Regret the Error » headline errors

Guardian apologizes for “seriously misleading headline”

Craig Silverman — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 12:30:56 +0000

A front-page story (19 November) about the Independent Police Complaints Commission’s investigation into the shooting of Mark Duggan carried a seriously misleading headline in print and online. The story detailed developments in the IPCC investigation, which include findings that show there is no forensic evidence that Duggan was carrying a gun when shot, and that the gun he had collected earlier in the day was found between 10 and 14 feet from his body. The headline was “Revealed: Man whose shooting triggered riots was not armed”. However – as the IPCC has stated and the Guardian accepts – it is wrong to infer that Duggan was unarmed from the fact that the gun was not found on him. A subheading was also changed to reflect that any findings were part of an ongoing investigation rather than final conclusions. We apologise for these errors. The readers’ editor will write about this issue in his Open Door column on Monday. Link

Yes, knowledge is power

Craig Silverman — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:30:55 +0000

Oh typo:

Original was here.

Thanks, Corey!

IEEE Spectrum apologizes for headline with “lazy, sexist cliché”

Craig Silverman — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 12:18:25 +0000

An apology sent out by email to members of the IEEE and readers of its weekly Tech Alert email newsletter:

Dear Members and Readers,

Please accept our sincere apologies for the headline in today’s Tech Alert: “With the Arduino, Now Even Your Mom Can Program.” The actual title of the article is “The Making of Arduino.”

I’m an IEEE member, and a mom, and the headline was inexcusable, a lazy, sexist cliché that should have never seen the light of day. Today we are instituting an additional headline review process that will apply to all future Tech Alerts so that such insipid and offensive headlines never find their way into your in-box.

Spectrum’s insistence on editorial excellence applies to all its products, including e-mail alerts. Thank you for bringing this error to our attention. If you have any additional comments or recommendations, do not hesitate to contact me or other members of the editorial staff.

Sincerely yours,

Susan Hassler
Editor in Chief
IEEE Spectrum

Thanks, Craig!

Apology

Craig Silverman — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:00:40 +0000

THE Echo would like to apologise for last week’s page 13 article entitled ‘For Sale’ sign Goes Up On All Council Services.
A quote from the council’s chief executive Geoff Parker should have read: “This is the first response looked at concerning a report last November talking about the level of reductions (facing the council) being greater than ever.
“We need to take a hard look at service delivery and service transformation going forwards.”
We would also like to apologise for the headline which wrongly implied that all council services would definitely be going up for sale.
The council is to review how it runs its services with using outside providers just one of the options.

Not a drug dealer

Craig Silverman — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:30:45 +0000

John Collado, the Inwood man shot and killed by police on Wednesday, was not an alleged drug dealer as suggested in the headline. Collado had intervened in the arrest of a neighbor, who police believed was dealing drugs, when he was shot.

Talking bollocks for 75 years

Craig Silverman — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:00:57 +0000

Via the Media Blog:

Thoughtless hed

Craig Silverman — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:45:34 +0000

On Monday July 18th, 2011, we posted the headline on our Homepage, “Cash cab host kills pedestrian.” The headline should have read “Cash Cab involved in fatal accident.” We take these matters very seriously and deeply regret the error. Link

Here’s a related story that explains the incident in question.

Thanks, Andrew!

Shocking news

Craig Silverman — Sun, 22 May 2011 22:32:33 +0000

Not a good headline:

Via Axegrinder.

What’s a gay marriage upponent?

Craig Silverman — Thu, 12 May 2011 12:00:12 +0000

From the Long Island Press:

The story has been fixed, but no correction.

Thanks, Liz!

Check your hed

Craig Silverman — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 03:50:12 +0000

Feel free to call me juvenile, but this is an unfortunate headline (spotted by Gawker):

Reminds me of this from 2009:

Jets-Patriots game ends in confusion

Craig Silverman — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:31:09 +0000

Gawker, via Reddit, pointed out this unfortunate dummy text headline error in the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Worth reading: ‘Forget the boring facts â€“ all we want is a really clever headline’

Craig Silverman — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 13:00:14 +0000

Writing headlines is an art – and a challenge. Nothing we do in the print trade comes in for more criticism. Headlines are believed to typify everything that has always been wrong with journalism – brash, stupid, shameless, addicted to forceful expression at the expense of factual accuracy and intellectual discrimination. It's all true, of course, but nothing makes the ink pulse faster in the veins of a true old-fashioned newspaper hack than a really clever headline.

One day during the 1984 miners' strike, Arthur Scargill, the miners' leader, had the misfortune to be photographed at a rally waving his right hand in the air in a way that looked horribly like a Nazi salute. The Times ran the picture with a scrupulously fair caption that began: "Mr Arthur Scargill giving a greeting …" I know, because I wrote it. The Sun, a stranger to such inhibitions and an unabashed enemy of Scargill, adorned the picture with a headline: "Mine Führer". What an absolute disgrace, but how I wished I had written that headline!

A headline, of course, is supposed to showcase the most interesting aspect of the story. That is right and proper. But sometimes a fine line divides emphasising the exciting bit from constructing something that isn't quite warranted by the facts …

– via "Errors & Omissions: Forget the boring facts – all we want is a really clever headline," the latest column by Guy Keleny, the letters editor of the Independent (U.K.). His columns deal with matters of style, accuracy etc. at the paper, and are often amusing and instructive.

Metro Boston makes dumb error about being smart

Craig Silverman — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:55:24 +0000

The Tuesday edition of the Metro paper in Boston played up a recent Daily Beast survey that ranked the intelligence of different U.S. cities:

Actually. Boston was ranked first overall. The paper tucked a small correction at the bottom of page two in yesterday's paper:

But shouldn't a big front page error like that be followed by a front page correction?

Thanks, Joel!

A new Jewish tradition is born

Craig Silverman — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 12:00:08 +0000

A piece of correspondence on the letters page expressed the view that an attempt by Jewish activists on a sailing boat to break the sea blockade around Gaza this week had been important in "reasserting the Jewish tradition of standing up for the victims of injustice" (30 September, page 35). But due to an editing error, when a version of this sentence was rendered as the letter's headline a key element, the reference to victims, was missed out, so the heading read: Reasserting the Jewish tradition of defending injustice. Link

And:

Recounting how Ed Miliband's mother stood outside the play My Name Is Rachel Corrie handing out pro-Palestinian flyers, we misnamed the play Who Killed Rachel Corrie? (Man in the middle, 27 September, page 6).

… But editors sure do

Craig Silverman — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:09:36 +0000

Note the headline (click for larger):

Thanks, Deann!