Regret the Error: Mistakes Happen

Say what?

Brett Favre: In an NFL column in Monday’s Sports section, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre was quoted as saying, “It didn’t seem weird until I got in near the pier,” talking about his return to Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. What he said was, “It didn’t seem weird until I got in near De Pere,” which is a town between Appleton and Green Bay. Link

By Craig Silverman on November 5th, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged los angeles times, misquotes | Comments

Death by media

An essay on the subject of films about poets referred in error to the suicide of Ted Hughes’s second wife. His partner Assia Wevill killed herself in 1969 – but Carol Hughes, his second wife, is alive. We apologise for this mistake (Film, 31 October, page 19, Guide). Link

By Craig Silverman on November 5th, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged guardian, obiticide | Comments

Apology

In the Daily Star of 27 October 2008, we published an article and photographs of Olga Kurylenko which stated that Ms Kurylenko had arranged a nude photoshoot immediately after the filming of Quantum Of Solace. We now accept that Ms Kurylenko did not arrange any such photoshoot after Quantum Of Solace and that this was incorrect.
We wish to set the record straight and apologise to Ms Kurylenko.

By Craig Silverman on November 5th, 2009 in Major Errors, Newspapers Tagged apologies, daily star | Comments

Prepare your bids

Correction: An Associated Press story on the Nation page on Oct. 23 mischaracterized a motorized chair a Minnesota man was operating while drunk. Police in Proctor, Minn., where the recliner will be auctioned, said the brand is not La-Z-Boy. Link

By Craig Silverman on November 5th, 2009 in Wire service Tagged associated press | Comments

Quite the finish

LAST week it was incorrectly stated that Bob Thomas did not finish at the Triathlon World Championships.
Thomas did complete the event, in a time of 6hrs 30mins, and received a gold medal for winning his race category.
Incorrect information posted on the events website was the reason for the error.

By Craig Silverman on November 4th, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged north coast times (australia) | Comments

Lose the word, lose the meaning

Nonprofit’s wealthy owners: An article in Monday’s Section A about a nonprofit company, Social Vocational Services, run by a Palos Verdes couple included a garbled sentence that should have read, “In 1999, the Dawsons arranged to sell SVS to ResCare Inc., a for-profit company headquartered in Kentucky.” (The garble said “not sure you kno” in place of “ResCare.”) Link

And:

Feces in cattle feed: In some editions of Saturday’s Business section, an article about a campaign to ban chicken feces in cattle feed mistakenly omitted the word “banned” in the following sentence: “California allows the practice with one exception: Poultry litter is banned in feed for lactating dairy cows.” Link

By Craig Silverman on November 4th, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged los angeles times, typos | Comments

Danzig drummer alive and kicking

On Oct. 29, we reported on the death of Chuck Biscuits, the former D.O.A. and Danzig drummer, which turned out to be a hoax. The B.C.-born drummer’s brother confirmed a day later that Biscuits, whose real name is Charles Montgomery, is healthy and living in Seattle. Link

Related story here.

By Craig Silverman on November 3rd, 2009 in Online Tagged cbc.ca, hoaxes | Comments

It raised some f****ing questions

In a story on Page 3-A of Wednesday’s Independent about the Big Brothers Big Sisters’ Trail of Terror haunted house, a reaction to strobe lights should have included the word “freaking.” The word was replaced with asterisks, perhaps causing confusion about what was actually said. The Independent apologizes for this confusion and the impression it left. Link

Thanks, Bob!

By Craig Silverman on November 3rd, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged crunks09, grand island independent | Comments

Publish, then verify

Zentai case: Allegations that Charles Zentai had stood over the bleeding, dying body of an 18-year-old Jewish man he bashed to death in Hungary in 1944 and described the noise of blood flooding his lungs as “music” (Killer in our midst? Agenda, page 23, October 31) are disputed by his family. Mr Zentai’s son Ernie Steiner claims several witnesses attributed the comment to another man, Captain Bela Mader, in statements presented at the officer’s trial in 1946 and this could be verified in court records.

By Craig Silverman on November 3rd, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged inaccurate accusations, west australian | Comments

Sterilize ‘em all! (If they fit specific criteria)*

Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws believes in sterilising the “underclass”, whom he identifies as criminals, with no stake in society, who are welfare-dependent, with alcohol and drug problems. He was not referring to all beneficiaries, most of whom are good parents, he says.

