Emphasis mine: ON 21 July we published an article claiming that the video games company Rockstar Games were planning to release a version of their popular Grand Theft Auto video games series titled “Grand Theft Auto Rothburyâ€. We also published what we claimed would be the cover of this game, solicited comments from a family [...]
Please enjoy these juvenile yet amusing Friday treats. An unfortunate headline: The headline has since been changed to read "Kiwanis present award." Boo. Thanks to Andrew and Deann! The image is via HuffPo. And here’s an unfortunate choice of words from Martha Stewart Living, via Bike Snob NYC: And here’s the graphic that accompanied it, [...]
On December 6 we published a letter signed by A J Bennett that suggested Mayor Parker was a friend of David Henderson and that the Mayor had been photographed brandishing dildoes and “doobies” or marijuana joints. Through his legal counsel Mayor Parker has confirmed, and we accept, that he is not and never has been [...]
On Friday, Columbia Journalism Review online published my latest weekly column. Read it here. I also wrote a Saturday op-ed for the Toronto Star about the year in errors and corrections. Below are excerpts from both pieces. CJR column: The Year in Errata About a month ago, I began the laborious and depressing task of [...]
The policewoman accused in a Newcastle upon Tyne court of being a pounds 100-an-hour prostitute is alleged to have had up to 20 clients a week, not 20 a day (Page 20, December 9). Link Report an error
Editor’s Note: This site doesn’t accept advertising (note: see UPDATE below). I’d be grateful if you’d consider purchasing a copy of the Regret the Error book, which won an award from the National Press Club this year. You can learn more about the book and read some reviews here. UPDATE March 2009: I’ve added some [...]
An editing change to Philip Hensher’s copy last week (‘My Other Life’, Books) resulted in: ‘I can see myself now in an alternative life as the fat lady who comes into the rehearsal room…’ whereas he wrote: ‘I can see myself now in an alternative life, as the fat lady comes into the rehearsal room [...]
A CNS story slugged Scientist Sentencing that was transmitted Monday incorrectly stated that the defendant, Abraham Lesnik, admitted during the sentencing hearing that he had a drinking problem when he took classified documents from Boeing’s El Segundo plant to his Valley Village home. In fact, Lesnik never referred to anything involving alcohol. Instead, he told [...]
Flight of fancy: We inadvertently created the travel bargain of the century (Deals, Travel, page 19, December 6). The $359 per person twin share for four nights quoted for the Grand Mercure Roxy in Singapore, including breakfast, does not (disappointingly) include airfares. Report an error
AN ARTICLE in last week’s Sunday Age, “Born to be, um, mild — and possibly damp”, contained views about biker groups that were inserted in the editing process. As well, the survey of motorcyclists who rode for about three hours every weekend found that many had problems emptying their bladders. The story stated that bike [...]
ON June 2, 2008, The Daily Telegraph published an article headed, “Liar clocks up 49 fines for speeding, parking” concerning convicted criminal Martin Crowley. A photograph of respected NSW police officer Detective Sergeant Paul Thornton was published with the story and incorrectly labelled as being Crowley. The Daily Telegraph apologises unreservedly to Sgt Thornton for [...]
Bad conduct: Charles Mackerras was not born in Australia (Emma hits heights, Today, page 6, December 1). The eminent orchestra conductor was born to Australian parents in 1925 in musical-sounding Schenectady, New York. Apropos of nothing, Schenectady was where, in 1886, the Machine Works company was set up by Thomas Edison, who also knew a [...]
A quote in The Buzz on Nov. 28 that was attributed to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was actually from humorist Andy Borowitz. Link Here’s the offending article, which has not been corrected. The quote in question came from an article on the Borowitz Report, a well known satirical website (see last graph): Continuing in his [...]
E=mc3+1: As mathematicians, journalists make fine geishas. One of the paper’s most perspicacious readers has again successfully challenged our careless checking of figures in reports received from overseas and interstate. In one report we had an Olympic swimming pool holding a meagre 1000 megalitres – a waist-high depth that would becalm Eamon Sullivan (‘Angel’, 4, [...]
In our edition of October 29, The Melbourne Times front cover was a digitally altered photograph depicting an aeroplane flying towards the Rialto Towers. The picture used was not an actual photograph of an aeroplane in the vicinity of any building, but rather, an image that had been digitally altered. Normally, when digitally altered pictures [...]
AN article published in The Weekend Australian on July 22, 2006, (MP with stars in his eyes for killers, page 1) referred to former MP Peter Breen’s support for, and feelings towards, two men jailed for their part in the rape and murder of Janine Balding. Any inference that this support was based on a [...]
Critic Tom Sietsema should have recused himself from reviewing the Commissary, a restaurant featured in the Oct. 29 Food section. He and one of the restaurant’s owners had earlier had a personal relationship. The Washington Post regrets that he reviewed this restaurant, and will remove the review from its online archive. Link This Editor’s Note [...]
On 19 June 2007, we reported that David Hasselhoff had celebrated winning custody of his two daughters by getting drunk and making a nuisance of himself in a Hollywood bar. We now accept that David did not drink any alcohol that evening and nor did he irritate other customers. We apologise to David for any [...]
An earlier version of this story conflated two non-existent audio tapes of Michelle Obama. Link Thanks, David! Report an error
An article in some editions on Wednesday about Fordham University’s plan to give an ethics prize to Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer misspelled the surname of another Supreme Court justice who received the award in 2001. She is Ruth Bader Ginsburg, not Ginsberg. The Times has misspelled her name at least two dozen times [...]
Binge drinking: Deakin University professor of psychology Robert Cummins points out that neither he nor his research said that binge drinking could be a good thing (Professor sees positive side of binge drinking, page 17, October 23). He said although his Wellbeing Index research found that the feeling of wellbeing in 18-25 year-olds remained high [...]
In a report published in The Sunday Age on 16 September 2007 entitled ‘Is it the end of the line for a legendary seabird? This is where ‘Operation Albatross’ comes in’, it was said that Mr Brothers invented a chute device which drowned endangered albatrosses and other deep diving sea birds. The Sunday Age acknowledges [...]
A photo caption in the Oct. 22 Style section incorrectly referred to Bill O’Reilly as a “right-wing pundit.” The Fox News host presents himself as an independent. Link Thanks, Josh! Report an error
Bob Fredrick, a clinical social worker and therapist in Atlanta, is not a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. A story in the Sunday Living section had incorrect information, including a misspelling of his name. Report an error
THE source who told us last week about Michelle Obama getting lobster and caviar delivered to her room at the Waldorf-Astoria must have been under the influence of a mind-altering drug. She was not even staying at the Waldorf. We regret the mistake, and our former source is going to regret it, too. Bread and [...]
