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Editor’s Note: This site doesn’t accept advertising (note: see UPDATE below). I’d be grateful if you’d consider purchasing a copy of the Regret the Error book, which won an award from the National Press Club this year. You can learn more about the book and read some reviews here. UPDATE March 2009: I’ve added some Google ads to the site. Of course, I still hope you’ll take a look at the book.
Trend of the Year: Epic Organizational Failure
It’s rare to look back over a year of corrections and errors and see so many examples of organizational failure. Years past have seen plenty of malfeasance by individuals, but 2008 is remarkable for news organizations that pursued completely outrageous behavior.
In Japan, the Mainichi Daily News, the English website of Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun, had to be relaunched thanks to its repeated publishing of false, titillating stories. In England, the Express Newspapers chain published a series of major front page apologies to repent for its wildly inaccurate and damaging reports about a British family. In the United States, the Bulletin, a weekly in Montgomery County, Texas, was revealed to be perhaps the first newspaper to pursue plagiarism as a standard operating procedure.
As opposed to other years when a story (think Sago Mine disaster) dominated accuracy news, the headline for 2008 is that three news organizations knowingly and willfully fabricated, plagiarized or otherwise abdicated their ethics on a regular basis.
For their amazing feats of organizational failure, Mainichi Daily News, Express Newspapers and the Bulletin are each presented with a Regret the Error Award of Demerit. These three organizations join the only previous recipient, The Sun (UK) tabloid, which received the dishonor in 2006 for its repeated scandalous errors, remarkable apologies, and nasty pseudo-apologies. Congrats all around.
Other Trends of Note
Rick Reilly: Cat Nip To Plagiarists
Sports writer Rick Reilly deserves credit for having produced work of such brilliance that two different sports writers plagiarized his work in a period of less than two months. No wonder ESPN paid millions to hire him away from Sports Illustrated. One of the thieves, Dave Pratt, also offered up what has to be the accuracy quote of the year after he was asked by the CBC about his theft: “It was a Saturday and I wanted to get out of [the office] before noon.” Bravo.
David Gest Does Not Have Herpes*
Four different newspapers published apologies this year because they had reported – inaccurately! – that David Gest has herpes. Specifically, they reported that Gest alleged that he had contracted herpes from Liza Minnelli on their wedding night. The offenders were The Independent (UK), Daily Mail (UK), Times (UK) and the Baltimore Sun. (Perhaps I missed a few others.) Read all four apologies here, and here’s one from the Daily Mail:
In articles published on 23 and 26 May 2008, we gave the impression that Mr Gest had contracted a sexually transmitted infection and alleged that he had Liza Minnelli’s dog killed without her knowledge.
This was wrong. David Gest has never had a sexually transmitted infection and did not have Ms Minnelli’s dog killed.
We apologise to Mr Gest for any embarrassment caused.
Obama, Again
It’s a rule that the more someone is in the news, the more they’ll be the victim of media error. Obama errors were one of 2007’s Trends of the Year. They deserve mention again. Included below in this year’s Crunks is a Treasury of Obama Corrections from 2008. The next four years are going to be interesting…
New Award: The Ian Mayes Award for Writing Wrongs
Last year, Ian Mayes, one of the great correction writers of all time, stepped down as the readers’ editor of the Guardian. His corrections were sublime: to the point, witty, and self-effacing. (You can read the Regret the Error tribute to him at the end of last year’s Crunks, or buy his book of Guardian corrections.) With his blessing, I have created an award in his honor, the Ian Mayes Award for Writing Wrongs.
It will be awarded to the publication or person that demonstrates wit and wisdom in the writing of corrections. Mayes has agreed with my suggestion for the first recipient of the award. He is David Hummerston, the Saturday editor/editorial counsellor and readers’ editor of the West Australian. Yes, the man wears many hats.
In addition to everlasting fame, Hummerston will receive a signed copy of Ian Mayes’ book, Journalism Right and Wrong: Ethical and other issues raised by readers in the Guardian’s Open Door Column. Here’s a sample of Hummerston’s work from 2008:
Old Sparky: The compilers and suppliers of our On This Day column deserve to learn a lot more about electric execution. The recidivist column wrongly stated that the first electric chair execution took place on July 7, 1890. In fact, it was Wednesday, August 6, 1890 in New York – ironically then known as The Electric City of the Future – that wife-killer William Kemmler became the first man executed in an electric chair. Although Dr George C. Fell said Kemmler “never suffered a bit of pain”, a reporter who also witnessed the execution wrote in the New York Herald the next day that “strong men fainted and fell like logs upon the floor”.
Bad conduct: Charles Mackerras was not born in Australia (Emma hits heights, Today, page 6, December 1). The eminent orchestra conductor was born to Australian parents in 1925 in musical-sounding Schenectady, New York. Apropos of nothing, Schenectady was where, in 1886, the Machine Works company was set up by Thomas Edison, who also knew a thing or two about conductors.
