Regret the Error

I'm taking a break for the holidays. Posting will resume on January 4, 2011. Have a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! -Craig  Report an error

Because of an editing error, an article on Friday about the annual televised question-and-answer broadcast by Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, in which he addressed a broad range of questions submitted by Russians, misstated one of them. It was, “What is the secret of your success?” — not “What is the secret of [...]

Owing to an editing oversight, Daily Times in its December 21 edition had published the names of a gang rape victim and her friend who was subjected to torture in the Clifton area of Karachi. The error is regretted. We apologise to the victims and our readers. Link  Report an error

In the September/October Elms, the article "Lies, Damned Lies, and Stats" misreported the amount of money mistakenly thought to be grossed annually by the drug trade. It is $500 million. Link Thanks, Chris!  Report an error

We’re entering one of those fertile, exciting periods when the fundamentals of publishing are, yet again, undergoing massive revisions thanks to new technology. This time the trigger takes the form of the growing understanding that our consumption of news and information — still in mid-transition from print and broadcast to digital platforms — is migrating [...]

The following may appear to be an attempt by this column to introduce a Christmas puzzle; not so. It is just a little complicated. On 20 December we repeated the 17 December radio and digital TV listings, originally published on 16 December in a slightly different form. While TV listings in G2 are normally published [...]

Thank you, Alert Reader, for pointing out that the bomb-in-a-Pepsi-can-which didn't blow up, thank goodness-didn't blow up at the Osage Baptist Church in Northwest Arkansas near Alpena. Not in Bentonville, as we said. We regret the error. But at least it gives us another chance to say it: Be ever vigilant. The bad guys are [...]

Pretty awful error by Fox News yesterday: The video is at Outside the Beltway.  Report an error

It should be easy for you to tell us when we have erred. I’ve never understood those news organizations and some journalists who seem reluctant to engage with readers about accuracy concerns. After all, readers are our core customers — and factual accuracy is our Job 1. The Toronto Star has long recognized this fact: [...]

Contrary to a claim made in a leaked US diplomatic cable whose contents we reported, Sicko – a documentary by film-maker Michael Moore – was not banned in Cuba. The film, which examines US healthcare through comparisons with some countries' publicly funded systems, including Cuba's, was in fact shown in film theatres throughout the island [...]

I just read Kathryn’s Schulz’s book Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margins of Error, which I would recommend to all my fellow perfectionists. It persuasively argues that error is the flip side of creativity. The fear of making mistakes paralyzes us—we shy away from taking risks and deny errors when we do make them. Science, [...]

Michael Beer's nickname is Frosty, not Frothy as a headline said of the Australian spin bowler (Name: Beer; Nickname: Frothy . . . , 11 December, page 1, Sport). Link  Report an error

An incorrect photograph appeared in the Magazine of December 4th last. The photograph was of the late John O Donoghue, an author and former priest. The photograph should have been of John O Donoghue, the poet and MIND Book of the Year winner. The error is regretted. Link  Report an error

A column last Sunday about the plight of Texas Democrats, and how they have become the political equivalent of the often-struggling Baltimore Orioles, contained several errors. The Orioles won their division once in the 1990s, not twice. (They were the wild-card team in 1996 and then won the division in 1997.) Ann Richards defeated Clayton [...]

According to the U.S. Census's New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey, apartments with four or more bedrooms represented more than 12% of owner-occupied units in New York City in 2008, compared with 12.8% in 2005. A Property article Tuesday incorrectly said that apartments with four or more bedrooms accounted for 1% of the owner-occupied [...]

ON October 4 2010 we published a story about the death of the Chairman of Croydon Athletic FC, David Le Cluse. By mistake we used a picture of the former Chairman, Dean Fisher, with the story and indicated that he was David Le Cluse. We apologise to Mr Fisher and his family for our error. [...]

Stinky Journalism noted an interesting article by the U.K.'s Press Gazette. It reported that the Press Complaints Commission, the self-regulatory body for U.K. media, will play a bigger role in determining where publications place corrections and apologies resulting from PCC findings. From the story: The committee that oversees the Editors' Code of Practice to which [...]

A long and self-critical quote was attributed to Picasso in a column examining the value of this artist's work. However, the interview in which the painter supposedly spoke – saying he did not "consider myself an artist in the ancient sense of the word" – is widely thought by art experts to have been fabricated [...]

A REPORT in The Australian on Thursday ("Boat horror kills up to 50'', page 1) incorrectly attributed quotes to Allison Millcock, as a contractor with the Shire of Christmas Island. Ms Millcock is not a contractor for the shire. The comments describing the tragedy as "bloody carnage'' and attacking people-smugglers as "bastards'' should have been [...]

Below is my annual, depressing list of 2010's incidents of journalistic plagiarism. Also note that this year I argued that news organizations should use plagiarism detection services, examined why they don't and also offered a guide to sniffing out plagiarism. Please email me if I’ve missed any incidents. January None! February The Merced Sun-Star published [...]

Reader Miranda writes: The well-known German news program Tagesschau has created an online advent calendar of on-air mishaps. Anyone who understands German might find it interesting/amusing: http://advent.tagesschau.de/ Enjoy and thanks, Miranda!  Report an error

chinadialogue has received a complaint from Mr Cheng Guoqiang about a recently published article. Although the article was prepared and published in good faith, chinadialogue's editors accept that errors were made in the preparation and publication of this article and we apologise unreservedly for any misrepresentation of Mr Cheng's views that resulted from a breach [...]

The picture above right illustrated a front page story about the death of the Nazi war criminal, Samuel Kunz, on 23 November. We have since been told that the image is not, in fact, that of Samuel Kunz, but the Croatian actor Ljubomir Jurkovic. We are happy to make the position clear and apologise to [...]

The Media Equation column on Monday, about the strategy of WikiLeaks, described incorrectly, in some copies, comments by Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, in which he called for the execution of those responsible for the WikiLeaks disclosures. Mr. Huckabee was referring to Bradley Manning, the person suspected of originally supplying the cables — not to [...]

After publication, a number of factual errors were noted in this article. They are: Elad receives 47 million shekels annually in anonymous donations, not 52 million from the government. Gitlin attempted to photograph a Palestinian youth at a border-polie outpost, not a military outpost. A tunnel in Silwan recently caused damage to a mosque and [...]