Regret the Error

UPDATED: Rossiya's Titanic error

A 13 year-old boy in Finland might have a promising career as a fact checker ahead of him.
Last week he revealed that the image of a submarine used by state-owned Russian TV network Rossiya (RTR) to illustrate a story about a Russian submarine voyage to the arctic was in fact from the film Titanic. The image was then distributed by Reuters, which meant it spread to news outlets in countries around the world. That's the danger of picking up reports from other media without doing independent verification. It's something wire services constantly struggle with, and occasionally they get bit.
"I was looking at the photo of the Russian sub expedition and I noticed immediately that there was something familiar about the picture," Waltteri Seretin, the Finnish boy, told a Finnish paper. "I checked it with my DVD and there it was right there in the beginning of the movie: exactly the same image of the submer-sibles approaching the ship."
Here's the official statement from Reuters, and a correction from MSNBC.com below. We have not seen other corrections as of now, which is troubling to say the least.

On August 2, 2007 in a TV story about two Russian submersibles planting a flag on the seabed under the North Pole, we used file shots of MIR submersibles as part of this story.
Reuters mistakenly identified this file footage as originating from the Arctic, and not the North Atlantic where the footage was shot.
This footage was taken during the search for the Titanic and copyright is held by Russian State broadcaster RTR.
This location error was corrected as soon as it was brought to our attention. A still image of the submersibles was also taken from the footage and put out on the Reuters photo wire. The caption has been corrected.

This correction was published on MSNBC.com:

In an Aug. 2 story about Russia planting a flag at the bottom of the North Pole, Reuters provided a photo with a caption identifying a submersible as participating in the expedition. Reuters later corrected that to say the image was of a similar submersible used in the search for the Titanic.

UPDATE August 15: Media watchdog AIM issued a press release earlier today calling for NBC News to issue an on air correction for its use of the erroneous submarine image. We're told that the Nightly News broadcast this evening did include an on air correction delivered by anchor Brian Williams. We couldn't locate the video on their site. Anyone have a link to share?

The king is not amused

The Canadian Press erroneously reported July 30 that Elvis Presley was born in Memphis, Tennessee. In fact, Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Thanks, Jim!

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!

Fuzzy numbers etc.

(Corrects headline to C$260 million deal from $260 deal)

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian grocer Sobeys Inc. said on Monday it will acquire British Columbia-based Thrifty Foods in a deal with an enterprise value of C$260 million ($250 million).
Sobeys, a unit of Empire Co. Ltd. (EMPa.TO: Quote, Profile , Research), said Thrifty will operate as a separate division. The deal is expected to close in Sobeys' second quarter.
($1=$1.04 Canadian) Link

Get your "dirty, despicable" crimes straight

In July 11 and July 12 stories about a tape released by al-Qaida's No. 2, The Associated Press erroneously said Ayman al-Zawahri described the killing of Pakistani cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi as a "dirty, despicable crime committed by Pakistani military intelligence."
Al-Zawahri's quote referred instead to the army attack on Islamabad's Red Mosque headed by Abdul Aziz Ghazi - the slain cleric's brother - and to the fact he was displayed by authorities wearing a woman's gown. Link

AP corrects AP correspondent obit that included decade-old error

   

LONDON (AP) -- In a June 27 obituary for veteran AP correspondent David Mason, The Associated Press erroneously referred to a 1970 AP story from Cambodia as having reported raping by U.S. troops during the allied incursion against North Vietnamese communist forces there.
An initial AP dispatch, filed from Saigon on May 4, 1970, described looting by U.S. soldiers at the Cambodian town of Snuol. The mention of looting was removed by an editor in New York before the story was transmitted to newspapers in the United States. Mason, who was AP bureau chief in Saigon at the time, complained about the deletion and AP general manager Wes Gallagher ordered the reference restored.
No versions of the 1970 story from Saigon reported rape.
That erroneous reference first appeared 27 years later, in AP obituaries for Gallagher on Oct. 11, 1997, and Oct. 13, 1997, from Santa Barbara, Calif., and was inadvertently repeated in the Mason obituary on June 27, 2007. Link

The perils of prepared remarks

In a May 31 story about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's speech at an awards ceremony, The Associated Press reported she said Russia "at times seems to think and act in the zero-sum terms of another era," based on her remarks as prepared for delivery. When delivered, that passage was dropped and she toned down her speech, saying: "We want Russia to be strong, but strong in 21st century terms." Link

Tony, not tiny

Corrects to tony from tiny in first paragraph

   WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. congressman chased and caught a man who picked the lawmaker's pocket on Thursday night in Washington's tony Georgetown neighborhood, a local television station reported. Link

Africa 101

In a May 18 story about 88 Burundian refugees flying to the United States for resettlement, The Associated Press misspelled the ethnic majority in Burundi. They are Hutus, not Tutus. Also, Tanzania is in eastern Africa, not western Africa. Link

UPDATED: FishBowl LA has some interesting background on this error.

UPDATED: Don't forget to check Reuters' GBU blog for "Muttonhead Quail"

If you find yourself jonesing for more media errors, make sure you visit Reuters' errors and feedback blog, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. A recent post notes the news service mistakenly called the Muttahida Quami Movement the "Muttonhead Quail Movement." This of course reminds of its dubious report of last year about Queen Elizabeth's remarkable egg-laying abilities. All hail the spellchecker! Bookmark the site if you haven't already.

UPDATE: Loyal reader Charlene sent along a screen capture of the quail story. Here it is in its original glory (click for larger):