Regret the Error

Make sure you get those offenisve nicknames correct

Professional speed eater Dave O'Karma's nickname is Coondog. A reporter made a typographical error in a story Wednesday. Link

They mistakenly referred to him as "coodog."

Guess they never learned the song

How green is my diet? At home or dining out, we can all do better:  A previous version of this story incorrectly spelled Oscar Mayer. Link

A victim again

A story in Tuesday's Metro section confused the names of the driver and the passenger in an October crash in Deerfield that killed two teens. Daniel Bell was the driver who crashed his car into a tree; his blood-alcohol content was above the legal limit. Ross Trace was a passenger. The story incorrectly stated that Trace had a blood-alcohol content above the legal limit. In fact, he had no alcohol in his system.
The Tribune regrets the errors. Link

The backstory of several "bizarrely* inaccurate" articles

Reader Sarah (thanks!) provided us with a link to this interesting unpacking of a series of incorrect stories that appear to have been inspired by a single AP article. This article appeared in the Mountain View Voice:

A series of misleading reports in several news outlets boil down to one big correction: Mountain View has never received, requested or required $250,000 from Home Depot to help pay for the city's Day Worker Center.
The "bizarrely inaccurate" stories, as city manager Kevin Duggan described them, portrayed Mountain View as having "forced" Home Depot to pay money towards accommodations for day workers. The false stories gained traction nationally, helping to stir up the already contentious immigration debate.
The confusion seems to have begun with a late-June story by Associated Press that ran in dozens of newspapers. The article, which concerned the immigration bill that recently failed in the U.S. Senate, stated in its third paragraph that Mountain View was one of several American cities that have "forced Home Depot to build facilities for day laborers on-site or elsewhere, hire security staff and offer bathrooms in order to get the permits necessary for its operations."
Duggan said he was befuddled by the story, because the city has yet to make any decision on Home Depot's application for the Sears site at San Antonio Center. When the issue was last discussed at a study session in March, the council didn't take a position on how it should mitigate the presence of day workers outside.
"How much confusion could be generated about a thoroughly simple topic?" Duggan asked. "We had radio stations calling, TV stations calling. We have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to clarify misinformation about this topic."
The Voice also received e-mails from people misled by the stories, who were angry over what they'd heard: That the city was requiring Home Depot to help pay for the Day Worker Center.
As late as Thursday the "non-story," as city officials put it, continued to be reported by media outlets such as KCBS, which posted a story on its Web site that read, "The unofficial report is that Home Depot would give $250,000 to the city of Mountain View to help with labor issues."
The false story was given a boost by the San Jose Mercury News, which ran a story Tuesday -- picked up from its sister paper, the Palo Alto Daily News -- headlined "Home Depot gives city cash."
That story was also based on false information, but this time Home Depot itself was guilty. With little explanation, the paper quoted an e-mail from Home Depot spokesperson Kathryn Gallagher that read, "We have contributed the $250,000 to the city to work toward a solution in regards to day labor issues."
Gallagher told the Voice on Thursday that she "misspoke about it."
"I had actually said we had given the money and we hadn't," she said. "It was one of the many solutions discussed."
...

*Correction July 18: The headline of this post initally spelled "bizarrely" as "biazzarely." Thanks for catching it, David!

Apology, with damages

In the diary in the media section of 16 July 2007 we wrongly stated that Tom   Bower's expenses while attending the Conrad Black trial were paid for by the   Evening Standard, whose editor is Mr Bower's wife, Veronica Wadley. It was   also suggested that the relationship between Mr Bower and his wife raised   similar issues to that of Conrad Black and his wife. We now accept that   these allegations were inaccurate. Mr Bower, who was covering the trial for   another newspaper and to add to the forthcoming paperback edition of his   Black biography, personally paid all his expenses and only got a reduced   rate for the incidental articles in the Evening Standard. We were also wrong   to imply that the party for the book launch of the biography was in any way   financed by Associated Newspapers as it was entirely paid for by Mr Bower   and Ms Wadley. It was never our intention to suggest that Mr Bower or Ms   Wadley had behaved corruptly in any way and we accept that such a suggestion   would be wrong. We apologise to them and have agreed to pay them damages. Link

Cherie Blair had nothing to do with spirit guides, primal wrestling, or sharing a shower

  Following the portrait of Tony and Cherie Blair published on 21 April in the   Independent Saturday magazine, Ms Blair's representatives have told us that   she was friendly with but never had a relationship with Carole Caplin of the   type suggested in the article. They want to make it clear, which we are   happy to do, that Ms Blair "has never shared a shower with Ms Caplin,   was not introduced to spirit guides or primal wrestling by Ms Caplin (or   anyone else), and did not have her diary masterminded by Ms Caplin". Link

And, joy of joys, the Independent now has an online corrections page. Thanks for the tip, Peter!

It's a barnburner, bombshell, barnburner

The July 9 story "Katie Roiphe's Morning After" originally stated that Roiphe misremembered George Will's characterization of her book as a "barnburner," since he actually referred to it as a "bombshell." In fact, he referred to it as a "barnburner" in private correspondence with Roiphe. The story has been corrected. Link

Tried in the press

In an earlier version of a schedule posted July 12 on the Dateline NBC site, Eric McLean was incorrectly referred to as a "convicted murderer." Although Mr. McLean has admitted to shooting Sean Powell, he has not yet been tried, and has not yet formally entered a plea.  His attorney, Bruce Poston, says Mr. McLean will eventually plead "not guilty" to the charge of second-degree murder. Link

Flood, not blood

An article in Sunday Styles this week about the popularity of the video game Guitar Hero among bar patrons misspelled the surname of an artist whose song appears in the game, and misstated the title of that song. He is Stevie Ray Vaughan, not Vaughn, and the song is “Texas Flood,” not “Texas Blood.” Link

Fire them all

An article on July 8 about the dispute between the White House and Congress over the dismissal of United States attorneys misstated the number of prosecutors who were fired. It was 9 — not 93, the total number of the Justice Department’s United States attorneys. Link