Regret the Error

Written and compiled by Craig Silverman

Trends of Note

Obama Errors
Barack Obama appears to be a magnet for press errors.
He was mistaken for “Osama” in two (1,2) news reports by CNN, and in one by the New York Post. Meanwhile, the Houston Chronicle once referred to him as a Republican, and the Hartford Courant has misspelled his first name on six different occasions dating back to 2004, with two of those instances occurring this year.
There was also an unfortunate typo in the New York Times that may have led some readers to think the Obamas have a rocky marriage:

A front-page article yesterday about the role that Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle, is playing in his presidential campaign rendered incorrectly a word in a quotation from Valerie Jarrett, a friend of the Obamas who commented on their decision that he would run. She said in a telephone interview, “Barack and Michelle thought long and hard about this decision before they made it” – not that they “fought” long and hard.

And this from the Boston Globe:

Clarification: A story in yesterday’s Nation pages about Mitt Romney mixing up Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden said that Fox News Channel president Roger Ailes had previously used the similarity between the names Osama and Obama to mock the senator. Fox News says Ailes was making a joke aimed at President Bush, not Obama, when Ailes said in a speech to broadcast executives in March: “And it is true that Barack Obama is on the move. I don’t know if it’s true that President Bush called Musharraf and said, ‘Why can’t we catch this guy?’”

Lord help us if he gets the nomination. (Image: FishBowlNY)

Trouble in the Student Press
This year saw a rise in the number of instances of plagiarism at US student newspapers compared to previous years. The full details are revealed in the 2007 Plagiarism/Fabrication Round-Up. Let’s hope this was just an off year.

Mistaken for Terrorists
We once again saw a high number of instances in which people with Middle Eastern-sounding names were mistakenly labeled terrorists. This primarily occurred in UK publications. There were several cases of mistaken photo identification, while others were outright false accusations. One of the worst saw Metro UK run a photo of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed and identify him as terror suspect Kahlid Sheikh Mohammed. Links: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8

Correction of the Year
One of the surest ways to produce a great correction is to write a scandalous article filled with salacious, untrue allegations. This year’s winner is a correction to an April article in the Independent Saturday (UK) magazine:

Following the portrait of Tony and Cherie Blair published on 21 April in the Independent Saturday magazine, Ms Blair’s representatives have told us that she was friendly with but never had a relationship with Carole Caplin of the type suggested in the article. They want to make it clear, which we are happy to do, that Ms Blair “has never shared a shower with Ms Caplin, was not introduced to spirit guides or primal wrestling by Ms Caplin (or anyone else), and did not have her diary masterminded by Ms Caplin.”

Runner Up
The Sentinel-Review (Woodstock, Ontario):

In an article in Monday’s newspaper, there may have been a misperception about why a Woodstock man is going to Afghanistan on a voluntary mission. Kevin DeClark is going to Afghanistan to gain life experience to become a police officer when he returns, not to shoot guns and blow things up.
The Sentinel-Review apologizes for any embarrassment this may have caused.

Other Favorites
Slate:

In the May 25 “Explainer,” Michelle Tsai asserted that an eight ball is about 10 lines of cocaine. While the size of a line depends on personal preference, most users would divide an eight ball into more than 25 lines.

The New York Times:

The Executive Pursuits column in Business Day on May 5, about selling hot dogs at Shea Stadium, misinterpreted a survey by the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council and referred incorrectly to hot dog sales at Shea. Although the stadium sells an average of just under 20,000 hot dogs a game, and ranks No. 1 among major league ballparks who responded to the questionnaire from the hot dog council, Shea does not lead all ballparks in sales. It trails Yankee Stadium, which sells about 30,000 a game but did not answer the survey. (A reader raised the issue after an article on May 11 about the introduction of Latin food at Yankee Stadium mentioned the higher figure for the Yankees. Unfortunately for the reader, who vowed not to “consume any dogs at either stadium until it has been settled,” this correction was delayed for research, but the Mets have a home game tomorrow night.)

The Daily Herald Tribune (Grande Prairie, Alberta)*:

An error occurred in the story “Weather Blamed in Death,” which appeared in Wednesday’s edition.
In the story, it’s stated that the “Oasis shelter is the one in the city that accepts people.”
The sentence should have read “The Oasis shelter is the only one in the city that accepts intoxicated people.” We apologize for the error.