E=mc3+1: As mathematicians, journalists make fine geishas. One of the paper’s most perspicacious readers has again successfully challenged our careless checking of figures in reports received from overseas and interstate. In one report we had an Olympic swimming pool holding a meagre 1000 megalitres – a waist-high depth that would becalm Eamon Sullivan (’Angel’, 4, drowns as plastic dam wall fails, page 17, November 25). And in another report we had 40,000 US “gleaners” filling 80,000 4-6kg sacks with 250kg of vegetables – a minuscule 6g per person (Hard times bite in America, World page 28, November 26). We still don’t know what we meant.
Hip hip, Horatio: Legendary British Admiral Horatio Nelson would have turned 250 today. We published a fascinating but mathematically muddled report from London about an auction today, wrongly stating it would mark the 250th anniversary of his death (Ring and box highlights of Nelson anniversary sale, page 36, September 25). If this was true, he would have died 47 years before the Battle of Trafalgar, where he was struck by a French sniper’s bullet and died on the first day of combat on October 21, 1805. Like Nelson, we had only one eye on the job.
Birdbrains: We swiftly swallowed the information supplied to us which described a photo of a bird in flight as a Rottnest Island Sparrow (The science of fine photography, page 19, August 16). As any eagle-eyed ornithologist would attest it was, of course, the much less rare Welcome Sparrow.
Deep depression: Our economics editor has officially gone from recession to depression. By mangling the names of two of history’s most highly decorated economists, John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman, we not only created an economy of truth but blamed poor Milton Keynes for having “crazy” ideas (We can all learn from Depression, Opinion, page 21, September 29). Milton Keynes is an English town famous not only for its grid system of roads and its herd of concrete cows but because in 1998 it was deemed so boring that even chartered accountants refused to move there. The “crazy” ideas comment was intended for John Maynard Keynes, who was voted one of Time Magazine’s most important people of the 20th century – and who was not boring.
Congratulations!
Correction of the Year
One of the year’s most coveted awards goes to none other than Dave Barry. Here’s how the famous humor writer chose to correct a misspelling he made in a column published by the Miami Herald:
In yesterday’s column about badminton, I misspelled the name of Guatemalan player Kevin Cordon. I apologize. In my defense, I want to note that in the same column I correctly spelled Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarak, Poompat Sapkulchananart and Porntip Buranapraseatsuk. So by the time I got to Kevin Cordon, my fingers were exhausted.
Other Favorites
Slate:
In the June 20 “Culturebox,” Jonah Weiner stated that Lil Wayne was the first hip-hop artist to fantasize about eating his competition. Other rappers have contemplated consuming their rivals.
The Age:
AN ARTICLE in last week’s Sunday Age, “Born to be, um, mild — and possibly damp”, contained views about biker groups that were inserted in the editing process.
As well, the survey of motorcyclists who rode for about three hours every weekend found that many had problems emptying their bladders.
The story stated that bike riders could be “bedwetters”. The error was made during editing.
Washington Times:
Friday’s Pruden on Politics column quoted a spokesman for the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv saying the newspaper had been encouraged by the Barack Obama campaign to publish a written prayer left by Mr. Obama in Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall and retrieved by an onlooker. A second Ma’ariv spokesman and the Obama campaign dispute the first Ma’ariv spokesman’s account, and the newspaper refuses to comment further. The column also said the Obama campaign posted a video about the candidate’s visit to Jerusalem on the Internet site YouTube. The video appears to have been posted by an independent blogger who inserted a counterfeit “Paid for by Obama for America” sign-off.
New York Times:
A film review on Sept. 5 about “Save Me” confused some characters and actors. It is Mark, not Chad, who is sent to the Genesis House retreat for converting gay men to heterosexuality. (Mark is played by Chad Allen; there is no character named Chad). The hunky fellow resident is Scott (played by Robert Gant), not Ted (Stephen Lang). And it is Mark and Scott — not “Chad and Ted” — who partake of cigarettes and “furtive man-on-man action.”
The Guardian:
We said that, in the American TV drama 24, Jack Bauer, the counter-terrorism agent, resorted to electrocution to extract information. You cannot extract information from someone who has been electrocuted because they are dead (Questioning, the Jack Bauer way, page 1, April 19).
Press and Journal (UK):
We have been asked to point out that Stuart Kennedy, of Flat E, 38 Don Street, Aberdeen, who appeared at Peterhead Sheriff Court on Monday, had 316 pink, frilly garters confiscated not 316 pink, frilly knickers.
The Guardian:
Gore Vidal was once head-butted by Norman Mailer, not the other way round. Vidal described the altercation as “marshmallow to marshmallow” when asked about it at the Hay festival 2008 (Diary, page 9, G2, May 27).
National Post (Canada):
There is no documented evidence to suggest dance poles sold at Condom Shack cannot bear the weight of a user. An unsubstantiated claim appeared in a Post Homes feature on Saturday.
Error of the Year: LA Times Shakur Shooting Story
After six months of investigative work, the Los Angeles Times published a story in March that claimed to offer significant new evidence about a 1994 attack on Tupac Shakur.
