Debbie Kornmiller, reader advocate of the Arizona Daily Star, wrote her latest column on errors and corrections. She notes that the paper recently surpassed its 2004 errors total. Kornmiller looks at a few recent errors and correctly describes misspelling someone’s name as an "unforgivable" mistake. She also provides a full explanation for the paper’s insufficient correction relating to the Cox News plagiarism incident. (Though it should be noted that the Star was possibly the first paper to run a correction about this incident.) Link
My opinion Debbie Kornmiller: On corrections, forgivable and otherwiseREADER ADVOCATEWith Tuesday’s 11-item corrections column, the Star surpassed 2004’s year-to-date errors for the first time this year.
The goal for 2005 was to commit fewer errors than in 2004. The Star had been on track to do so. As of Tuesday, 698 errors had been corrected on Page A2, one more than through the same date last year. The total for 2004 was 750 corrections.
Some of Tuesday’s 11 items set the record straight on more than one error. For example, The Authentic East Coast Cheese Steak sub is $5.75, not $8, at Original East Coast Super Subs, and the owner is Mark Schreiner, not Keith McNesby, who is in fact the founder.
One was a silly goof. Opinion columnist Joan Vennochi’s e-mail address, vennochi@globe.com, was missing the @ symbol.
Two of the mistakes were event dates that the Features reporter called to confirm and erroneous dates were deemed correct. Hanukkah Mall Madness runs 1 to 4 p.m. Dec. 11 at Park Place Mall. La Fiesta de Guadalupe is the same day, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m at De Grazia Gallery, 6300 N. Swan Road.
One correction begot another. An organizer called late Monday afternoon to say that a Thursday class was canceled. The item unfortunately was in Tuesday’s Community Calendar, which by then was printed. The correction, however, said last Thursday was Dec. 12, instead of Dec. 1.
Two mistakes fell in the unforgivable category of misspelled names. Salpointe Catholic goalie Tim Rhine’s name was spelled with a "y” on Sunday’s scorecard page. Alec Gortarez, a sophomore runner at Rio Rico, was "Alex” and his year in school wrong in Sunday’s All-Star teams. Salpointe swimmer Scott Thompson’s year in school was wrong. He’s a sophomore.
Another nearly unforgivable mistake was the wrong start time for the UA men’s basketball game against Houston.
A correction that begged for more detail was this:
"A Cox News Service story about an Arab version of the Barbie doll that ran Nov. 20 on A23 contained quotes from two people who do not exist and plagiarized an article published earlier this year by the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.”
Here’s Cox’s explanation: Craig Nelson, a contract freelancer who has written for Cox Newspapers from the Middle East since 2001, wrote the story about a doll marketed in the Muslim world. While in Damascus, Nelson employed the services of Damascus-based Syrian journalist George Baghdadi to assist with research for the story.
Baghdadi, whose work has appeared in Time magazine and USA Today among other publications, was asked by Nelson to interview Syrians shopping for the popular doll called "Fulla" and provide quotes about the doll’s appeal to consumers. Nelson included a submission from Baghdadi in his story, but failed to credit him, which is contrary to Cox Newspapers’ sourcing policy.
An investigation by Cox editors revealed the following:
● Portions of the Nelson story reported by Nelson were not in question and showed no similarities to the St. Petersburg Times article.
● Nelson was unaware that the material supplied by Baghdadi for his story was suspect.
● Baghdadi admits that two people quoted in Nelson’s story were fabricated and that their quotations were lifted in part from passages that appeared in the St. Petersburg Times.
● Baghdadi took responsibility for the fabrication and plagiarism, but said that he was not directly responsible for providing the material. He says one of his assistants, Hussein Ali, was responsible for the ethical lapses and has been fired. Baghdadi would not make Ali available to the editors of Cox Newspapers for questioning.
