Regret the Error » chicago tribune

Updated: Osama errors continue to roll in

Craig Silverman — Thu, 05 May 2011 11:30:37 +0000

Also, a story in some editions Monday on Page 2 about Osama bin Laden’s life said bin Laden died in the lawless badlands of Pakistan along the Afghanistan border. Bin Laden was killed in a house in Abbottabad, north of Islamabad. The story also repeated a paragraph that had some garbled sentences.

A timeline in the main news section Monday incorrectly stated how many siblings Osama bin Laden had. He was one of 54 children of a Saudi construction magnate. Link

Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan on May 1, 2011. The year was incorrect Tuesday in a timeline of bin Laden’s life. Link

Osama bin Laden was killed by American forces May 1, 2011, in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The date was incorrect in a graphic in Tuesday’s paper.

In some of yesterday’s editions, it was incorrectly stated that Osama bin Laden’s wife was killed during the attack on his compound in Pakistan. She was not killed.

Headline erred on quote: In Tuesday’s editions, a headline with a story about congressional reaction to the killing of Osama bin Laden said “Quitman says ‘Evil has met his maker.’” The quote in fact came from U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander, a Republican who is from Quitman.

Update May 5:

A picture on Tuesday with an article about the response of New Yorkers to the death of Osama bin Laden was published in error. As the caption indicated, it showed a ceremony in Manhattan that included a reading of the names of Holocaust victims; the event was not connected to Bin Laden’s death. Link

Fun with photos

Craig Silverman — Thu, 20 May 2010 12:00:17 +0000

A graphic on Page 4 of Tuesday’s main section listing Judge James Zagel’s notable trials included a photo of Frank Calabrese Sr. instead of Nicholas Calabrese. Also, the date of the Family Secrets trial in the graphic was incorrect. The trial was in 2007. Link

Sure, seems like a normal kind of mix-up, expect that Frank Calabrese Sr. was involved in a very bad photo error by the Tribune.

Lose the word, lose the meaning (big time)

Craig Silverman — Thu, 13 May 2010 12:00:56 +0000

In a Commentary page column Tuesday, the word “pro” was mistakenly removed from the first sentence of Eric Zorn’s column. The correct version of the sentence is: In 1995, Yale University law professor Stephen Carter wrote a pro-snooze-fest book titled “The Confirmation Mess” in which he supported the idea that U.S. Supreme Court nominees should be vague and elliptical when coming before the Senate for confirmation.

The Tribune regrets the error.

Thanks, Rhonda!

Paper gives woman hemophilia

Craig Silverman — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 12:00:57 +0000

A headline in the Sunday early edition on an article about objections by some in the hemophiliac community to blood donations by homosexuals incorrectly characterized one of the article’s subjects. Her late husband had hemophilia; she does not. Link

Victim, not shooter

Craig Silverman — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:00:33 +0000

The headline on a news brief Saturday indicated that a former Chicago Bears player’s friend was convicted in a fatal shooting in 2006. In fact, William B. Posey, friend of defensive lineman Terry “Tank” Johnson, was the one who was fatally shot and was not convicted of any crime in the incident. Link

Rest is fine

Craig Silverman — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:00:28 +0000

A story in the Play section Thursday about Transistor, an eclectic shop and hangout in Chicago, had several errors. The shop does not sell custom-crafted guitar pedals. The customer who said Transistor “is entrepreneurial, artistic activism” was incorrectly identified; the speaker was Joe Shanahan. The shop was not inspired by a visit to Berlin. And a photo caption incorrectly identified a light fixture as circa 1960s; the fixture is actually a contemporary work. Link

Read the signs!

Craig Silverman — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:00:45 +0000

The Chicago Tribune published a slideshow of photos from Lollapalooza. And someone managed to mangle the name of a band that was shown… holding up signs bearing its name:

It’s been fixed.

The image is courtesy of The Hood Internet’s Twitter feed.

Thanks, Julia!