The story relied in large part on documents provided to reporter Chuck Philips by James Sabatino, an inmate. The article suggested that the shooting was perpetrated by associates of Sean “Diddy” Combs, and that Combs was aware of the attack. Roughly a week after the story was published, The Smoking Gun tore it to shreds. The site reported that, among other deficiencies in the story, the “FBI documents” obtained by the Times via Sabatino were forged. The accusations leveled in the story against Combs and his associates were false, not to mention defamatory.
On March 27, the day after the Smoking Gun published its report, the Times apologized for its reporting. An excerpt:
A Los Angeles Times story about a brutal 1994 attack on rap superstar Tupac Shakur was partially based on documents that appear to have been fabricated, the reporter and editor responsible for the story said Wednesday.
On April 7, it issued a formal retraction. An excerpt:
The article, titled “An Attack on Tupac Shakur Launched a Hip-Hop War” and written by Times staff writer Chuck Philips, purported to relate “new” information about a 1994 assault on rap star Tupac Shakur, including a description of events contained in FBI reports.
The Times has since concluded that the FBI reports were fabricated and that some of the other sources relied on — including the person Philips previously believed to be the “confidential source” cited in the FBI reports — do not support major elements of the story.
Consequently, The Times is retracting the March 17 Web publications as well as a shorter version of the article that appeared on Page E1 in the March 19 Calendar section of the newspaper. Statements that Philips made in two online chats, on March 18 and 25, and on The Times’ Soundboard blog on March 21 also are being retracted.
Additional background here and here.
Typo of the Year
The Valley News, a newspaper distributed in Vermont and New Hampshire**, committed what many journalists and editors would agree is just about the most embarrassing typo possible: it misspelled its own name on the front page. Behold:
Here’s the resulting Editor’s Note:
Other Favorites
The Center City Weekly Press gets Bon Jovi’s name wrong:
In a story about Obama’s plans for a vice presidential pick, AP noted that McCain was considering Sen. Joe Lieberman, “the Democratic vice presidential prick in 2000 who now is an independent.” (Emphasis added.) Here are some of the websites that published the typo:
News broke in August that columnist Robert Novak, who had recently revealed that he had a brain tumor, was retiring. An early version of an AP story suffered from a rather unfortunate omission in the second sentence of the last paragraph:
The Guardian:
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel is One Hundred Years of Solitude, not One Hundred Years of Solicitude as we had it (Actor plans to film long-lost Garcia Marquez screenplay, page 20, July 15).
The Guardian:
Some confusion arose in a review of a television drama about knife crime as a result of mishearing the term shanking, which means stabbing someone with a knife, as shagging (Last night’s TV, page 27, G2, October 2).
New York Times:
A headline in some editions of The Arts on Monday with an article about the Academy Awards ceremony misstated, in some copies, the title of the film that won best picture. It is, of course, “No Country for Old Men,” not “Old Country for Old Men.”
Finally, note the name of David Gregory’s show in this AP story:
Apology of the Year
The Independent (UK) is a first time winner of this award. It earns the prize for an apology that recounted some harsh false allegations while also managing to misspell the word “this” and leave off a quotation mark. Stellar all around:
In an item in Tuesday’s ‘Pandora’, ‘Strange but is it true? The mysterious boycott of Little Britain’, we quoted a New York radio presenter who said that he thought that the claimed West Hollywood Gay Lesbian Alliance protests about Little Britain’s series for the USA were most likely planted by someone’s publicist to generate publicity… ’ We accept that MBC PR, publicists for Little Britain, did not do thiis. We also accept that ‘Little Britain’s new US show is not the ‘most politically incorrect , offensive and obnoxious material ever seen in this country’ and is suitable for broadcast. We apologise to all concerned.
Other Favorites
Daily Star (UK):
OUR article last Tuesday headed “It’s Sven Giggle Eriksson” pictured Mr Eriksson in a hotel restaurant with a young lady.
We wrongly assumed that the lady was an admirer and suggested that he was fondling her.
In fact the lady was Lina, Mr Eriksson’s daughter, with whom he was having a normal fatherly embrace.
We apologise to Mr Eriksson and his daughter for the embarrassment and distress caused by the publication of the photographs and incorrect assumptions made about them.
The Sun (UK):
AN article on March 29, “Everyone off my bus, I need to pray”, stated that Arunas Raulynaitis, a London bus driver and a Muslim, asked passengers to leave his bus so he could pray and that passengers later refused to re-board the bus because they saw a ruck-sack which made them think he might be a fanatic.
The article included pictures of Mr Raulynaitis praying.
We now accept that these allegations were completely untrue.
Mr Raulynaitis is not a fanatic and he did not ask passengers to leave his bus to allow him to pray. In fact, he was praying during his statutory rest break. We apologise to Mr Raulynaitis for the embarrassment and distress caused.
Canberra Times:
An opinion article published in The Canberra Times by Irfan Yusuf on August 18, ”Justice the remedy required to help Bosnia heal”, cited the US analyst Daniel Pipes as predicting that Europe’s next Holocaust victims would be Muslim migrants and it alleged that Mr Pipes suggested Muslims thoroughly deserved such slaughter.