New York Daily News:

A HEADLINE in Monday’s Daily News, “He regrets his role in ‘postal’ vid,” implied that Richard Marino, the subject of a YouTube video, was sorry for an incident in December at a Brooklyn post office. Marino, in fact, is not sorry. The News regrets the error.

Error of the Year: The Russian Titanic
It wasn’t the most catastrophic error, but it speaks to two larger issues, one good and one bad.
In early August, the state-owned Russian TV network Rossiya (RTR) used a rather striking image of a submarine to illustrate a story about a Russian voyage to the Arctic.
After the story aired, the image was then distributed by Reuters, which meant that it spread to news outlets in countries around the world. It was also used by NBC Nightly News.
Then, days later, reports emerged that RTR’s image was in fact taken from the hit film Titanic.
So who was the first to discover this? Another media outlet? A submarine expert?
A 13-year-old boy in Finland.
“I was looking at the photo of the Russian sub expedition and I noticed immediately that there was something familiar about the picture,” Waltteri Seretin, the boy told a Finnish paper. “I checked it with my DVD and there it was right there in the beginning of the movie: exactly the same image of the submersibles approaching the ship.”
Reuters and MSNBC.com ran corrections, and NBC Nightly News also made a rare on-air correction.
The first important issue related to this story is obvious: the images were re-distributed without the necessary verification. We regularly see specious stories spread at a surprising rate because many outlets will simply re-report a story if it has already made its way into the press. In the age of the Internet, stories move farther**, faster than ever before. So the act of verification is even more important.
The second issue relates to how the truth came out. Just as the Internet can send errors careening out into the information stream, it can also offer the opportunity for a 13-year-old boy in Finland to help correct them.
We will undoubtedly see more of both issues. Background

Typo of the Year
The Houston Chronicle, like just about every other North American media outlet, spent a lot of time reporting on Anna Nicole Smith this past year. In attempting to explain her, um, humble origins, the paper gave itself a measure of comeuppance. And that’s what makes it the typo of the year.

A photo caption in the paper read:

“When Redding, a longtime scout for Playboy, discovered Smith, the model could barely right a sentence…”

Who’s illiterate now?

Runner Up
Reuters, the reigning back-to-back champ in this category, didn’t win but did come in second place by calling the Muttahida Quami Movement the “Muttonhead Quail Movement.”

Other Favorites
Los Angeles Times:

Mexico City newspaper: An article in Wednesday’s Calendar section about an English-language newspaper in Mexico City referred to the many U.S. ex-patriots who live there. It should have said expatriates.

The New York Times:

A caption on Saturday with a picture showing a Pakistani man on his bicycle carrying a painting of his son, who he says was abducted by Pakistani intelligence agents in 2001, misspelled the name of the Pakistani capital. It is Islamabad, not Islambad.

The New York Times:

A picture caption on Wednesday with an article about a meeting between the leaders of North Korea and South Korea misspelled the name of the North Korean capital, where the meeting was held. It is Pyongyang, not Pongyang.

Sunday Star-Times (New Zealand):

OUR STORY on the price of tomatoes last week misquoted Alistair Petrie, general manager of Turners and Growers. Discussing the price of tomatoes Petrie was talking about retail rate not retail rape. We apologise for the misunderstanding.

The Guardian:

Australian cricketer Don Bradman was carried, not curried, off the field during the Ashes series in August 1938 (Heroic Hutton leads England to 903, page 12, the archive, November 6).

The Guardian:

In They live by night, page 4, G2 August 27, we wrote about a man who beat bats to death with a dingy paddle; we meant dinghy paddle.

Apology of the Year
Sunday Times (UK):

An article about Lord Lambton (“Lord Louche, sex king of Chiantishire”, News Review, January 7) falsely stated that his son Ned (now Lord Durham) and daughter Catherine held a party at Lord Lambton’s villa, Cetinale, in 1997, which degenerated into such an orgy that Lord Lambton banned them from Cetinale for years. In fact, Lord Durham does not have a sister called Catherine (that is the name of his former wife), there has not been any orgiastic party of any kind and Lord Lambton did not ban him (or Catherine) from Cetinale at all. We apologise sincerely to Lord Durham for the hurt and embarrassment caused.

