Regret the Error

We arrrgh sorry for these errors

In the June 5 "Explainer," Christopher Bonanos made several errors. First, he stated that the pirate's "arrr" originated with Robert Newton. Lionel Barrymore used "arrrgh" in a film from 1934. Second, he identified Dorset as being in the Cotswolds district of southwest England. The Cotswolds are in central England. Third, he asserted that most pirates were from oppressed nations like Scotland and Ireland. Many were, but more came from southwest England than anywhere else. Fourth, he stated that "arrr" is "strictly fiction," and that no one ever walked the plank. West country pirates may well have used the phrase "arrrgh," and there does exist at least one recorded instance of plank-walking. Link

Fuzzy numbers etc.

The June 1 story "The Corporate Takeover of U.S. Intelligence" mistakenly stated that 70 percent of the approximately $48 billion U.S. intelligence budget given to contractors amounted to "roughly $42 billion." Seventy percent represents approximately $34 billion. The error has been corrected. Link

Slate underdoses on cocaine

In the May 25 "Explainer," Michelle Tsai asserted that an eight ball is about 10 lines of cocaine. While the size of a line depends on personal preference, most users would divide an eight ball into more than 25 lines. Link

Fuzzy numbers etc.

A story published May 14 about counterfeiting in Canada said about $46 billion in phoney bills is circulating right now. In fact, about $46 billion in total currency is in circulation, of which $6.7 million is phoney. Link

Rest is fine

The May 14 story "The Matt Drudge Primary" originally stated that Web-ranking service Alexa was owned by Google, when in fact it is owned by Amazon. The story also incorrectly referred to a Myrtle Beach, S.C., newspaper as the Sun-Times instead of the Sun-News and mischaracterized a pledge John McCain made about how he would handle information about the Iraq war if he were elected president. These errors have been corrected. Link

A tale of ham and consequences

Westword, an alt-weekly in Denver, recently published a profile of the owner of Associated Content. Contained in the piece was the tale of one AC error that was later picked up by the Fox show, Fox & Friends, among others. Reports Westword:

...Indeed, there's pretty much only one blot on Beatty's horizon these days -- a story that placed Associated Content at the center of a media controversy as goofy as it was embarrassing. And it all started with a slab of meat.
On April 11, a student at Lewiston Middle School in Lewiston, Maine, put a bagged ham steak in front of several Muslim students. Because Muslims eschew pork as a tenet of their faith (and because a man had thrown a pig's head into a Lewiston mosque during a prayer session last year), superintendent Leon Levesque treated the matter as a possible "hate incident," according to an April 19 article in Lewiston's Sun Journal newspaper. The piece stated that a police investigation was under way and that representatives from an organization called the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence were assembling "a response plan."
This episode might have been seized upon by critics of political correctness under any circumstances -- but the anti-PC forces were really revved up by a variation on the tale created by Nicholas Plagman, a 24-year-old Atlanta-area resident and regular Associated Content producer. Plagman took the original Sun Journal report and supplemented it with phony quotes and other comic tweaks. With his help, the ham steak became a ham sandwich, the response plan morphed into an "anti-ham" response plan, and Levesque was made to intone that "these children have got to learn that ham is not a toy." Plagman then listed the source for this information as the Associated Press, which had circulated a synopsized variation on the Sun Journal effort, and posted it in the "humor" and "news" categories on the AC site.
Despite widespread rumors to the contrary, many of which were circulated by AC producers, Plagman swears he didn't know the news designation would be interpreted as a mark of accuracy -- but it was. AssignmentEditor.com, a purveyor of legit news, soon picked up the article. Early on April 24, staffers at Fox News's morning show, Fox & Friends, came across his offering there and quickly transformed it into a running gag on that day's broadcast.
"Ham sandwich: hate crime or lunch?" Friends leader Steve Doocy crowed. He subsequently read the "ham is not a toy" and "anti-ham response plan" lines in between airings of the Dragnet theme and repeated claims that "I'm not making this up!" Co-host Brian Kilmeade didn't seem so sure. "I thought this was almost from the Onion," he said -- and later added, "I hope we're not being duped."
They had been, as Levesque discovered...

Thanks for tip, Matthew!

Fuzzy numbers etc.

In the May 7 story "Way to go grad! Here's a check for you new nose," MSNBC.com incorrectly reported that cosmetic procedures performed on U.S. teenagers had nearly doubled between 2002 and 2006. In fact, according to statistics provided by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 244,124 procedures were performed on patients ages 13 to 19 in 2006 compared to 223,673 procedures performed on kids 18 and younger in 2002. Link

Hormone or drug?

The May 4 story "Ricki Lake's "Awesome"  Vagina" mistakenly referred to the hormone oxytocin as the prescription drug OxyContin. The story has been corrected. Link

Arrested by the press

In the April 27 "Explainer," Melonyce McAfee incorrectly stated that the founders of online gambling site Bodog were arrested in January. The founder was not arrested. The article also stated that Bodog is based in Costa Rica. The company has relocated to Antigua. Link

Slate falls for cows with accents hoax

This article originally stated that a study showed cows have "regional accents." That "study" was a now-debunked PR hoax. Link

The Language Log provided the debunking. (Thanks for the tip, Linda.)