The Canberra Times and Irfan Yusuf accept that Mr Pipes never predicted nor has he ever endorsed a Holocaust of European Muslims, and they unreservedly apologise to him for the errors.
The Sunday Mail (Australia):
AN ARTICLE published on July 20 stated that Chris Evert admitted in an interview to having an affair with Greg Norman while both were married to their previous partners, and the affair caused the demise of their marriages.
That article was incorrect because Ms Evert did not make that admission.
The Sunday Mail apologises to Ms Evert and Mr Norman for the error.
Calgary Sun:
Michael Platt’s editorial on July 21, 2008 may have inadvertently left the impression that General Motors in some way supported neo-Nazis. That was not the intention of the line in question and the Sun greatly regrets not being more clear in the story. The Sun apologizes to GM, its dealers and customers. General Motors has employees in six continents, 192 countries, 23 time zones, and works in more than 50 languages. GM strives to create a culture and a business environment based upon inclusion, mutual respect, responsibility, and understanding of all people.
Best Correction to Political Reporting
A report from Agence France-Presse:
Le Monde newspaper published a front-page apology today to ask for President Nicolas Sarkozy’s forgiveness after mixing up the names of his third wife, Carla Bruni, with his second, Cecilia.
“An unfortunate slip” caused it to write about Cecilia Bruni-Sarkozy in an article in Monday’s edition, the prestigious newspaper said. “We were of course referring to the wife of the head of state, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
“To our readers, to Mr and Mrs Sarkozy, to Mrs Cecilia Attia, we present our most sincere apologies,” it wrote.
Sarkozy married pop star Bruni in February after last year divorcing his second wife, Cecilia, who recently married events organiser Richard Attias and lives with him in Dubai.
(Here’s my Columbia Journalism Review column about this apology.)
Most Cutting Correction
Private Eye (UK):
Our item about Slough in the last issue said the leader of the Tory group on the council was Cllr Diana Coad. In fact that honour currently falls to one Derek Cryer. “Lady” Diana, who is also the party’s parliamentary candidate for the town, merely behaves as if she is leader.
Apologies to the invisible man.
Other favorites
The Times (UK):
We may owe an apology to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Last month we dubbed it “Whitehall’s answer to Sir Elton John” after it emerged that it had spent £ 46,000 on pot plants in two years. Now we learn that staff at the Department for Children, Schools and Families spent £ 78,000 on pot plants in a single year. The crown, thus, is theirs.
The Washington Post:
A photo caption in the Oct. 22 Style section incorrectly referred to Bill O’Reilly as a “right-wing pundit.” The Fox News host presents himself as an independent.
(Here’s my Columbia Journalism Review Daily column about this correction.)
Award for Most Corrected Story
The Post-Dispatch published a lengthy correct/apology to a front page story:
On the front page of last Sunday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch, we published the story of a woman identified as Virginia Gillis. She was featured in an Easter story in which she described in detail a past of victimization, homelessness and despair followed by recovery and repair.
We have since learned that a number of the details in that story were inaccurate. Further, our verification procedures were not followed during the reporting and editing process. In short, this story did not meet our standards for publication.
We apologize for this journalistic breakdown. We value the trust you place in us every time you pick up the Post-Dispatch or log onto STLtoday.com, and we understand that incidents such as this put that trust at risk.
Last Monday morning, we were contacted by someone who told us that information provided by the woman in the story was inaccurate.
We immediately began a review of our reporting. We conducted extensive records searches and interviewed sources to check the details provided by the woman. We have learned:
- The woman’s name is Pamala Brown, according to police, her mother and other people who know her. She also has used the spelling Pamela.
- Law enforcement officials in Crawford, Gasconade and Franklin counties have active warrants for Brown for violating probation on felony bad check and forgery charges. Crystal City has a warrant for Brown for failure to appear on DWI and other traffic charges.
- The Missouri Department of Revenue has no record of the drivers license number that appears on the license the woman provided us during this review.
- Law enforcement and fire officials in Jefferson County have no records of the violence the woman described in the story. She said her husband burned down her house in 2005 and a few weeks later slashed her throat. She said the attack left the long scar across her neck.
“I think we would have recognized the offense even under a different name,” said Jefferson County Circuit Judge Robert Wilkins, who was the county prosecutor at the time. Wilkins said authorities checked the name the woman provided the newspaper for her ex-husband, as well as variations.
- Pamala Brown is 51 years old, not 42, according to public documents.
- Pamala Brown attended Parkway West High School but did not graduate, according to school officials.
- Other information in the story about the woman’s marriage and children conflicts with information we have since obtained from public documents and family members …
It goes on from there. Read it all here.
Best Photo Fakery
Roy Greenslade of the Guardian had the background on the above image:
This award-winning photograph, showing a herd of endangered Tibetan antelopes apparently undisturbed by a passing train on the controversial Qinghai-Tibet railway, has been exposed as a fake. The image was widely hailed in China as a symbol of harmonious co-existence between man and nature. But photographer Liu Wei-qiang admitted it was a fabrication after commenters on a Chinese online photography forum questioned its authenticity.