Other Favorites
Daily Telegraph (UK):

APOLOGY: In Friday’s article on Liz Hurley’s wedding it was wrongly stated that the actress is holding a pheasant shoot on the Sunday after the ceremony. Game shooting is of course illegal on Sundays and the pheasant season ended on Feb 1. We apologise for the error and accept that if any shooting is to be done it will be by the paparazzi, who have no season and do not observe the Sabbath.

The Australian:

On December 22, 2006, The Australian published an article on page 28 titled, “Coffa backs measures to restore order”.
In it, The Australian incorrectly stated that Ms Van Tienen had been found guilty by the Australian Sport Anti-Doping Authority of trafficking drugs and banned from participating in weightlifting for two years. Ms Van Tienen has never been charged or convicted of drug offences, has never been banned from the sport, nor has she ever been involved in an organised drug ring. The Australian apologises unreservedly for any hurt or embarrassment caused to Ms Van Tienen by the publication.

The Guardian:

In a report about the Scottish elections, an editing error led to us wrongly suggesting that John Swinburne of the Scottish Senior Citizens’ Unity Party had been accused of allegedly causing a breach of the peace by running amok in a polling station with a golf club (Recrimination follows chaos over new Scots voting procedures, page 5, May 5). We apologise to Mr Swinburne for any embarrassment or distress caused.

The Mirror (UK):

May 6 under the headline “Grease chiefs hit by pounds 8k Gest list” we said that David Gest had made a string of backstage demands before agreeing to appear on the show including a DVD of himself being played in his dressing room together with various refreshments served at specific temperatures and chauffeur-driven cars for his friends. In fact, David did not make any of these demands which, we have now discovered, were circulated as a hoax by an unknown person and we apologise to David Gest for publishing them.

The Mirror (UK):

On 16 April we reported on an interview given by Bryan Ferry to a German newspaper. Our article was headed “The Nazis were so amazing” and claimed that Mr Ferry had been “singing the praises of the Nazis”. We now accept this was not true.
In fact, Mr Ferry had spoken only of his admiration from an artistic point of view for some aspects of German art, architecture and presentation which were associated with the Nazi regime. He made no mention of the Nazi regime nor did he use the word “Nazi”. We accept that Mr Ferry abhors the Nazi regime and all it stood for.
We apologise to Mr Ferry for the offence caused by our report and are happy to set the record straight.

The Times (UK):

We were wrong to say in our headlines (yesterday, front page and page 4) that the report of Judge Rupert Bursell QC into a complaint of drunkenness against Dr Tom Butler, the Bishop of Southwark, had concluded that Dr Butler was drunk.
Judge Bursell did not hear any evidence or reach any conclusions as to the truth of the complaint. We apologise to Dr Butler for the distress and embarrassment this must have caused him.

The Daily Express (UK):

ON April 3 we published an article entitled “The hangers-on who are dragging Prince Harry into the gutter” which was accompanied by a photograph of a young woman we identified as Annabel Ritchie. We now accept that the young woman photographed was not Annabel Ritchie.
We also accept that Annabel Ritchie is not part of any so called “hangers-on”.
We apologise unreservedly to Annabel Ritchie for what we published about her.

Northern Territory News (Australia):

WE would like to make clear in respect of our article in our August 8 edition headlined “Salvos accused of abusive treatment” that:
THE reported comments of the Victorian lawyer in respect of children being used in experimental drug trials and being tortured relate to other cases in Victoria, and not the Salvation Army’s institutions;
THE Salvation Army has never condoned the torture or physical or sexual abuse of children; and MS Shield’s reported comments that it: “… was time for things to be brought out in the open” ought not be taken to infer that the Salvation Army does not deal with the complaints of Ms Shields or any other complainants of past abuse, other than in a transparent and non-adversarial way.

Best Photo Error
Jornal do Brasil, a newspaper in Brazil, mistook a photograph taken during a film shoot and subsequently posted on the Orkut social networking website for a real image of drug traffickers in action. It promoted the image on its front page under the headline, “Drug traffic shows its firepower on Orkut.”
The accompanying story said the photo “demonstrates the shameless audacity of the traffickers on Orkut. Twelve young people armed with rifles, machine guns and pistols show off for the camera on the hilltop. There is even a woman in the group.” Link