Beccah Beushausen is kryptonite to facts

Craig Silverman — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:00:54 +0000

A Page 1 story Friday on Beccah Beushausen’s Internet hoax about a terminally ill baby described her as a social worker. While she has worked in social services, she says she is not a licensed social worker. The Tribune confirmed that she has worked at women’s crisis centers in Tinley Park and Pittsburgh. Also, the caption with a photo from Beushausen’s blog said the woman pictured was not her. That’s what Beushausen initially told the Tribune, but the charity that took the picture said it was indeed her, and she later acknowledged that she was the woman in the picture. Link

Gender issues

Craig Silverman — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:00:53 +0000

Steve Chapman’s Commentary column on Sunday indicated that women have a Y chromosome. Women have two X chromosomes. Link

On the Internet, no one knows you’re not John Groskopf of Vernon Hills*

Craig Silverman — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:00:19 +0000

A Feb. 24 article that collated Internet comments in reaction to Rick Santelli’s self-described rant protesting President Barack Obama’s mortgage bailout plan included pro-Santelli remarks incorrectly attributed to “John Groskopf, Vernon Hills.” Mr. Groskopf says that he did not make those remarks, and the Tribune failed to confirm the identity of the person quoted.

Correction April 2: The headline of this post originally and incorrectly referred to John Groskop rather than John Groskopf. I regret the error. Thanks, Charlene!

A quote that defies defeat

Craig Silverman — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:00:31 +0000

In a Perspective piece by Gary Fields, professor of communications at the University of California, San Diego, that ran in Feb. 22, 2004, editions of the Chicago Tribune, an unverified quote was used and attributed to the Israeli army’s chief of staff, Moshe Yaalon. The op-ed quoted Yaalon as saying that “the Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people.” While cited frequently over the years, this quote does not appear in the Israeli newspaper article to which it has been attributed, and the writer of that article said Yaalon did not say this. Fields could not confirm the origin of the quote. A spokesman for Yaalon said Thursday that Yaalon was misquoted and did not say the sentence attributed to him. Since the exact origin of the quotation has not been found and verified, it should not have been used in the Tribune. Link

The first lady’s eyebrows

Craig Silverman — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:00:23 +0000

In Monday’s Live! section, a story about Michelle Obama’s eyebrows may have left readers with the impression that Bill O’Reilly referred directly to her eyebrows when he said she looks angry. It was a guest on his show Sept. 16 who responded that some people say she looks angry perhaps because of the cast of her eyebrows. Link

Not so fast with the honey

Craig Silverman — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:00:20 +0000

A story about treatment of children with colds in Tuesday’s Chicagoland coverage said buckwheat honey can be given to children of all ages for sore throat. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises against honey for children under 1. Link

UPDATED: The Olson twins

Craig Silverman — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:00:45 +0000

A photo on Page 11 of Sunday’s Chicago Tribune Magazine was incorrectly identified as venture capitalist Eric Olson. The photo that accompanied the feature about Eric Olson was of a different Eric Olson. Here is the correct picture.

UPDATE: Also note this Aug. 20 correction from the Denver Post:

Because of an error by a source, an interview with former Peace Corps volunteer John E. Roberts that appeared on Page 6B Sunday was accompanied by a photograph of a different individual, also named John Roberts.

No issue with her, but what about you?

Craig Silverman — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:00:14 +0000

A “clarification” the Tribune’s “Guy Page” feature:

On this page about two years ago, I declared the Travel Channel’s Samantha Brown to be the most beautiful woman on TV. That was part of my rebellion against all the plastic people whom pop culture would have us believe are beautiful. The one slight asterisk with Brown was that I wasn’t sure if there was a hip issue or if it was the wide-screen TV’s fault. Hey, I was just doing a complete report. Beauty is a factor in visual media.
Having now spent a little time with her in a professional interview, I would like to offer this clarification. There is no hip issue; it was the TV. And her personality is even better off-camera.