“The train was real, and so were the antelopes,” said Liu in a posting on the forum. “But the magic moment just didn’t happen even after I had waited for two weeks.” Therefore, he decided to merge together one picture of a passing train with another of the migrating animals “to raise the public awareness of antelope protection”.
The merged picture was published by more than 200 media outlets around the world and won Liu a bronze medal in the 2006 Most Influential News Photos of the Year competition, sponsored by CCTV, China’s state television. Liu has now been dismissed from the Daqing Evening News in Heilongjiang province.
Best Recipe Error
A report from Reuters:
Celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson has apologized after accidentally recommending a potentially deadly plant in organic salads.
The chef and TV presenter said in a magazine article that the weed henbane, also known as stinking nightshade, made an excellent addition to summertime meals…
Henbane, or Hyoscyamus niger, is toxic and can cause hallucinations, convulsions, vomiting and in extreme cases death.
Worrall Thompson, who was discussing his passion for organic foods, had confused the plant with another of a similar name.
The magazine “Healthy & Organic Living” printed an urgent warning: “Henbane is a very toxic plant and should never be eaten. As always, check with an expert when foraging or collecting wild plants.”
Henbane, a close relative of deadly nightshade, was used by Dr Crippen to kill his wife in 1910, and is thought to have been the main ingredient in the poison Romeo took in Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet.”
The chef had intended to refer to fat hen, a weed rich in vitamin C, that is edible, media reports said…
Worrall Thompson was reported in the media as saying the confusion had been “a bit embarrassing.”
Most Puzzling Correction
New York Times:
Because of a production error, some copies of Wednesday’s paper contain an outdated crossword puzzle and its solution. If you look here first, proceed with caution. If the answer in the solution to one across also appears in the puzzle above it, you have a paper with the wrong crossword. If the solution to one across matches Tuesday’s puzzle, you’re in the clear, and on your own.
Best Dereliction of Duty
A staffer at the North County Times was fired and another was suspended for what the paper’s editor called “a deeply misguided joke.” The joke entailed changing an AP story to read that an LA City Councilman had “strangled a kitten at a City Hall news conference.” The original copy reported that he “held a kitten at a City Hall news conference.” The paper apologized:
We published a story Wednesday that contained a terrible mistake.
To be more precise, we carried a story on our Back Page by the Associated Press about a new law in Los Angeles that requires most pet owners to spay or neuter their dogs and cats. So far, so good.
However, two of our editors inserted an error into the account that fundamentally mischaracterized a press conference attended by Los Angeles City Councilman Tony Cardenas, one of the law’s co-authors. Our Web site, nctimes.com, carries the correct version.
After conducting an internal investigation, I believe that our editors were not being malicious, furthering some political agenda, or expressing ill will toward Cardenas or anyone else. Instead, I have concluded that our mistake flowed from a deeply misguided joke that made its way into print.
Still, there is nothing more important than running a newspaper that our readers can trust. We have fired the editor who initiated the unfortunate “joke.” And we have suspended a second editor who failed to keep the error out of print. Further, we will adopt improved quality control measures and training to prevent similar mistakes.
We apologize to Councilman Cardenas, to the Associated Press and to our readers.
Best Translation Error
The Guardian:
In our account of an interview, conducted in English and in Japanese through a translator, with members of the Yellow Magic Orchestra (Back to the future, Film and Music, page 13, July 4), keyboardist Ryuichi Sakamoto was quoted in a way which may have implied that he found the presence of black people at a filming of the Soul Train TV show in Hollywood in 1980 “intimidating”. Sakamoto denies having said this, and our interviewer confirms there was nothing in their conversation that could have suggested that Sakamoto held racist views.
Service To Readers Award
An MSNBC correction to a Forbes Traveler article it had published:
A ForbesTraveler.com story published in February referred to the Web site beijingticketing.com as a ticket resource for travelers visiting Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The International Olympic Committee and the U.S. Olympic Committee have since filed a lawsuit against beijingticketing.com and other ticket-selling Web sites, claiming they were deceitful. In a statement, the USOC said consumers who have made purchases “have not received any tickets, despite numerous phone calls and e-mails,” the Associated Press reported. For more information, click here.
Best Misquote
A report from the BBC:
Some Israelis may have choked on their breakfast when a newspaper headline quoted France’s foreign minister saying Israel might devour its arch foe, Iran.
Hebrew daily Haaretz splashed across its front page that Bernard Kouchner said Israel might “eat” the Islamic Republic before it got nuclear arms.
The following day Haaretz apologised, saying Mr Kouchner, speaking in English, had actually said “hit”.
Mr Kouchner also offered a diplomatic apology for the “phonetic confusion”.
When Mr Kouchner was asked about the possibility of Tehran developing a nuclear weapon, the Hebrew and English editions of Haaretz newspaper quoted him saying:
“I honestly don’t believe that it will give any immunity to Iran. First, because you [Israelis] will eat them before.”
He went on to say: “And this is the danger. Israel has always said it will not wait for the bomb to be ready. I think that [the Iranians] know. Everyone knows.”