Runner Up
The Ottawa Citizen had a bad year with photo misidentifications. In May, it ran a major story on the front of its City section stating that a man had been convicted for a fourth time of sexually assaulting a minor. At the center of the above-fold story was a picture of the accused. Unfortunately, it showed a man who had the misfortune of bearing a name similar to that of the convicted pedophile. The paper also made a similarly bad photo misidentification in January when it mistakenly identified a murder victim’s son as the accused. Link

Other Favorites
The Miami Herald:

In an article on drug smuggling in Venezuela that began on Page 1A Monday, an incorrect photograph was used on Page 2A for jailed drug trafficking suspect Feris Farid Domínguez. The error occurred in the newsroom production process. The photo that was used was that of Leonel Fernández, president of the Dominican Republic. The Miami Herald regrets the error…

Portland Press Herald:

A story on Page B4 on Wednesday about foraging for edible mushrooms contained a photo of amanita muscaria, which is a poisonous and hallucinogenic mushroom. It was a copy editor’s error.

Daily Express (UK):

On Saturday, February 3, we published a photograph captioned as Davina Smith, above, who was jailed for causing death by careless driving. In fact, the photograph was of Marina Gray, the mother of one of the victims. We sincerely apologise for any distress and embarrassment caused to Mrs Gray and her family.

Daily Mail (UK):

In an article of 6 November 2007 about Tom Sykes, a freelance journalist, we mistakenly included a photograph of Tom Sykes a digital TV consultant and his family. We wish to make it clear that the latter is not a recovering alcoholic or drug addict, and apologise for the error.

Best Hoax
In November, the Associated Press picked up a story from the World Entertainment News Network that reported Paris Hilton was in India advocating on behalf of drunken elephants.
“The elephants get drunk all the time,” she said. “It is becoming really dangerous. We need to stop making alcohol available to them.”
Like, totally. Except the tale was totally false. WENN later said it picked up the story from the Daily Star, a UK tabloid. AP had put in a call to a Hilton spokesperson, but didn’t wait to hear back before putting out its version.
When contacted by the New York Times, the AP entertainment editor said, “The irony in the story was obvious. But it doesn’t change the fact that you have to verify it. This time we didn’t, and we got burned.”

Two More
In May, the Fresno Bee had to admit it was taken in by a tale of a “fat, blind goldfish rescued off a lawn and reunited with his owner.”

Also in May, reports circulated that Yoko Ono tasted dog meat while on a radio show. The resulting apology from the Sun (UK):

Our May 30 story headed “Uuurrgh! My Corgi kebab is a bit ruff” said that Yoko Ono was on a radio show and “tasted” dog meat which was being eaten by an animal rights activist.
The report, which was filed to us by several leading press agencies was wholly wrong and Ms Ono did not appear or take part in the show.
We sincerely apologise to Ms Ono for the offence and distress caused to her.

Most Delayed Correction
The New York Times:

A caption on June 8, 1944, with a photograph of Army officers at mess on the Pacific front, misspelled the given name of the first officer seated at the left side of the table. He was Col. Girard B. Troland of New London, Conn. – not Gerand. The error was called to the attention of the editors by his grandson yesterday.

Best Error About Error
The New York Times:

A headline on a report in The Caucus roundup yesterday, about The New York Post’s error in reporting that Senator John Kerry had chosen Richard A. Gephardt as his running mate in 2004, misstated the famous headline in The Chicago Daily Tribune in 1948 when the paper declared the wrong winner in the presidential race. The headline was “Dewey Defeats Truman,” not “Dewey Beats Truman.”

The Getting Ahead of the Story Award
The Mississauga News:

A story posted earlier today on mississauga.com contained incorrect information about a traffic jam on the Queen Elizabeth Way in Mississauga.
It was a multi-vehicle crash on the QEW at Dixie Rd. that brought traffic to a standstill.
We incorrectly blamed the traffic back-up on a civil protest involving hundreds of Caledonia residents.
In fact, the protest is scheduled for tomorrow morning.
The News regrets the error.

