Comments on: UPDATED: Malcolm Gladwell offers a magazine story correction on his blog

By: Steph

Steph — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 20:20:37 +0000

Why didn’t the New Yorker publish the correction on its site immediately, too?

By: Steve Sailer

Steve Sailer — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:47:42 +0000

Here’s The New Yorker’s retraction, which is more gracious than Gladwell’s:

“CORRECTION: In his December 17th piece, “None of the Above,” Malcolm Gladwell states that Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, in their 1994 book “The Bell Curve,” proposed that Americans with low I.Q.s be “sequestered in a ‘high-tech’ version of an Indian reservation.” In fact, Herrnstein and Murray deplored the prospect of such “custodialism” and recommended that steps be taken to avert it. We regret the error.”

By: Linda Seebach

Linda Seebach — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:30:28 +0000

Gladwell’s correction on his blog falls a long way short of gracious for such an egregious error. And he has not yet acknowledged that his description of J. Philippe Rushton’s work is just as egregiously wide of the mark.

By: Craig Silverman

Craig Silverman — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 03:18:10 +0000

Joshua: Ernest is the reader who sent me the link to this item. I make an effort to credit those who bring items to my attention. Thanks for asking!

Fagstein: It’s true that some columnists will place corrections at the end of their column, and not in the main corrections column. For example, it was only last year that the New York Times began running regular corrections to errors in its op-ed section:
http://www.regrettheerror.com/newspapers/ny-times-op-ed-section-finally-gets-around-to-correcting-errors

I agree that doing both would be better.

By: Joshua

Joshua — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 03:09:14 +0000

Who is Ernest and why is he being thanked in this item?

By: Fagstein

Fagstein — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 19:24:52 +0000

Another thing I’ve noticed is newspaper columnists putting corrections at the end of their columns instead of in the newspaper’s regular corrections box.

On one hand, it can sometimes be a week between error and correction. On the other hand, more people will probably see it that way who don’t look at the corrections box.

Again, I think putting it in both is the way to go. A correction in the corrections box and an apology in the column. But that’s not the way it’s done.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:09:30 +0000

Not surprising that it’s Gladwell, a writer who clearly cares about leaving a ‘clean’ trail behind him and understands both print and the web pretty well.