A CBS affiliate in Charlotte, N.C. has apologized after it mistakenly announced live on air that Rev. Billy Graham had died. From a story about the mistake by the Charlotte Observer: WBTV (Channel 3) apologized Saturday to the Rev. Billy Graham after the station erroneously reported the evangelist’s death. Around 6:30 a.m. Saturday, a producer [...]
No, that’s not Wisconsin. An ESPN screenshot grabbed by Darren Rovell: Thanks, Daniel! Report an error
James Schugel, a reporter with the local CBS affiliate in Minnesota, thought he had a big scoop: a market in New York City was selling dog meat, and some of the dogs were coming from his area. He’d been chasing down a story about a local puppy mill and came upon information that a number [...]
Irish broadcaster RTÉ issued an apology late last week that attempts to make up for a report that wrongly accused a priest of raping a minor and fathering a child as a result of that crime. After the report aired in May, Kevin Reynolds, the priest in question, was removed from his post with the [...]
A report from the Guardian: It was the most dramatic of footage with which to launch ITV1′s new current affairs show – pictures of the IRA supposedly shooting down a helicopter with weapons supplied by Muammar Gaddafi. But the broadcaster on Tuesday admitted that the images used in the first episode of its new ITV1 [...]
Romenesko spotted a pretty remarkable report from the Chicago Tribune. (Scroll down for an update.) It reveals that a Fox Sports broadcast showed a series of fake media headlines purportedly about Bears quarterback Jay Cutler and portrayed them as real. From the Trib story: During the fourth quarter of the Bears-Falcons season opener, Fox turned [...]
From a report by the Jewish Tribune: The Jewish Defence League of Canada (JDL) will sue CBC [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation] for defamation, said the JDL’s leader, after the country’s most prominent news organization called it a terrorist group. “This is a part of a campaign of defamation against people who are on the right wing,” [...]
A report from the New Zealand Herald: TVNZ current affairs show Close Up has apologised over an item it copied from a United States network. The piece, entitled Made in New Zealand, was virtually identical to an item on the American network ABC in January. Herald Sideswipe columnist Ana Samways revealed the similarities in an [...]
Earlier this week the local CBS website for Philadelphia carried a report that people in that city could soon be ticketed for texting while walking. That initial article resulted in lots of coverage from places such as Gawker and Good Morning America. A screen grab from Google News shows some of the reports (and one [...]
From the Australian Broadcast Corporation’s Media Watch program: … Media Watch accused Sydney newsreader Angela Pearman, and several other ABC newsreaders around the country, of faking that interview with John Lombard in Moscow. The allegation was repeated in our 20th anniversary special in 2009 and was until recently available on our website. We’re now satisfied [...]
… what happened Tuesday when stories started to come out of Liberty County, Texas, about "dozens" of bodies supposedly being found at a home is worth noting. It underscores again how we in the news media need to remind ourselves sometimes to slow down and let the facts become more clear before we rush to [...]
This has been going around already but can’t pass without a mention. In a report about Sarah Palin, Fox News mistakenly used an image of Tina Fey pretending to be Sarah Palin: Image via @jaredbkeller. Time magazine got a statement from Fox News: This past Sunday during ‘America’s News Headquarters,’ a graphics error was made [...]
During the 1990s conflict in the Balkans, Serbian state broadcaster Radio Televizija Srbi (RTS) was basically transformed into a propaganda outlet. In order to try and repair the damage, the organization issued an apology on Monday. An excerpt: During the unfortunate events of the 1990s, Radio-Television Belgrade and Radio-Television Serbia in many instances in their [...]
A report from TrekMovie.com: Yesterday [May 5] a German news station had a major image fail. While covering the US Navy SEALs operation to kill Osama bin Laden they mistook a Star Trek fan-made emblem for the Maquis for the actual SEAL Team Six emblem. Check it out below. On Thursday the German news channel [...]
Given the fact that journalists have been mixing up the names of President Obama and Osama Bin Laden for a good three years or more, it’s no surprise that the coverage of last night’s huge news included many of these slips. Here’s a sampler of Obama/Osama errors. This, from a local Fox affiliate, may be [...]
At least five British newspapers and one broadcaster used a fake photo of a dead Bin Laden in their coverage. Tabloid Watch has a gallery showing each paper, and here’s the example from the Mirror: The offending papers include the Sun, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and Times of London. The broadcaster was Sky News. Here’s [...]
This screenshot of the Fox News website is making the rounds online (click for larger): Thanks, M-J! Report an error
From the Los Angeles Times: Four years after airing a misleading video segment about Crenshaw Christian Center founder Dr. Frederick K.C. Price, ABC News has issued a public apology. In a story called “Enough!” that aired on ABC’s “20/20″ and “Good Morning America” in March 2007, ABC News and then-correspondent John Stossel investigated whether ministers [...]
An amusing typo from a Kansas City NBC station (click for better view): It’s been fixed, but no correction was added. Thanks, Alex! Report an error
A Herald Sun report about a mistake made by CNN during its coverage of Cyclone Yasi: US media giant CNN's reporting of Cyclone Yasi blew Queensland off the map, when it depicted the weather-ravaged state as being in Tasmania. The international news breaker was roundly mocked around the world, when its map of Australia on [...]
CNN has retracted a story dealing with questions surrounding the treatment of Pfc. Bradley Manning at the Marine Corp Base Quantico in Virginia. Pentagon spokesman Col. David Lapan said Tuesday that there is no investigation into the decision last week to put Manning, who has been charged with leaking classified government documents to Wikileaks, on [...]
Want to correct a mistake made by the Onion News Network? Be prepared for them to invade your life: 'FactZone' Viewer Has Sad, Pathetic Life Thanks, Daniel! *Correction January 30: The headline of this post originally and incorrectly used the word "views" instead of viewers. Thanks, Steve! Report an error
There's a lot of conflicting information flowing about today's deadly attack at a Moscow airport. Note the mismatched headline and lead in this story from KTNV ABC in Las Vegas: Update January 24: They fixed the headline ("31 dead in Russian attack"). Fast work, but no correction. Thanks, @chrishogg! Report an error
Late this week word began to spread on websites, TV, Twitter, and Facebook that there is a new, 13th sign of the Zodiac. Thought you were an Aquarius? Maybe not anymore. The Huffington Post pushed the story hard. They even built an app to help you see which of your friends have a new sign. [...]
There has already been a lot of discussion and reporting about the mistakes made by various news organizations while reporting the horrific shooting that took place in Arizona on the weekend. (My headline on this post only mentions Rep. Giffords, but she is of course not the only victim.) As news — and errors — [...]