The Didn’t Get the Joke Award
Syndicated columnist Susan Estrich had trouble distinguishing between satire and reporting, and the result was that she took a joke quote from Wonkette and used it in her column. Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post recounted the tale:

…Picking up on a zinger that John McCain had delivered to his presidential rival, Estrich, who managed Michael Dukakis’s 1988 presidential campaign, found a retort online from the Romney camp. She wrote:
“Besides, who is McCain to talk? ‘Why don’t you go cry about torture some more, old man,’ Romney’s spokesman is quoted as saying in response. ‘When we’re in charge, we’re going to nonlethally stress the hell out of you in Gitmo #15.’” “‘Old man’?” she wrote. “Ouch. Accusing a man who spent years in a North Vietnam prison of ‘cry[ing]about torture’ and threatening to ‘stress the hell’ out of him?”
When the column was sent out, an editor at Michigan’s Lansing State Journal, Derek Melot, thought the quote was so outrageous that he wondered why he hadn’t heard it before. After an online search, he found that it had come from the satirical Web site Wonkette — and was completely invented. Creators Syndicate, which handles Estrich’s column, quickly sent out a “mandatory correction,” and the gaffe apparently never got into print.
Estrich, who teaches law at the University of Southern California, says she thought of attributing the quote to Wonkette but figured many readers would be unfamiliar with the site. She says she used the formulation “is quoted as saying” because “I worry about this all the time when I rely on secondary sources….
“I guess I shouldn’t consider Wonkette to be ‘reporting,’ but that’s the problem in our brave new world. Where I come from, there’s a problem with making up quotes and attributing them to campaign spokesmen, but I guess that’s very old-fashioned of me.”
Double-checking material from humor sites is also an old-fashioned virtue…

Best Abuse of Maps
The Los Angeles Times:

Fire hazard graphic: A map in Thursday’s California section showing fire hazard zones across the state and the Southland had the colors for the highest and lowest hazard levels reversed. In that map, red areas actually represented “moderate” hazard, not “very high,” and the yellow areas represented “very high,” not “moderate.” Also, an accompanying chart should have indicated that the acreage listed was in thousands. A map with corrected shading is posted on The Times website at: \o7latimes.com/firehazard\f7. The fire hazard level of individual properties can be viewed on the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection website at: firecenter.berkeley.edu/fhsz/.

Outstanding Achievement in Misspelling
The New York Times:

An obituary on July 21 of Shirley Slesinger Lasswell, who marketed memorabilia and toys based on A. A. Milne’s children’s books about Winnie the Pooh, misspelled the name of the department store that agreed to let her set up Pooh Corners for children. It is Neiman Marcus, not Nieman Marcus. (The Times has misspelled the company’s name in at least 195 articles since 1930.)

The New York Times:

An article on Saturday about fund-raising efforts in New York by Senator Barack Obama misspelled the surname of one of President John F. Kennedy’s closest advisers, who introduced Mr. Obama at a fund-raiser. He is Theodore C. Sorensen, not Sorenson. (Go to Article) The error also appeared in an article in The Arts on Feb. 22 about books written by candidates, including “Profiles in Courage,” which then-Senator Kennedy wrote with guidance from Mr. Sorensen. (The Times has misspelled Mr. Sorensen’s surname more than 135 times in headlines and articles during the 50-plus years he has been a Democratic adviser and well-known author.)

The Language Awards
New York Times Book Review:

If readers of the Book Review have been considering picking up a little conversational Hindi, they would probably do well to not begin with the sample list of words in the Jan. 7 review of “Sacred Games,” a novel by Vikram Chandra that sprinkles untranslated Hindi throughout its English text. Indian readers pointed out that while most of the Hindi terms in the review were innocuous, several were in fact obscene – suitable for Chandra’s tough-guy characters, no doubt, but not for the Book Review, where editors failed to check the meaning of the words in the novel’s glossary.

Chicago Tribune:

An item in the Sunday Magazine referred to a popular but unfounded notion that Eskimos have dozens of words for snow, in this case 40. The item failed to note that the assertion has been debunked by linguists and others.

Best Meta Correction
The Guardian:

We misspelled the word misspelled twice, as mispelled, in the Corrections and clarifications column on September 26, page 30.

Most Useless Correction
The Irish Examiner:

No test samples were sent to Cork University Hospital.

…and that’s all we’re telling you.

Most Puzzling Correction
The New Scientist:

Several readers complain that the dancing cow illustrating Feedback, 20 January, appears to have six teats. It was of course drawn as seen by an intoxicated fellow dancer.

