Regret the Error

It’s that extra special time of year when newspaper ombudsmen reveal their correction tallies. It’s like a second Christmas/Hanukkah for us here at Regret. What can we say? It’s an exciting life.
We previously posted about the correction count at the Arizona Daily Star, and now more have rolled in. (Big ups to Romenesko for spotting these.) It’s time for the Boston Globe, Rocky Mountain News and
Fort Worth Star-Telegram to stand and be counted.

Star-Telegram readers sifted through 1,095 editions last year
containing several million facts — 656 of which were either inaccurate
or off-target in some way.
That’s the number of corrections and clarifications we published
during 2005, but the total is inaccurate because some errors get past
us. Nevertheless, we know that correcting flawed information is an
important step in maintaining credibility and good character. Link

So how did we do overall in 2005?
We had 577 corrections, up 6.1 percent from 2004.
We’ve actually seen our total grow every year since the managing editor took over responsibility for corrections.
I believe that’s because we have become more quick to correct mistakes, not because we’re actually making more.
It’s another axiom of journalism that good newspapers run more corrections than bad ones.
Some might say that’s a way to rationalize a negative trend. But I know it’s a statement that won’t need a correction. Link

Last year the Globe published 1,018 corrections to errors, according
to a report by Globe chief librarian Lisa Tuite. That figure is down
slightly from the 1,031 published corrections in 2004 and continues a
downward trend since the paper hit a record 1,223 in 2003.
Those
figures might seem high, so here’s a bit of context: The Globe
published 57,893 stories in 2005 (compared to 59,144 in 2004),
according to Tuite.
Mistakes happen, and they hurt any news
organization. In my 11 years at the Globe I’ve had seven corrections
published and every one of them could have been avoided.
Errors
are committed out of sloppiness or because overworked journalists rush
to make deadline or because a source gives flawed information. Link

The Rocky Mountain News’ John Temple (he’s the paper’s editor/publisher/president) gets extra marks for including some truly funny errors form the past year, for clearly explaining the paper’s process for handling corrections, and for sharing the News’ policy regarding numbers and math. (Journalists are notorious for getting stats and other numbers wrong.)
The Globe’s Richard Chacón offered some interesting details about how the Globe handles corrections. He also provided the most detailed error breakdown. (Though his predecessor used to indicate the numbers for different types of errors like misidentifications etc. See here.)

Bottom line: Too few North American papers track their corrections, too many lack a set procedure for handling requests for correction, and an alarming number of papers still don’t have an easily accessible online corrections page. (We’re looking at you USA Today, New York Post, New York Daily News etc.)

The News goofs are below. If you’re wondering why we missed them, it’s because the News doesn’t always note what the initial mistake was, thus reducing the informational/comedic value of the correction:

• Spellcheck changed the name of Leucadia National Corp. to La-De-Da National Corp. And we published it.
• A headline mistakenly said Ken Lowe is president of the Rocky Mountain News. I’m the president. Lowe actually is a whole lot more; he’s the president of the E. W. Scripps Co., which owns the paper.
• We identified former Avalanche player Steve Moore’s attorney as Ted Danson - perhaps someone had just watched a rerun of Cheers - instead of Tim Danson.