Regret the Error

UK Parliament record to offer corrections

This is unique. Hansard, the official record of Parliament in England, will now be offering corrections to the record for errors made by ministers. From a Press Association report (not online):

Hansard, the Official Record of Parliament, is to have a dedicated corrections column for ministerial slip-ups, Commons leader Jack Straw announced today.
The measure was recommended by the Commons' procedure committee and will initially apply only to Commons Hansard, but authorities in the Lords may decide to follow suit.
The corrections will appear in both the hard copy and online version.
Outlining the move to MPs, Mr Straw said: ``It is not satisfactory, it is not satisfactory for the ministers concerned either, that corrections to the record are scattered through Hansard or to be found in the library, for those who can scurry through letters there.
"The proposal is for a dedicated section of Hansard for corrections by ministers in respect of any proceedings whether they are oral or written which take place in this House and cross-referencing with the original error."
The innovation is expected to come into force in the next session.
Mr Straw was responding to Tory Greg Knight (Yorkshire E) who protested: ``A number of ministers who inadvertently mislead the House still adhere to the obscure and unsatisfactory practice of putting a correcting letter in the library - which of course nobody sees.''
Hansard, a Commons department independent of the Government and Civil Service, produces edited verbatim report of proceedings in both Houses...

Meet Governor Christ

From AP:

What a difference a letter makes. A Web site "oops" on the site of Florida governor Charlie Crist changed his last name from Crist to Christ.
A page on the governor's Web site listed his agency appointees under a headline "The Christ Team." A spokeswoman says its just a typo. But it's a common one.
At least three Florida newspapers have referred to Crist as Christ in the past two weeks alone. This mistake, however, was a little embarrassing for the governor's office. Once it was pointed out, the Web page was corrected in less than a minute. Link

It appears as though this is one of those corrections:
Dec. 30----A headline that appeared on 8B in some editions of Friday's Broward & State section misspelled the name of Gov.-elect Charlie Crist.

 

Paper apologizes after politicians criticize "cheap sex" articles

From an article in the New Straits Times of Malaysia:

The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad yesterday apologised unreservedly to the readers of Weekend Mail for any distress that has been caused by the publication of its latest issue.
"The articles were offensive and distasteful," chief executive officer Datuk Syed Faizal Albar said.
"Although The Malay Mail and Weekend Mail are managed independently and have their own editorial operations separate from the other newspapers, we view this matter seriously as the papers are still printed by The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad (NSTP).
"We are seeking an explanation from the editors and will take appropriate steps after assessing the response, as part of our ongoing inquiry into this matter," he said.
NSTP also publishes the New Straits Times, Berita Harian and Harian Metro newspapers, which are headed by Group Editor-in-Chief Datuk Hishamuddin Aun.
The Malay Mail's weekend edition, which focused on teenagers and sex, was criticised by two ministers and politicians yesterday.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the daily had gone overboard, and that he received numerous calls complaining that the articles were extreme and should not have been published.
"It was published in some detail. Profit should not be made at the expense of society."
He said such articles would erode the moral values of youngsters.
"It is becoming a great challenge to instil good values in youngsters with the easy accessibility of such materials these days."
Najib was commenting on a resolution at the Federal Territory Umno convention yesterday.
The resolution, which was listed as the second most important among 30, said the convention strongly urged the media to abide by the Rukun Negara.
It strongly protested the publication's "cheap sex" articles and exploitation of women to sell more copies.
The resolution noted that such articles would contribute to immoral sexual behaviour and increased social problems among youngsters.
Since Jan 1, the Malay Mail and the Weekend Mail have been operating independently of the New Straits Times.
Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said: "I am so embarrassed for them (Malay Mail). It is an irresponsible act and downright vulgar."...
 