The comments were published on Sunday, as Mr Kouchner ended a two-day visit to the region, under the headline in Hebrew saying “You will eat Iran before it achieves an atomic bomb”.
On Monday, the paper published a correction and apologised for the “misunderstanding”, but it also said the transcription had been cleared with Mr Kouchner’s office prior to publication
Other Favorites
The Australian:
In a report on page 3 of The Australian on April 10, “Girl from the Gong to take on the world”, it was stated that a contestant at the Miss World Australia beauty pageant had said she “believed in injustice and inequality”. This was incorrect. The contestant said: “I believe in justice, equality and integrity.” The Australian apologises for the error.
The Guardian:
An article about films that portray women as gold-diggers made two mistakes in relation to Sex and the City. The opening line of the television series was not “Cupid has flown the coop”, but “Cupid has flown the co-op”. We said of the film: “Although the women’s professions were never at the centre of the series, the movie has gone a step further: three of the four former women now support themselves via their relationships.” That should have been “three of the four former career women” (Material girls, page 6, June 12).
Los Angeles Times:
‘Gossip Girl’: In Sunday’s Calendar section, the Monitor column about “Gossip Girl” misquoted two lines of dialogue between characters discussing one’s relationship. It read: “Jenny: ‘Is that why we went dessert?’ Elise: ‘You went dessert?!?!?!’ ” The correct lines on the show were: “Jenny: ‘Is that why we went to third?’ Friend: ‘You went to third?’ ”
Misidentifications: Ode to the Victims
Toronto Sun:
A photo on Pg. 5 in the Friday edition identified fraud victim Richard Rand as the man guilty of 190 counts of fraud. The Sun apologizes to Mr. Rand for any embarrassment this may have caused.
Toronto Sun:
On page 14 yesterday, the Sun mistakenly identified Margherita Gervasi as a stripper. She is a waitress and bartender. The Sun regrets the error.
Ottawa Sun:
David Hoe was misidentified as a former sex worker in a Sept. 19 article in the Sun. The Sun regrets the error.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Bob Fredrick, a clinical social worker and therapist in Atlanta, is not a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. A story in the Sunday Living section had incorrect information, including a misspelling of his name.
New York Daily News:
A CAPTION in some editions of yesterday’s Daily News incorrectly identified a photograph of Detective Sgt. Fred Santoro of the NYPD’s Organized Crime Investigations Division (above) as Frank Santoro, a defendant in a Bronx murder case. The News regrets the error.
Austin American-Statesman:
A story on Thursday’s Page B1 transposed the name of an Austin police officer with that of a man facing sexual assault charges. The story should have made clear that former motel manager Douglas Wayne Ward is the suspect in the case, and that police say they found photos of children on a computer seized from Ward.
New York Times:
A picture last Sunday with an essay about a crack house in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, was published in error. The three houses in the picture are on the same street as the crack house, but none of the three figured in the essay.
Best Porn Error
The Badger Herald:
Due to a reporting error, the Feb. 7 article “‘Porn Nation’ to present tonight” erroneously cited a pornographic website as the sexual addiction survey. The correct website is www.mysexsurvey.com. We regret the error.
Best Photo Error
A report from the Press Gazette (UK):
The Eastern Daily Press has apologised after confusing the Bishop of Norwich with serial killer Steve Wright, known as the “Suffolk strangler”.
The paper printed a letter from Rupert Read of the Eastern Region Green Party calling for brothels to be closed following the Ipswich murders saying: “Surely that is the best memorial to the women who died at the hands of Steve Wright (pictured)..”
But the EDP printed a picture of the Bishop of Norwich, the Right Rev Graham James, with his dog collar clearly visible, instead of Wright.
The paper has printed an apology and has agreed to make a donation to a Christian group that helps prostitutes of which the Bishop is a patron.
The apology said: “The Eastern Daily Press would like to unreservedly apologise to the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Rev Graham James following the publication of his picture on yesterday’s Letters Page.
“The photograph of Bishop Graham was used alongside a letter from Cllr Rupert Read from the Eastern Region Green Party who was writing about way of protecting sex workers by decriminalising prostitution.
“We would like to thank Bishop Graham for his understanding, and in the circumstances, the EDP has made a donation to the Magdalene Group – a Norwich-based Christian organisation which offers care to women who are drawn to prostitution. Bishop Graham is a patron of the charity.”
Best Headline Error
The American Family Association’s OneNewsNow site has a standard practice of using the word “homosexual” instead of “gay.” They even set up a filter to automatically make the change. This didn’t serve ONN well when a sprinter named Tyson Gay made news at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. He suddenly became Tyson Homosexual when the site’s filter got a hold of an AP story:
Other Favorites
The Cambodia Daily:
Corrections: Due to an editing error, the headline “Three Suspects On Loose in Beheading Case” (Page 21, May 8)* should not have stated that the slain man was beheaded. Due to an editing error, the headline “Bridge From Snake Island Nearly Done” (Page 29, May 9) should have stated that bridge construction was just beginning.
The Sun-Sentinel’s subhead on a story about salvia:
“Bill makes possession of Saliva a felony.”