Best Porn Error
A report from the Guardian:

A cable television company has apologised to customers after accidentally broadcasting a pornography channel instead of the scheduled BBC programmes.
Smallworld viewers in Scotland, who had been watching Life on Mars, were waiting for the Ten O’Clock News but were shocked to see sexually explicit images on their screens, while BBC2 viewers were confronted with X-rated footage instead of Jeremy Paxman and Newsnight.
The Ayrshire-based cable firm mistakenly aired the pornographic content, from adult channel Climax 3, to customers for two hours until the mix-up was discovered at midnight and the plug pulled on the offending material…

Other Favorites
Monterey County Herald:

Monterey X-rated movie director Inkyo Volt Hwang’s nickname was Wanker Wang. An article on page A1 Saturday misspelled the nickname.

The Australian:

AN article in the IT Business section of The Australian on February 13 (“Sex rears its head in DVD standards”, Page 6) was illustrated by a photograph. Readers should note that the photograph was of an actress performing in Debbie Does Dallas — the Musical, a satire of the 1970s pornographic film of the same name, and the actress has no connection with the adult entertainment industry. The Australian apologizes for any embarrassment the publication may have caused.

Best Correction with Things Left Unexplained
The Intelligencer Journal:

A photograph accompanying a story about Teen Challenge in Saturday’s Intelligencer Journal incorrectly identified the subject, who is the Rev. James Santiago.
The story included an incorrect identification of Santiago’s wife, Pam. Also, Santiago was addicted to crack cocaine for 12 years.

Best Recipe Error
The Observer (UK):

We should clarify that the stir-fried morning glory recipe featured in Observer Food Monthly last week uses an edible morning glory Ipomoea aquatica, found in south east Asia and also known as water spinach. This should not to be confused with the UK Ipomoea, also known as morning glory, which is poisonous.

Runner Up
The Advocate (Louisiana):

Oops! Check servings for crawfish boil
Mary Nola and Glenn Sotile know their crawfish eating friends. When they read Dr. Charlie Daniel’s Boiled Crawfish recipe in the “Alphabet Soup” column April 19, they said something was wrong.
The recipe, which called for a 40- to 45-pound sack of crawfish, was listed as serving a crowd of 50 to 60. Sotile said “maybe the crowd is small children or New York City residents.”
Actually, columnist Stephanie Riegel explained, the recipe should have said “Serves 12 to 15.” For the crowd of 50 to 60, the recipe would need to be tripled if part of the group includes children, or quadrupled if the crowd is made up of the “60 hungry south Louisianians” Sotile sees at the crawfish boils he attends…

Best Jargon
The Washington Post:

Army Spec. Hugo Gonzalez was misidentified in two photo captions with the Oct. 1 installment of the Left of Boom series, and his rank was incorrect on Page One. Also, in some editions of the Oct. 2 installment of the series, the full name of an EFP, a type of weapon used by insurgents, was incorrectly given as “explosively formed perpetrator.” It should have been “explosively formed penetrator.”

The Trouble at Home Award
The Daily Miner and News (Kenora, Ontario):

Last week’s editorial had a major error in it that I must correct. I referred to my new granddaughter as three and one-half YEARS old. It should have read MONTHS old. Boy am I in trouble.

Best Misquote
A letter published in the Sydney Morning Herald:

David Marr unfortunately misquoted me in “A fallen leader of faith” (August 4-5). I actually said that I endured the naked beatings, paternal bum caresses etc from Frank Houston, not enjoyed them. I can assure readers that the experience wasn’t pleasurable but painful, both at the time and for some years later.
Peter Laughton Carrara (Qld)

Runner Up
The Union Leader (Manchester, NH):

Due to a reporting error, a story on Page A2 in Saturday’s edition of the New Hampshire Union Leader misquoted University of New Hampshire employee Bernardine Schultz. She said Professor John Collins was prone to giving students “easy A’s,” not that he had “lazy aides.”

Best Misattribution:
Austin American-Statesman:

A Newsmakers item on Page A2 Sunday incorrectly attributed a quote to the Rev. Al Sharpton. The item should have said that nationally syndicated radio host Don Imus described Rutgers’ women’s basketball players as “nappy-headed hos” during a segment of his show Wednesday.

Runner Up
The Daily Telegraph (Australia):

Magistrate David Hellpern
IN an article headed “30 beers and still driving”, published in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, Magistrate David Hellpern was quoted as saying to the defendant Rowan Davidson: “You were behaving like a jerk and you were smashed for it.”
In fact, those words were contained in a submission to the court and the magistrate was simply reading them. The error is regretted.

Most Puzzling Retraction
Details magazine published this Editor’s Note this year.