Political staffer fired for plagiarism

It's not a case of journalistic plagiarism, but this story demonstrates that no plagiarist is safe in the age of Google. From a story in the Burlington Free Press:

A staff member for Republican congressional candidate Martha Rainville resigned Monday after evidence surfaced that he had plagiarized other politicians in writing Rainville's policy statements.
Staff member Christopher Stewart, who was in charge of policy research for the Rainville campaign, wrote several policy statements that Rainville said clearly constitute plagiarism.
"I'm just incredibly disappointed," Rainville said.
Stewart declined to comment Monday night other than to say he supports Rainville's campaign.
Rainville said the statements accurately reflect her views on the issues, but she didn't know Stewart had taken the wording from other politicians. The campaign removed the statements from its Web site Monday afternoon and staff members were rewriting them, Rainville said.
The allegations of plagiarism surfaced after a Westminster woman found similarities on the Internet. Julie Waters, a Web designer and musician, said she was researching the race between Rainville and Democrat Peter Welch because she was considering volunteering for the Welch campaign.
Waters said after she came across a blog that pointed out similarities between Rainville's health care policy and a speech by President Bush, she wondered if there were other duplications.
"So, I did Google searches," she said. As a psychology instructor at Community College of Vermont, Waters said she's familiar with how easy it is for students to plagiarize from the Internet, and how easy it is for teachers to catch them by searching for key words...

False tsunami warning sent to Alaskan media

From Associated Press (link):

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A National Weather Service worker inadvertently sent a tsunami warning to Alaska radio and television stations Monday as employees were reviewing procedures to issue such alerts.
Officials suspect the warning was transmitted when someone accidentally double-clicked the cancel button with their computer's mouse, said Sam Albanese, warning co-ordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service's Anchorage office.
After the cancel button is clicked once, the screen disappears. But once it goes away, the screen behind it has the transmit button in the same location as the cancel button.
Rapidly clicking the mouse twice may have unintentionally sent the tsunami warning since the computer program did not have a confirmation screen to send it, Albanese said.
"There is no confirmation when that transmit is hit, it just starts to transmit," Albanese said.
Officials have initiated procedures to make sure the error is not repeated.
"We're working with programmers to make sure there is a fail-safe put into the program so we don't transmit something inadvertently," he said.
The message, which went directly from the weather service to Alaska broadcasters, only contained a tsunami warning header. If it were a real emergency, meteorologists would have added actual text into the body of the message, outlining which areas of the state would have been covered by the warning.
The Weather Service later sent a correction.
Media outlets across the state were taken by surprise with the 8:53 a.m. warning. The weather service received phone calls from stations from Fairbanks to Juneau when the tsunami warning was not followed by any further information.
Television stations also received calls after the tsunami warning crawled across their screens.
"Every phone in the place started ringing," said Ed Bennett, assignment editor for KTUU television in Anchorage. "We had between 30 to 50 phones calls in the newsroom and an equal number at the front office in a 15 minute period."

South Korean press law raises concerns about unwarranted corrections

An interesting report about how a press law in South Korea could cause a barrage of unwarranted requests for correction (we plan to look into this more):

Seoul Central Court asked the Constitutional Court on Thursday to review the newly revised media law, saying there were possibilities that some of its clauses violated the constitution. The court said some clauses of the Press Arbitration Act could be unconstitutional, citing statutes allowing people to demand corrections regardless of the initial reports' accuracy. The court was considering a case filed by the National Intelligence Service demanding a correction by the Chosun Ilbo, a daily newspaper.
Media companies have protested against that requirement since the law's revision took effect in July last year, expressing concerns that they would face a flood of requests for corrections although the initial reports were written based on convincing investigations and published for the public good. Until now, media companies have been exempted from liability related to libel if the reports were made without malicious intent.
The court said the revised law put an excessive burden on media companies in fact-finding and would eventually shrink their role in raising suspicions, infringing on press freedom.
The academic and legal community believe the court's opinion will likely be upheld by the Constitutional Court. 'Scholars and members of the legal community have already taken issue with that particular clause,' said Moon Jae-wan, professor of law at Hankook University of Foreign Studies, noting that advanced countries had no such law.