The West Australian:
Binge drinking: Deakin University professor of psychology Robert Cummins points out that neither he nor his research said that binge drinking could be a good thing (Professor sees positive side of binge drinking, page 17, October 23). He said although his Wellbeing Index research found that the feeling of wellbeing in 18-25 year-olds remained high even after three drinks, this was not a good thing and made it difficult for policy-makers to devise controls for binge drinking. Moderation was the key to the link between alcohol consumption and happiness.
Best Case of Mistaken Identity
A summary of the error by the offender, the Tribune Chronicle:
It was incorrectly reported in Tuesday’s Tribune Chronicle that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton answered questions from voters in a local congressman’s office.
Reporter John Goodall, who was assigned to the story, spoke by telephone with Hillary Wicai Viers, who is a communications director in U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson’s staff. According to the reporter, when Viers answered the phone with ‘‘This is Hillary,’’ he believed he was speaking with the Democratic presidential candidate, who had made several previous visits to the Mahoning Valley.
The quotes from Viers were incorrectly attributed to Clinton.
Wilson, the 6th District representative, hosted the first of six ‘‘economic listening tours’’ in his office on Boardman Canfield Road Monday. The talks were for people living in Columbiana and Mahoning counties. Wilson’s district stretches from Mahoning County to Scioto on the Kentucky border.
‘‘We rely on reporters to gather accurate information, and in this case, that obviously did not happen,” said Frank Robinson, editor of the paper. He said the the [sic] newspaper takes the matter very seriously and the situation is being reviewed …
Best Numerical Error
New York Times:
An article on Wednesday about the delivery of Barry Bonds’s 756th home run ball to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum misstated the number of votes cast in an online contest held by Marc Ecko, the fashion designer who purchased the ball and asked people to vote on what to do with it. About 10 million votes — not “10,000 million” — were recorded.
Other Favorites
Washington City Paper:
Due to an error by Rachel Kaufman, last week’s Young & Hungry column mentioned a free sandwich received by Clarence Webb “66 years ago,” when Webb was a rookie in the Alexandria Police Department. Webb, as reported, is 74 and was not 8 years old when he joined the police department; the sandwich in question was received 52 years ago.
Sydney Morning Herald:
THURSDAY’S article “Plastic bag use surges by billion” said the more than 4 billion bags which were imported into Australia last year contained about 22 million tonnes of plastic. To the relief of shoppers, the correct figure is about 22,000 tonnes.
Best Editor’s Note
New York Times:
An article on March 16 profiling three sex workers in the wake of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s resignation after revelations that he patronized prostitutes misconstrued how two of the women, identified by the pseudonyms Faith O’Donnell and Sally Anderson, said they earned a living. The resulting misrepresentation of the two women’s work included a headline that referred to them as “high-priced call girls” and a paragraph that said they practiced “the 21st-century version of the oldest profession.”
The reporter who interviewed them, one of two who worked on the article, never explicitly asked the women whether they traded sex for money or were prostitutes, call girls or escorts; he used the term “sex workers,” a term they used themselves that describes strippers and lap dancers as well as prostitutes. Though Ms. Anderson advertises herself as a “dominatrix with a holistic approach,” he did not ask her whether that meant she also performed sex acts for money, nor did he ask Ms. O’Donnell what her work actually was before characterizing it. He and the editors should have explored whether he had determined these things precisely.
After the article was published, both women contacted The Times and said they do not perform sex for money; Ms. O’Donnell refused to be specific about what she does.
Because of an editing error, the article misstated the political work of the New York chapter of the Sex Workers Outreach Project, a group in which Ms. Anderson is active; it advocates the decriminalization of prostitution, not its legalization, arguing that sex work should be regulated through labor law like other jobs but not subject to additional restrictions. Another editing error changed the meaning of Ms. Anderson’s observation that “no one” had come to an event she had helped plan to highlight difficulties faced by prostitutes; Ms. Anderson meant that no journalists had attended.
Best Delayed Correction
New York Times:
A listing of credits on April 28, 1960, with a theater review of “West Side Story” on its return to the Winter Garden theater, misstated the surname of the actor who played Action. He is George Liker, not Johnson. (Mr. Liker, who hopes to audition for a role in a Broadway revival of the show planned for February, brought the error to The Times’s attention last month.)
Runner Up
New York Times:
An article in some editions on Wednesday about Fordham University’s plan to give an ethics prize to Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer misspelled the surname of another Supreme Court justice who received the award in 2001. She is Ruth Bader Ginsburg, not Ginsberg. The Times has misspelled her name at least two dozen times since 1980; this is the first correction the paper has published.
Award for Correcting The Non-Existent
The Politico:
An earlier version of this story conflated two non-existent audio tapes of Michelle Obama.
Obama Errors ’08: A Treasury
Quite the predictive lede on this Reuters story:
Rocky Mountain News:
One of the items on this list has been removed because it mistakenly repeated a report that Barack Obama holds dual United States-Kenyan citizenship. This erroneous information was never reported in the Rocky Mountain News print edition.