The Note basically stated that two quotes attributed to Ben Affleck in a profile were fabricated. Obviously, that’s quite serious.
But a publicist for the magazine then told the New York Observer’s website that, “the quote in the story – written by freelancer Bart Blasengame – was actually accurate.” She said they were “taken out of context.”
The Editor’s Note was wrong then, right? Well, no.
“I stand by the correction that I published, and I stand by the statements made on behalf of me and Details,” editor Dan Peres later said in an article in the print edition of the Observer.
Ah, so “nothing was… fabricated,” and yet Affleck never “made such a statement.”
Thanks, that clears everything up. Link (Image: Gawker)

Most Calculated Correction
Salon:

The Nov. 12 article “Public Bathroom Dilemma: Paper or Air?” misstated how much energy is consumed by hand dryers. The corrected story now says that “5.7 million kilowatt-hours of electricity [are] used every day – enough power to run an estimated 197,000 homes a day.” The following explains how author Rebecca Clarren reached the new calculation. Watts are an expression of energy per unit of time, namely 1 joule per second. A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is not a standard unit in any formal system, but is commonly used in electrical applications as a measure of energy use and is used by power companies. Since 1 kWh = 3,600,000 joules, to get the correct calculation (now reflected in the original story), Clarren multiplied the average hand dryer’s wattage, 2.3 kWh, by 0.0083 (how long a second is expressed in hours), and came up with 0.019 kWh. Then she multiplied that by the 3 million hand dryers that exist nationwide, X 100 uses per day, and came up with a total of 5.7 million kWh used by hand dryers every day. Based on the latest figures from the Energy Information Administration, the average household uses 10,654 kWh a year, or 29.19 kWh a day. Therefore, 5.7 million kWh divided by 29.19 kWh a day in home(s) equals approximately 197,000 homes a day. Also, the story now contains an updated link to the comparison of paper towels and hand dryers that the Climate Conservancy did for Salon.

This correction inspired a math debate by Regret readers, some of whom suggested the calculations were incorrect. Read the thread here.

Best Numerical Error
The Hindu***:

A report “From Bombay to Rajasthan” (“Newscape” page, January 8, 2007) stated that actor Elizabeth Hurley will wear “a 4,000-pound sari by designer Tarun Tahiliani” during her wedding in March. While one reader wondered how she would be able to lift the 1,800 kg sari, another reader said there are possible fears about the bride being reduced to pulp by its weight. It was an error. The word “pound” was used instead of the currency symbol for pound sterling (£).

Other Favorites
Toronto Star:

A Nov. 19 article about a new study indicating that Detroit is the most dangerous U.S. city incorrectly stated that Detroit has seen nearly one million people killed since 1950.
In fact, that number represents the overall decline in Detroit’s population since 1950, not the number of people killed.
The Star regrets the error.

The Mirror (UK):

ALTHOUGH Kingston, Jamaica, has the third-highest murder rate in the world, it has not had anything like 15,000 murders per year. There were 1,445 murders in the whole of Jamaica in 2004 (Page 9, March 24).

The Guardian:

We wrongly converted a baby’s birth weight of 8lbs 15oz as 51kg. It is 4.1kg (Losing it, page 13, G2, January 1). A 51kg baby is an impossible 112lbs 6oz.

Why People Don’t Like Talking to Reporters
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

For a short time, Hurricane Katrina survivor and chef LeRoy Crump Jr. operated a kitchen in a bar in a drug-infested area of Clarksburg, W.Va., before opening his current restaurant, Lagniappe, in the city. A story published on Sept. 2, 2007 about his life post-Katrina incorrectly said the bar was a haven for drugs.

To the Dearly (not) Departed
We call it “obiticide” – death by media. What follows are some of the people prematurely declared dead by the press this year.

International Herald Tribune:

An article in some copies Monday erroneously included President Vladimir Putin among major Russian figures who died recently.

Toronto Star:

Wednesday’s story about Canada’s Walk of Fame inductees incorrectly referred to “the late Morley Safer.” Safer is alive and continues to file stories as a 60 Minutes correspondent. The Star regrets the error.

Los Angeles Times:

Joss Stone: An article in Tuesday’s Calendar section on British singer Joss Stone referred to musician and DJ Johnny Otis as “the late bandleader.” Otis is 85 and living in Northern California. The article also described songwriter-producer Lamont Dozier as a “Philly soul icon.” Dozier was a key member of the Motown Records hit-making team in Detroit.

