Thanks for being a regular reader. You can check out the award-winning Regret the Error book here.
A July 19 editorial about Canada’s infrastructure deficit incorrectly stated that one estimate is that Canada needs $123 million to bring municipal infrastructure up to a minimum state of repair. In fact, the estimate is $123 billion. Link
BankSimple: An article in Thursday’s Business section about BankSimple, a new Internet banking firm, said that conventional banks collect at least $24 million a year in overdraft fees. The amount is $24 billion. Also, the article said Alex Payne was a co-founder of Twitter Inc. He is not; Payne, a former Twitter employee, was brought on as a co-founder of BankSimple. Link
A dropped digit meant we seemed to be saying that about 60 demonstrators were arrested during the G20 meeting in Toronto – instead of about 600, as the local police said at the time of writing (Cameron plans to downgrade G8 summit, 29 June, page 8). Link
The two sub-penthouses on the 51st floor of the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton are priced at $9 million each. A June 19 article about real estate agent Pat Baker incorrectly stated the price at $9 billion each. Link
BP cleanup costs: In Thursday’s Business section, a chart of BP’s annual profits that accompanied an article about the company’s costs associated with the gulf oil spill used an incorrect scale. The range of the chart’s scale was shown as $1.0 billion to $2.5 billion; it should have been $10 billion to $25 billion. Link
A chart on Monday with the continuation of an article about the possibility that the oil spill cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico could continue well into the fall misstated, in some editions, the number of gallons in one barrel of oil. A barrel holds 42 gallons, not 42,000 gallons. Link
A music review on Friday about the opening-night gala of the World Science Festival, at Alice Tully Hall, which included a work by Philip Glass that used a version of the Icarus story told in a children’s book by Brian Greene, misstated the distance to the star Proxima Centauri in describing the book’s plot. It is about 25 trillion miles, not 25 million. Link
Because of an editing error, an article on Tuesday about the restoration of the historic Parisian palace that once served as headquarters of the Marshall Plan, the American plan for Europe’s postwar reconstruction, misstated the rough equivalent in today’s dollars of the $13 billion disbursed by the plan. It is $117 billion, not $1.2 trillion. Link
The Age reported yesterday that last week’s state budget forecast net debt to peak at $4.3 billion or 15.8 per cent of the economy. In fact it is forecast to peak at $15.8 billion or 4.3 per cent of the economy. The mistake was made by the reporter.
Thanks, Kevin!
*Correction May 17, 2010: The word “Fuzzy” in the headline on this post was initially misspelled as “Fuzzu.” It has been corrected. Thanks, Aldous!
A May 12 Metro article about recent enrollment growth in Prince William County schools misstated a description by the School Board chairman, Milton C. Johns, of the system’s budget shortfall for the fiscal year that starts in July. He said that the shortfall is $45 million, not $45,000. Link
Thanks, Ellen!
An article in some editions last Sunday about the Kentucky Derby on Saturday misidentified the jockey for American Lion, who finished 11th. He was David Flores, not Mike Smith. Because of an editing error, the article also misstated, in some copies, the race’s payout on a $2 bet for Super Saver to win. It was $18, not $180. Link
Due to a typographical error, an April 19 ”Climate Desk” erroneously stated that a company’s revenues were boosted by more than $500 million. The correct figure is $600,000. Link
An article on Saturday about ideas for travelers trying to cope with disruptions caused by a volcanic ash cloud from Iceland misstated the number of flights that pass over the North Atlantic in a 12-hour period. It is 900 to 1,200 flights — not 9,000 to 12,000. Link
Because of an editing error, an article on Monday about a powerful earthquake that shook Southern California on Sunday afternoon misstated, in some editions, the distance between Yuma, Ariz., and the quake’s epicenter just south of Mexicali, the capital of Baja California, Mexico. It is about 60 miles, not 1,600. And an accompanying map showed an incorrect location for Mexicali. It is on the United States border directly north of the earthquake’s epicenter, not north and west of the epicenter. A corrected map can be found at nytimes.com/national. Link
Fountain maker: An article in Business on Sunday about Mark Fuller said his project for the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas amounted to $2.7 million. His firm’s contract was for $27 million. Link
The following typographical errors occurred in a letter to the editor from Nancy Garez that was printed in the Nipawin Journal of March 10.
The number of children killed by abortions in Canada every year is over 100,000 and not over 1,000,000.
The correct web address for the Silent No More Awareness campaign is www.silentnomoreawareness.org. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused. Link
In yesterday’s paper due to a production error we reported that the BBC has received 800,000 complaints over the proposed closure of digital radion station 6 Music. We are told, and accept, that the actual figure was just under 8,000 complaints. We are happy to set the record straight. Link
An article on Thursday about a Congressional panel that questioned the need for the Treasury Department’s bailouts of GMAC in 2008 and 2009 gave an incomplete figure for the overall amount of the government’s financial package. It totaled $17.2 billion. (The word “billion” was omitted.) Link
In a story March 5 about the spring flood forecast in the upper Midwest, The Associated Press reported erroneously the number of people who were forced to evacuate last March and April during flooding in North Dakota and Minnesota. State emergency officials estimate that more than 30,000 people were evacuated, not millions. Link
We lost our sense of proportion when stating how many people there are in the world without access to banking services who could benefit from mobile money technology. It is of course around a billion people, not a million as we stated (20 February, p 20).
Stuart Gulliver, head of global banking and markets at HSBC, was paid £9.8m last year, rather than the £15.3m stated in yesterday’s paper. We apologise for this error.
In our story on Brazil’s economy (“Joining in the carnival spirit, February 13th), we quoted economists at Itaú, a bank, as arguing that the government would have to strip out 496 billion reais, or half its total discretionary spending, to meet its fiscal-surplus target. In fact they said 49 billion reais and a quarter of its discretionary spending. Our apologies to them, and to the government. Link
Corrections In “Chávez Is Losing His Grip,” we said that Venezuela’s population is 45 million, and that its inflation is 30 percent a month. In fact, Venezuela’s population is 29 million, and its inflation is 30 percent a year. NEWSWEEK regrets the errors. Link
Because of an editing error, an article on the Itineraries pages on Tuesday about efforts to discourage unofficial exhibitors at trade shows misstated the size of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It involved 1.4 million square feet of exhibit space; it did not attract 1.4 million attendees. Link
Regret the Error Columns on Columbia Journalism Review online