Government-funded group mistakenly "outs" Kevin Spacey in school lesson plan

This was initially reported a couple weeks ago, but we just heard about it. And, yes, it's a bit off the beaten path from what we usually do. From the Mirror (UK):

HOLLYWOOD star Kevin Spacey has been "outed" by a government-backed group teaching gay history in Britain's schools.The American Beauty Oscar winner was until yesterday on a Famous Gays and Lesbians list in a lesson plan by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender group.
Its History Month for February is available on LGBT's website. The Department of Education is believed to be contributing £20,000 to the project.
Organiser Paul Patrick last night said he was "saddened and angry" at the "mistake".
But Spacey was included on the list - alongside figures like Dale Winton, Graham Norton and Oscar Wilde - from a school presentation a year ago.
Mr Patrick said: "We double check our material carefully but Mr Spacey's name got through. I don't know how. It will be withdrawn. Link

CNN (possibly) banned from Iran due to mistranslation

From AP (and widely picked up)

Iran said Monday it is barring CNN from working in Iran "until further notice" due to its mistranslation of comments made by the president in a recent news conference about the country's nuclear research.
In a speech Saturday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended Iran's right to continue nuclear research. State media have complained since the speech that CNN used the translation "nuclear weapons" instead of "nuclear technology."
The ban by the Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry was read in a statement on state-run television.
"Due to mistranslation of the words of Ahmadinejad during his press conference, activities of the American CNN in Tehran are banned until further notice," the statement said.

CNN also has a story up about the ban. It notes that Iran's president has reportedly asked for the ban to be lifted:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has asked that a ban on CNN journalists in Iran be lifted and that the network be allowed to continue working in the country, according to a report by the official Iranian news agency IRNA early Tuesday.

From a CNN statement about the mistake (quoted in a different article):

'There are reports today, Monday, that Iran has banned us from the country. CNN is very disappointed that this action has been taken,' Nigel Pritchard, a spokesman for the company, said in a statement from CNN's headquarters in Atlanta.
'Due to an error in translation, CNN incorrectly quoted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in his Saturday speech as saying that Iran has the right to build nuclear weapons,' the statement said.
In fact, President Ahmadinejad said that Iran has the right to nuclear energy, and that 'a nation that has civilization does not need nuclear weapons' and 'our nation does not need them',' the statement went on.
'CNN apologized on all its platforms which included the translation error, including CNN International, CNNUSA and CNN.com and also expressed its regrets to the Iranian government and the Iranian ambassador to the UN,' Pritchard said.

And it should be noted that the translation company used by CNN has apologized to the network for the mistake (from the CNN article):

The translation company, Lesley Howard Languages, apologized to CNN.
"Obviously, we're taking it very, very seriously. We will never use him again," owner Lesley Howard said, referring to the interpreter.
She said the same interpreter, who like other interpreters is contracted for individual projects, has done good work in the past, including for CNN.
She added that there is no reason to believe the interpreter purposely gave the wrong translation.
"We pride ourselves on having incredibly high standards," Howard said.

Typo found on North Dakota vehicle registration cards

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - The state Transportation Department is reprinting vehicle registration cards after getting a citizen's tip about an error in the fine print.
For at least three years, the cards incorrectly referred to section 39-08-30 of the North Dakota Century Code, said Lorrie Pavlicek, director of motor vehicles. The correct reference is 39-08-20.
The tiny print refers to the wrong state law that requires people to carry liability insurance.
Pavlicek said the correction has been made and will show up on new car registration cards this week.
"It was just a typo error we didn't pick up on," Pavlicek said.
Driving without liability insurance is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
A signature on the registration card certifies that the person has liability insurance. 

Unreliable source

An article by The Associated Press on Friday about a report by the Center for Public Integrity on travel by White House employees that was paid for by outside groups included erroneous information from the center on the trips' value, the number of officials who took more than $10,000 in trips and the amounts spent by several sponsors. The center attributed the mistakes to what it called data entry errors discovered after its release of the report.

Between 1998 and 2004, the trips were valued at $1.5 million, not $2.3 million. The number of White House officials who took more than $10,000 in sponsored trips was 23, not 51. One official, not 29 officials, worked in Vice President Al Gore's office. AFL-CIO unions spent $18,087, not $200,000. The World Anti-Doping Agency, not the AFL-CIO, was the largest sponsor of such trips, spending $40,260. Eli Lilly and Co. spent $2,226, not more than $20,000. Harvard University spent $28,857, not $85,137. Link