As I announced last week, all new content for this blog is now being published on the new Regret the Error blog at Poynter Online. Please bookmark the URL, or add the RSS feed. I will automatically shift the previous RSS feed to the new RSS address after this post, so no need to resubscribe [...]
An article on Nov. 24 about the photographer Steven Klein misstated the year that the magazine Dutch published pictures showing men being brutally handcuffed by police. The photographs appeared in the May-June 2002 issue, not in 2003. The article also erroneously included an American actor among the men shown in the pictures. Dutch did not [...]
A story in Wednesday’s Local & State section incorrectly stated that James Lambert, who was fatally shot Tuesday by an off-duty firefighter, had been convicted of taking indecent liberties with a child. Because of an error interpreting court records, the Observer wrongly attributed that conviction to Lambert. Instead, another man by the same name and [...]
In a story Dec. 14 about military sexual abuse, The Associated Press reported erroneously that an attorney representing military members and veterans said she was surprised by the dismissal of a lawsuit. Susan Burke said she was “not surprised.” Link Report an error
Today at 2 pm Eastern you should join me, Reuters’ Jack Shafer and my fellow Poynter person Mallary Tenore as we chat about 2011′s biggest journalistic errors. I’ve been working on my annual roundup of The Year in Media Errors and Corrections and have a bunch of candidates in mind. We’ll share the current finalists [...]
A map showing reported deaths in Syria since protests began at the beginning of the year contained some errors. The Golan Heights were located north of Damascus, some distance from the Israeli border. The city of Idlib appeared twice, once in its correct location and again near Hama. The same city, normally referred to in [...]
An article on Thursday about a push to ban horse-drawn carriage rides in Central Park misstated part of the name of an organization to which an upstate New York veterinarian belongs, and it described the carriages incorrectly at one point. The veterinarian, Dr. Nena Winand, is a member of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, [...]
A Dec. 10 placeline and article about Canadian Special Forces who travel the world training foreign militaries to fight terrorism incorrectly stated the location of a conference on the future of special operations as Kingston, Jamaica. In fact, the conference was in Kingston, Ont. Link Report an error
A Nov. 27 article about holiday home tours incorrectly attributed a quote to Yitz Fleischman, owner of the Chanukah House. Fleischman did not compare a “talking” Hanukkah rebbe with talking to Santa. Report an error
Thirty years ago, a cub reporter for the New York Times was given his first assignment: “to cover the failure of the old transmitter of Columbia University’s radio station, WKCR-FM, which was then perched on 515 Madison Avenue, at 53rd Street.” David W. Dunlap was brought back to the memory of that first Times byline [...]
The common problem with fact-checking is a misplaced reverence for “expertise” as a substitute for hard-nosed reporting and independent evaluation. So here are a few friendly suggestions for better fact-checking: Reporters do not represent the establishment, they should be suspicious of it; politicians who seem reasonable may not be; politicians who depart from the Washington [...]
In a Dec. 11 story, The Associated Press erroneously quoted President Obama as saying: “There are going to be people who say, `This is the socialist Obama and he’s come out of the closet.’” That remark was made by 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft, not the president. Link Report an error
Earlier today, this correction was added to the online version of the explosive Guardian article that helped push phone hacking back into the news, and ultimately sink the News of the World: An article about the investigation into the abduction and death of Milly Dowler (News of the World hacked Milly Dowler’s phone during police [...]
A little over a week ago, I wrote my final weekly column for Columbia Journalism Review. At the end of that column, I said I was ending my CJR column because I would be “taking my work to a new home soon as part of a larger announcement regarding my site, Regret the Error.” I’m [...]
Stephen Harper is prime minister of Canada. In some editions Thursday, the front-page World-Wide news summary incorrectly referred to him as the country’s premier. Link Report an error
A Nov. 7 article about the power of the Punjabi press mistakenly said that a “slew” of Punjabi newspapers published a story whipping up public sentiment against a 23-year-old bride whose husband accused her of only marrying him to come to Canada. In fact, only a few Punjabi weekly papers reported this and neither of [...]
An apology from the Express Tribune of Pakistan: We regret the inadvertent publication of the article titled “Shia-Sunni reconciliation” by Saleem Ali in our print edition of December 9, 2011 and subsequently on our website. The article was published without exercising proper editorial judgment. We apologise for the mistake and to our readers whose religious [...]
Last Sunday’s article ‘Kate’s crimpers go to war’ may have left the impression that Richard Ward, proprietor of the Richard Ward Hair & Metrospa salon in Chelsea, was jealous of James Pryce, a former employee, who styled the Duchess of Cambridge’s hair on the day of the Royal Wedding. The article might also have suggested [...]
CMU professor Kiron Skinner, recently named to GOP presidential candidate and former House speaker Newt Gingrich’s national security team, says she was misquoted in a story Monday about her appointment. She said her quote was: “I’ve been a supporter of Speaker Gingrich for a long time because I’ve seen him in numerous professional circumstances…” The [...]
ON December 6 under the headline Xmas dinner Is On pounds 1m Lotto Win Coach, we wrongly reported that Mr Paul Trainor (right) had won a pounds 1million Lottery prize. In fact the prize was won by another person. Mr Trainor does not work at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, nor did he [...]
After Caolan Mulrooney, a 19 year-old student in Cork, Ireland, went missing after a night out with friends, the community rallied together to look for him. The search was still on this past Sunday when the Irish Mail on Sunday reported that Mulrooney had been found dead. In fact, his body wasn’t found until a [...]
Footnote: Last week’s column revealed that I was the third born of the four Abraham children, which was news to my brothers and sister. For the record, I was the second born. Link Report an error
“Empire Strikes Backstraat” isn’t the name of an actual street in Almere, the Netherlands. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the town had a street with that name. Link (sub req’d) Thanks, Niels! Report an error
Our article, “The Acton Spring? How unrest in Syria spilled over into the respectable streets of West London” (4 November 2011) referred to a “classified 2008 cable from the then-US chargé d’affaires to Damascus released by Wikileaks this year”. The cable named Dr Fawaz Akhras as a suspected avenue used by the Syrian President Bashar [...]
Here’s a forthright and detailed apology from the editor of the Anniston Star: A newspaper story dutifully crossing its “T’s” and dotting its “I’s” can be a powerful tool in a community, a force for tremendous good. When it gets key facts wrong, however, it can inflict tremendous harm. In the case of one Tuesday [...]
