The Correction of the Year from our annual round-up of media errors and corrections has caused quite a stir. Some of you wondered if we chose it because we were genuinely offended. (No.) Some of you wondered if the Denver Daily News is a real newspaper. (Yes.) Then we received an email from Peter Marcus, a reporter at the News, who wrote, "...on behalf of the gentleman who was [responsible for the error], we'd just like to thank you for the free publicity. He's quite famous in Denver now and he has you folks to thank."
Hey, we're happy to help. We asked Marcus to set us up with the man himself, DDN editor Tad Rickman. He was nice enough to answer some questions by email. Ladies and gents, this is how New Jersey became "Jew Jersey."
So, you're the man in charge of the paper and the one responsible for this award-winner?
I am the one responsible for the mistake -- entirely.
Tell us a bit about your journalism background and how you landed at the DDN.
My journalism background: I graduated with a bachelor's degree in
journalism from Metropolitan State College of Denver in 1997 and have
worked at the Lafayette (Colorado) News as a reporter/editor from
1998-2001, then at the Denver Daily News as an editor since June of
2001.
We've heard from a few Denver folks who say they are unfamiliar with
your publication. How long have you been around for and how do you fit
within the local market?
The Denver Daily News has been around since May 2001, and it's a free daily.
It's largely just distributed downtown, and our growth has been slower
than we'd like (such is the industry), so there are those who haven't
seen us. But at least we're growing, and more people are learning about
us everyday.
How many people do you have on staff?
In the newsroom, we have a staff of two -- myself and reporter Peter
Marcus. At the time of the "Jew Jersey" mistake, Peter was part-time.
We're rather small, and we do a lot for such a small publication.
We've only seen the "Jew Jersey" correction. Can you share with us the actual sentence as it appeared in the paper?
As far as the sentence in the paper is concerned, we don't really have a morgue, and I don't remember the sentence off the top of my head. I only remember it was in the "Town Talk" section of our paper in which we rant about whatever topic we deem appropriate for that day, then let our readers know about what special deals our advertisers are offering. That day I was discussing a New Jersey proposal to ban smoking in cars, and since the city of Denver also was mulling a smoking ban in public places, I was wondering how much the government should intrude into private lives.
Tell us how it happened.
It happened because I was careless, plain and simple. I re-read my column rather hastily, did a spell-check, and then sent it out. No one else here read it before it went to press.
How many editors look over a story of this nature before it goes in the paper?
I was the only one who read that column, and virtually all the content, before it went to press. Things have changed now, and I'll address that later.
Aside from the obvious finger slip, do you think there were other factors that contributed to this error (staffing, training etc.)?
The finger-slip thing, while that's what caused me to write "Jew Jersey," is not an adequate excuse for shoddy journalism. It is true we needed more eyes on the pages than just mine, but if I was more careful, this would not have happened.
Describe the moment when you discovered the mistake.
The moment I discovered the mistake: I received only one call, and it was from the Anti-Defamation League. It was on my voicemail, and the nature of why they called wasn't stated, other than it was about the Town Talk column. I was curious as to why the ADL would care about smoking in cars or in public places, so I called and was told of the error. I was appalled, humiliated, and saddened that the point I was trying to make about how the government intrudes too far into public lives was destroyed by my carelessness, thus sabotaging my efforts. I also was concerned that the two Jewish people working in our office (Peter, you've heard from, who is from New York; and Jodi Faber, who is from New Jersey, of all places) would be offended. They were not and were very gracious. The woman from the ADL also was gracious and said she'd only received a few calls. I don't know her name.
How did you go about selecting the language and tone of the correction? Where in the paper was the correction placed and why?
The language, tone and placement of the correction is pretty much standard policy here at the Denver Daily and from when I worked at the Lafayette News. If our paper was located closer to New Jersey, or if we'd received more response, that might have impacted the correction.
Are you planning to change any policies at the paper as a result of this error?
Peter is now full-time, and I have him proof pages before he leaves. The more eyes on the pages, the better. At the time, our paper just could not afford to make him full time. Sad but true.
One of your reporters told us that this award has given your publication unprecedented publicity. Has there been a silver lining?
I don't know about the unprecedented publicity. The silver lining to me is that since Peter is full time we have the opportunity to dedicate more time to proofing [and] we've cut way back on the mistakes. This was not the only mistake the paper has made -- big shock there, I'm sure.
How does it feel to be the man responsible for the Crunk Correction of 2005?
As far as receiving the Crunk award, I don't wear it as a badge of honor.
It's more shameful, and it reflects poorly on myself and the paper. It‘s largely true that there is no such thing as bad publicity, and in this case, since the error was obviously accidental, humorous and no one was hurt by it, it's OK to have a little laugh at my expense about it. But we take all mistakes very seriously, and we would rather not be known for our mistakes but for putting out a free daily in a VERY competitive market with a VERY small staff. It's a major accomplishment.
Do you feel any different, plan to go to Disneyland etc.?
I plan to bury my sorrows in bourbon.
Are you Jewish? From New Jersey?
I'm neither Jewish nor from New Jersey. I've told you of our two Jewish employees. I've never even been to New Jersey, so I'd have no idea how many Jews there even are in New Jersey.
What was your worst error before this one?
I've had a mountain of typos (this is the Rocky Mountain region after all). I can't think off the top of my head anything nearly as embarrassing as this. Most mistakes, while embarrassing, are pretty benign.
Nothing like Newsweek, thank goodness!
Anything else to add?
The only thing I'd like to add is you can never be too careful. It might seem logical that a small paper like ours would make this type of mistake, but an editing professor I had told me once that when he worked at the Miami Herald, they inadvertently ran a photo of a judge in a murder trial and in the caption identified the judge as the murder suspect. That passed through a rather large editorial board. It just goes to show that taking the extra time to re-read the copy can save a lot of headache later.
