This week’s edition of my Columbia Journalism Review online column looks at the mistakes that media outlets make when they report about themselves. An excerpt is below. Click on the headline to read the full column. Close to Home One strict rule in the medical profession holds that no doctors can treat themselves or any [...]
In some broadcasts, we said that “Sen. Kerry may go [to Syria] in the near future.” In fact, he has already returned from Syria. Link Report an error
John Cleese was unhappy that the the Daily Telegraph (UK) misidentified his daughter in a photo. He decided to make video blog post about it. Click below to be taken to a page where you can watch it. The caption has been fixed, though there’s no correction. Thanks, Smylers! Report an error
During a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Tucker Carlson emphasized the importance of accurate reporting. Some of his favourable comments about the New York Times elicited boos and catcalls from the audience, but his point was that conservative news organizations need to emphasize accuracy and newsgathering. Portfolio’s Jeff Bercovici found the video, which [...]
There were three computation errors in Christopher Hayes’s March 2 “Cut the Military Budget.” The Pentagon budget request represents a 13 (not 12) percent increase over last year’s budget. The reported Obama Defense Department appropriation would represent a 2.2 percent increase over last year’s budget (not 8 percent). And regarding the F-22 Raptor fighter jet, [...]
Barney Gimbel, a writer with Fortune magazine, resigned after being shown evidence that he had plagiarized from an article in the New York Times Magazine. The New York Observer reports that Fortune will publish an apology in its upcoming issue, which is slated to hit newsstands on March 9. The apology: In our Feb. 2 [...]
On Sunday, the Columbus Dispatch did a little horn tooting: The Dispatch’s photo staff was named the best in Ohio by the Ohio News Photographers Association, which concluded its annual judging yesterday at Kent State University. The photo staff won the honor by winning the most top honors in the overall competition, including best picture [...]
An article on Tuesday about the first mention of penicillin in The New York Times misstated, at one point, the year that occurred. As the article correctly noted, the word first appeared in 1940, not 1922. (Alexander Fleming, the biologist who discovered penicillin, was first mentioned in the newspaper in 1922.) Link Report an error
A capsule summary with the Advertising column on Thursday, referring to videos on NYTimes.com about commercials for the auto insurer Geico, described their content incorrectly. As the column correctly reported, Warren E. Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway are mentioned in print advertisements for Geico, not in the commercials. The column also described incorrectly one of the [...]
A story from TheLocal.de: An article poking fun at the lengthy name of new Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg turned out to be a joke on some of the biggest names in the German media after it was revealed they had been tricked by a Wikipedia prankster. On Sunday February 8, the evening before Guttenberg [...]
From a letter to the editor sent to the Tuscaloosa News: On 28 January 2009, the Greene County Independent published an editorial with the by line of Representative Artis McCampbell titled, “It is time for action to boost the economyâ€. On 29 January 2009, The Tuscaloosa News published “My Turn / Chris England†with the [...]
An interview with Clint Eastwood stated that in his new film, Gran Torino, he plays a “cantankerous old bigot . . . who learns to love his Korean neighbours”. The neighbours are Hmong, not Korean (‘Eighty? It’s just a number’, 14 February, page 18, Weekend). Link Report an error
Further to his letter published on 20 February, Steve Davies, director of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, would like to make clear that the Israel Day of Science, a private event to be held at the museum on 3 March, will be open to all schools, not just those of Jewish faith [...]
In the Feb. 16 “Television,” Colin Fleming originally misidentified one of the Top Gearhosts who was knocking out his car windows in a segment of the show. He also stated that no one knows the identity of the character Stig, but his name was revealed by a British newspaper in January. He also misstated the cost of [...]
A previous column by Casey Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune missed the mark with some of the paper’s audience. Jones decided to offer a clarification and a few tongue in cheek apologies: Last week I wrote a column — “Utah: Love it or leave it” — in a mock conservative voice. It was satire, [...]
An article on Monday about Carlos Slim Helú, who has become a major shareholder in and lender to The New York Times, referred incorrectly to the size of the newspaper’s editorial staff. While the newsroom payroll is indeed about 1,300, that number includes Web producers, graphic artists, photographers, researchers, secretaries, clerks and other staff members [...]
In a Feb. 11 photo accompanying an Associated Press story about two Pennsylvania judges accused of taking kickbacks to send teenagers to youth detention centers, the AP caption erroneously described the facility shown. The Youth Services Agency’s Adventure Challenge Therapy wilderness camp in Jim Thorpe, Pa., was not part of the alleged kickback scheme. Report [...]
Holiday shows: An article in the Dec. 29, 2008, California section about performers who volunteer for holiday shows at nursing homes indicated that volunteer Chris Taylor did not sing professionally. Taylor has appeared in movies and on television, and has performed in more than 25 stage productions, including musicals. Link Report an error
IN LAST week’s Star-Times, Veterans Affairs Minister Judith Collins was incorrectly quoted as saying that the onus was on veterans to claim war pensions, and that if they didn’t ask for it, they didn’t get it. Collins did not say that and the Star- Times apologises for the error. Report an error
In yesterday’s World of Wonder page, the heading “typography” should have read “topography.” Report an error
Yesterday’s front-page lead story, that convicted sexual predator Peter Jordan was related to notorious Southland woman Minnie Dean, was wrong. New Plymouth’s The Daily News newspaper, which provided the story, advised yesterday that Jordan was related to Cecil Guilford, a child who had been in Minnie Dean’s care. The Southland Times apologises for the error. [...]
The Washington Post and its magazine this weekend published three Editor’s Notes, one of which included an apology. As I pointed out in a recent column for Columbia Journalism Review online, the Post rarely makes apologies. Here’s the apology/Editor’s Note from magazine editor Tom Shroder: In the Jan. 25 issue of the Magazine, we ran [...]
An article published on February 21, 2008, about Senator John McCain and his record as an ethics reformer who was at times blind to potential conflicts of interest included references to Vicki Iseman, a Washington lobbyist. The article did not state, and The Times did not intend to conclude, that Ms. Iseman had engaged in [...]
A correction from HuffPo: The Huffington Post has learned that the below video has been doctored. We regret the error and apologize to Mr. Gibson. John Gibson never compared Eric Holder to a monkey with a bright blue scrotum. Rather, as seen in the unedited video below, Gibson played audio of Holder saying “nation of [...]
This week’s edition of my Columbia Journalism Review column takes a historical look at the issue of accuracy. I suggest that today’s changing media landscape is just the latest in a series of major shifts to hit the profession. Excerpt below. Click on the headline to read the full column. The News Business Is Changing. [...]
