatedly reporting as a given fact that Steele was “pelted” by cookies at the debate.
"This is why we as journalists have such a hard time getting the public to trust us and [getting] people to talk to us," says WTOP investigative reporter Mark Segraves, who last week broadcast a story harshly critical of Times reporter S.A. Miller’s articles on the subject.

The piece ends with an interesting timeline of Oreo events. Worth a look. Props to Romenesko for spotting this.

Er, GM not declaring bankruptcy

Because of an editing error, a front-page article on Saturday about a family with four generations of General Motors workers referred incorrectly in some editions to a statement by Rick Wagoner, General Motors' chief executive, on the possibility of a bankruptcy filing by the company. Mr. Wagoner said recently that the company had no plans to file for bankruptcy, not that it did intend to do so.

Link

Looks like the Republican's strategy is working

An article in Friday's Inquirer reported that Rep. John P. Murtha called for immediately withdrawing troops from Iraq. The Pennsylvania Democrat called for troops to be withdrawn "at the earliest practicable date."

Link