This correction also appeared in the Dominion Post and the Press.

*Correction Nov. 2: The headline on this post originally read “Sterilize ‘em all! (If they fit this specific criteria).” The word “this” was removed because the word criteria is plural. Thanks, Harry!

By Craig Silverman on November 2nd, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged misquotes, taranaki daily news | Comments

One police chief, double the American

Police chief selection: A story in Friday’s Section A about the risks for L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in selecting a new police chief described Willie Williams as the city’s “first American American police chief.” It should have said African American. Link

By Craig Silverman on November 2nd, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged los angeles times, typos | Comments

Guilty by omission

In “Hitting criminals where it hurts most – the pocket” (August 23), we reported that Andrew Phillips had been charged with running a brothel, living off the proceeds of prostitution, procuring women and employing illegal immigrants. Phillips was acquitted of the charges on November 26 2008. We regret the omission. Link

By Craig Silverman on November 2nd, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged times (south africa) | Comments

This is not the composer you’re looking for

The story titled “He’s got the world on his strings” in C6 yesterday incorrectly referred to guitarist John Williams as the creator of the Star Wars and other movie scores. While the Australian musician is also a composer and arranger, the film scores are the work of the American John Williams. We apologise for the error.

By Craig Silverman on November 2nd, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged south china morning post | Comments

Apology

AN ARTICLE in the Sunday Mail, on April 27, 2007, headlined “Co-op uses human ashes to grit path”, said staff at a Dunfermline funeral home had used ashes to grit a disabled ramp.
Despite printing the article in good faith , we now acknowledge and fully accept that this was not the case.
We apologise to the Co-operative Funeral Care and Bob Aitchison, the manager in Dunfermline, and unreservedly withdraw the allegations. Link

By Craig Silverman on November 2nd, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged apologies, inaccurate accusations, sunday mail | Comments

Source of error

The Big City column on Tuesday, about Terri White, an actress who is back on Broadway in “Finian’s Rainbow” a year after an eviction left her homeless, overstated her professional achievements, based on information provided by Ms. White. Although she was featured in the Tony-nominated “Barnum” in 1980, she did not herself earn a nomination. Link

By Craig Silverman on October 30th, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged new york times, source errors | Comments

Know your newspapers

Newspaper circulation: An article in Business on Tuesday about newspaper circulation said the Oakland Tribune reported a 7.3% gain in circulation to 68,067. Those results were actually reported by the Oakland Press, in Oakland, Mich. The California paper reported a 0.3% gain in subscribers to 92,794. Link

By Craig Silverman on October 30th, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged los angeles times, naming errors | Comments

Because that would be, um, unorthodox

Orthodox Jews were excluded from a study of marriages among Jews who made “birthright” visits to Israel because they were presumed to have a high rate of marriages within the faith. A U.S. News article about the study in some Monday editions incorrectly said Orthodox Jews weren’t included because they were presumed to have a high rate of interfaith marriages. Link

By Craig Silverman on October 30th, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged wall street journal | Comments

How dare you suggest those boys weren’t drunk

In the item “Jasper started it, honest” (18 October) about the Daily Telegraph’s recent feature on Tunbridge Wells it was wrongly suggested that Jasper Gerard had asked two boys of seventeen to pose for a fake picture showing them drunk, and that the paper had published it without their permission.

We are happy to make it clear that Mr Gerard did not commission the photograph nor was he present when it was taken and we apologise to Mr Gerard. The Telegraph also tells us the professional photographer who did take the picture insists that it was both authorised and genuine. Link

By Craig Silverman on October 30th, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged apologies, inaccurate accusations, independent uk | Comments

About that “greasy-haired twat” remark

An article pointed to a political dispute in Islington, north London, as an example of why some opponents suspected the Liberal Democrats of preparing to use dirty tactics at the next election (Lib Dems accused of dog whistle politics over Gypsy claims, 12 September, page 7). It also mentioned an incident when a rival candidate was called a “greasy-haired twat” in a Lib Dem leaflet during June’s county council election campaign in Cornwall. A small text panel showed the offending leaflet extract, captioning it: “literature distributed on behalf of Anna Pascoe, Lib Dem candidate for Cornwall council”. Anna Pascoe has asked us to make clear that she neither endorsed nor voiced the insult. She and the area’s Lib Dem agent denounced it at the time, and said it appeared in about 40 rogue leaflets distributed while about 1,700 authorised leaflets were being given out. Link