New York Post:
THE source who told us last week about Michelle Obama getting lobster and caviar delivered to her room at the Waldorf-Astoria must have been under the influence of a mind-altering drug. She was not even staying at the Waldorf. We regret the mistake, and our former source is going to regret it, too. Bread and water would be too good for such disinformation.
(Here’s my Columbia Journalism Review online column about this correction.)
Newsweek:
An item in the Periscope section of the Jan. 21 issue mischaracterized New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s use of the phrase “shuck and jive” as a direct reference to the political style of Sen. Barack Obama. In fact, Cuomo, a Hillary Clinton supporter, was speaking in broad terms about how candidates interact with voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, according to a review of the transcript by The New York Times.
New York Times:
In describing an encounter between Barack Obama and a schoolboy in Zanesville, Ohio, Maureen Dowd’s column on Wednesday used a campaign pool report. The report said that Mr. Obama had declined to bump fists with the boy. The campaign now says that the boy was trying to get Mr. Obama to autograph his hand, but the candidate declined, citing the possible reaction of the boy’s mother.
The Guardian:
The toxic Texan’s foreign policy doctrine will endure, page 26, June 20, was referring to, not endorsing, the position taken by others when it used the term “apostate Muslim” in relation to Barack Obama. Obama has never been a Muslim.
Kansas City Star:
The Buzz on Saturday incorrectly described when a Dallas crowd applauded Barack Obama. It was when he blew his nose.
Best Naming Error
Wall Street Journal:
An Aug. 9 essay on Jamaican runners in Weekend Journal that referred to Jamaican immigration to Canada in the 1960s incorrectly identified Canada as New Canada. Separately, an Aug. 16 Olympics article on Canada’s medal count incorrectly referred to the country as the Commonwealth of Canada.
Best Blog Correction
Back in January, The Consumerist reported on a rather vulgar-yet-amusing post on Wil Wheaton’s blog. After seeing the Consumerist post, Wheaton contacted them to clarify things. From the resulting Consumerist post and correction:
Wil Wheaton (of Star Trek: The Next Generation) would like you to know that he does not and will not endorse AAA Insurance. UPDATE: We initially reported that Mr. Wheaton disliked all of AAA. Not so. He tells us:
“I’m happy with the rest of the AAA services I’ve used, and continue to use. The insurance, though, can eat a bag of dicks.”
We regret the error.
Best Blotter Error
The Post-Standard:
A police blotter listing in some editions of Neighbors on Thursday mistakenly listed charges against Mark F. Campbell, 54, of Central Square. The listing incorrectly said the Oswego County Sheriff’s Office charged Campbell with aggravated driving while intoxicated, driving while intoxicated, third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and failure to keep right. Campbell faces no such charges. Campbell appears in a sheriff’s report that says on Dec. 26 his car was struck by a horse on county Route 4 in Palermo. The collision resulted in no tickets.
Best Use of Pseudonym
Raleigh News & Observer:
When the letter criticizing the person who had tossed some litter from Char-Grill was published March 24, we noted that we had changed the offender’s name (as recorded on an order slip that was found by the letter-writer). Our intent, as explained in an editor’s note, was to avoid implicating others who might have the same, unusual first name. Instead, we used what was meant to be a generic “Susie.”
Wouldn’t you know it, but a faithful Char-Grill customer is named Susie, and even sports her name on two license plates. Mrs. Susie Wright informs us that it wasn’t she who tossed uneaten french fries and the remains of a grilled cheese sandwich in front of Fletcher Park.
Best Historical Error
This year marked the 400th anniversary of Quebec City. It was a big deal for the city, and French magazine Paris Match decided to dedicate an issue to the celebration. Unfortunately, its editors were under the impression that it was the province of Quebec’s 400th anniversary. Quebec City barely earned a mention in the issue. Folks in Montreal were amused by the error, while those in Quebec City were less than impressed. From a story that appeared in The Gazette, an English daily in Montreal:
A leading French magazine’s special edition on Quebec’s 400th anniversary confused the founding of the city with that of the province. Even though the story should have been about Quebec City’s 400th birthday, the 30-page special doesn’t have a line about it.
Instead, it’s all about Montreal, its artists, its universities and its restaurants, a double slight because of the rivalry between the two cities.
The editor-in-chief of Paris Match admits the magazine got it wrong by leaving Quebec City out of the picture in the special edition, which hit newsstands in 120 countries yesterday.
Additional background is here.
Best Hoax
In November, activist groups came together to publish a hoax edition of the New York Times. The paper was handed out in U.S. cities, and there was even an accompanying website. Best of all, the hoax edition included fake corrections. The front page:
(Here’s my Columbia Journalism Review online column about the hoax corrections.)
That’s it for this year’s edition. If you want to read all of the notable errors and corrections that didn’t make it into the Crunks, you can use this link to read everything that was tagged for consideration.
*Correction Dec. 16: The headline on this section initially used “herpies” instead of “herpes.” Thanks to awardee David Hummerston for righting my wrong.
**Correction Dec. 16: This sentence initially left off the “New” in “New Hampshire.” Thanks to patrickcars for spotting it.