Washington Post:

A Feb. 12 Metro article incorrectly reported that the parents of a teenager killed Saturday while fleeing D.C. police are deceased. Both parents of Kevin Thomas, 17, are alive.

Los Angeles Times:

Pelosi’s celebration: An article in Section A on Thursday about new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) referred to “the late” Rep. Lindy Boggs. Boggs is alive.

Bloomfield Free Press:

Mark Twain once said, “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” In this week’s edition of the Bloomfield Free Press, we mistakenly listed former body shop owner Earl Haywood as being deceased.
After speaking with Mr. Haywood on the telephone this afternoon, it is obvious that he is anything but. The Bloomfield Free Press mistakenly confused him with another Earl Haywood – a former Bloomfield Town Councilman – who passed away last summer. Our apologies, and the wishes that Mr. Haywood is with us for years to come.

The Victims
Take a moment to reflect upon the many people who suffer every year at the hands of press errors. Some examples are below.

Newsday:

A story Friday about Iona basketball coach Jeff Ruland’s past hardships should not have included a reference to a “battle for sobriety.” He has faced the loss of his father at age 9 and an NBA career shortened by injuries, but his sobriety has not been questioned.

The Mirror (UK)

BIG Brother’s Carole is a sexual health worker, not a sex worker, which usually means something rather different (Page 33, July 13).

Chicago Tribune:

A Dec. 31 story on the Q section’s Health page about a dentist whose research shows that brushing with toothpaste can harm teeth said the dentist does not brush his teeth. Dentist John Dzakovich says he does brush his teeth but with mouthwash. His belief is that it is the toothpaste, not the brush, that causes damage.

Fashion magazine (Canada):

OOPS: “Booming Bangkok” (October 2006) incorrectly stated that Gene Futon is a former prostitute. We apologize for the error.

Fond Farewell: Ian Mayes
Ian Mayes retired in March of this year after serving as the reader’s editor of the Guardian for a decade.
As reported by the Press Gazette, during that time Mayes dealt with “90,000 complaints, 14,000 corrections, countless phone calls from abusive readers and two months in physiotherapy due to work-induced repetitive strain injury…”
But his tenure was about more than quantity (and suffering). Mayes was one of the, if not the, premier corrections artistes.**** Using very few words, he often turned a simple correction into something amusing or enlightening. In the process, he made the paper’s corrections more than just a recitation of error.
We thank him for his service and offer these few samples of his work from previous years:

In a misplaced outbreak of politeness, the Weatherwatch column, page 39, November 1, described average temperatures in Tromso and Bergen as being “0C and 3C respectfully”.

We spelt Morecambe, the town in Lancashire, wrong again on page 2, G2, yesterday. We often do.
In an item, Millionaires at sea, about Who Wants to be a Millionaire Live, at a theatre in Eastbourne, page 10, G2, yesterday, we note the ignorance of some of the contestants and say: Another doesn’t know that heuvos fritos is Spanish for fried eggs. It isn’t, but huevos fritos is.

We referred to the £250,000 advance for Vikram Seth’s prize-winning novel, “A Suitable Buy.” Although undoubtedly worth every penny, the book is actually called “A Suitable Boy.”

Finally, a request. As you can see, this site does not accept advertising or donations. It’s a one-man operation, and that one man recently wrote a book about media errors, accuracy and corrections. It includes the kind of amusing content you’ve just enjoyed, and also delves into the history of accuracy in the press, along with many other important and enlightening topics. If you’ve enjoyed this article, please consider purchasing a copy of the Regret the Error book. You can learn more about the book and read some reviews here.

Thanks for visiting.

*Correction: We initially (and incorrectly) referred to this paper as being based in Grand Prairie, rather than the correct Grande Prairie. Thanks, Billy.
**Correction: We initially (and incorrectly) used the word “father” in this sentence: “Internet, stories move farther, faster than ever before.” Thanks to Gerry and Jesse!
***Correction: We initially cited the source of this correction as the “Hindu Times.” It is in fact “The Hindu.” Thanks, TKN!
****Correction: We initially (and incorrectly) used the word “premiere” in this sentence: “Mayes was one of the, if not the, premier corrections artistes.” Thanks, Allan!