By Craig Silverman on October 29th, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged guardian | Comments

Not a drug house

IN last week’s Argus, we published a story about a pipe bomb attack on a house at Gort Nua in Castlebellingham. We quoted the Garda Commissioner saying that the basis for such attacks lay in extortion and the drugs trade and we have been contacted by the occupants of the house who wish to point out that they are in no way involved in extortion and the drugs trade. Link

By Craig Silverman on October 29th, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged inaccurate accusations, the argus | Comments

Return engagement

Housing density: Cottesloe Mayor Kevin Morgan is concerned that “perfectly good houses” could be demolished to make way for high-density housing, not for high-rise, as we reported in our Inside State column (Home truths about housing crisis, page 21, October 28). The comment was taken in good faith from a previous story that contained the error, which was corrected at the time but the correction was not recorded in our archive. We regret repeating the error.

By Craig Silverman on October 29th, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged west australian | Comments

Sorry for calling you an “evil terrorist”

On 29 March and 1 April last year we reported that Mr Patel was an evil terrorist who had been jailed for his part in a transatlantic jet terror plot. While he had been convicted under Section 58 of the Terrorism Act of possessing material that might be useful to terrorists, the court accepted that he unwittingly held documents for a friend of his father. Mr Patel has never had any involvement with terrorism acts. We are happy to set the record straight and apologise to him. Link

By Craig Silverman on October 26th, 2009 in Major Errors, Newspapers Tagged apologies, crunks09, inaccurate accusations, sun uk | Comments

Sources of error

An Aug. 20 Living section article about the lack of services for homeless gay and lesbian youth featured the experience of a young man, Solomon Christiansen. The article reported that Christiansen felt he had no where to turn, left home, dropped out of school and began taking drugs because his mother’s boyfriend couldn’t accept his homosexuality. As well, the photo caption said that Christiansen lived on the street for a year.
However, the Star failed to validate these claims with Christiansen’s mother’s friend or to present this man’s side of the story.
The man, who was not named in the article, rejects the teen’s claims and the article’s suggestion that homophobia caused the teen to leave home.
The man further says that Christiansen was never homeless and that he received family help in seeking alternative living arrangements in the neighbourhood and in paying his rent and some living expenses.

By Craig Silverman on October 26th, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged source errors, toronto star | Comments

Misspelled gov’t leaflet angers Myanmar (Burma) junta

A report from the Irrawaddy:

An information leaflet from the junta’s Ministry of Information promoting the annual Traditional Performing Arts Competition has an irksome misspelling of a Burmese word that has iritated and embarrassed the military leadership.

The misspelling of one Burmese word occured in the title of a play meant to honor the Tatmadaw (military). Instead of “Sons as Valuable as Treasure,” the title read “Sons Who Make Their Parents Suffer.”

The information leaflets have been distributed to a wide audience, including the generals.

“When the leaflets were distributed, they created widespread gossip among government servants,” said an officer at the Ministry of Labor in Naypyidaw

The misspelling may be unintentional, but if was intentional the person responsible could be punished because it aroused the generals’ anger, he said.

There was a similar incident in 1999 when the junta’s official newspaper Kyae Mon (The Mirror) printed “World Renowned Liar” above of a photograph of former intelligence chief and junta strong man, Gen. Khin Nyunt. Two employees from the newspaper, U Hla Han and U Tha Win, were arrested and one of them died during interrogation…

Let’s hope the person(s) responsible escape punishment.

Thanks, Kevin!

By Craig Silverman on October 26th, 2009 in Government Comments

Rest is fine

An obituary said that Al Martino’s birth name was Alfred Cini Martino, that he recorded his first hit, Here in My Heart, for the Capitol record label, and that four years later (1956) his version of Volare was released. He was actually born Alfred Cini, recorded Here in My Heart for a small independent company called BBS, and released Volare in 1975 (15 October, page 36). Link

By Craig Silverman on October 26th, 2009 in Newspapers Tagged guardian, multiple errors | Comments

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