Tag Archives: historical errors

History lesson

January 8, 2009 – 8:00 am

saexpressBecause of a reporting error, a travel story on Sunday’s Page 2K about the Portuguese town of Oporto incorrectly stated that England colonized Portugal. England only traded with Portugal. Link

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History lesson

December 1, 2008 – 8:00 am

A letter on Tuesday’s editorial page, “Impeach ‘em both,” incorrectly stated that President Nixon was impeached. In fact, Nixon resigned before his impeachment went before the full House of Representatives.

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History lesson

July 11, 2008 – 2:20 pm

Old Sparky: The compilers and suppliers of our On This Day column deserve to learn a lot more about electric execution. The recidivist column wrongly stated that the first electric chair execution took place on July 7, 1890. In fact, it was Wednesday, August 6, 1890 in New York – ironically then known as The Electric City of the Future – that wife-killer William Kemmler became the first man executed in an electric chair. Although Dr George C. Fell said Kemmler “never suffered a bit of pain”, a reporter who also witnessed the execution wrote in the New York Herald the next day that “strong men fainted and fell like logs upon the floor”.

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“…a stupid, blind error, the sort that leaves you smiting your forehead”

April 24, 2008 – 8:00 am

LA Times critic Mary McNamara received a flood of emails from readers after she wrote that George Washington had served one term as president. The paper’s Readers’ Representative Journal has a post up that includes a mea culpa from McNamara. It’s also on the Show Tracker blog. She’s clearly mortified to have slipped up on a basic historical fact (”my daddy was a history teacher!”):

…when I wrote in Saturday’s story about HBO that George Washington stepped down from the presidency after serving only one term, it was just a stupid, blind error, the sort that leaves you smiting your forehead, literally and repeatedly, the moment it is pointed out to you.

For the six or seven people living in the Los Angeles Basin who did not e-mail to correct me, he served two terms, not one. And my daddy was a history teacher! Ever since the first e-mail hit my box (on Friday afternoon, about two seconds after the story went up on the website), I have been bathed in hot shame. But I want to thank you, well, most of you, for the gentle tone you took — most clever subject line award goes to: Is a TV Critic Smarter Than a 5th Grader? — though I certainly deserved all those incredulous exclamation marks as well. And yes, I did go to college. Graduated even.

Also, for the record, we entertainment writers are held just as accountable for flubbed historical references as any other journalist. The correction runs today online and in tomorrow’s print edition, and I will try to comfort myself with the knowledge that a good, strong dose of humility is always good for the soul. Especially the soul of a critic.

Thanks, Tim!

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Sports and politics don’t mix

January 24, 2008 – 8:00 am

During ESPN’s coverage of the Australian Open match Jan. 17 between Marcos Baghdatis of the Republic of Cyprus and Marat Safin of Russia, an ESPN map of Cyprus and analyst Cliff Drysdale’s characterizations of it left open the possibility for misinterpretation by not specifying the island’s political situation.

According to Kostas A. Lavdas, professor of Hellenic Studies at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Boston, a crisis on the island in 1974 led to a division that, nine years later, resulted in Turkish leaders declaring independence for the northern part of the island. Only Turkey recognized this entity, however. The only internationally accepted state was and remains the Republic of Cyprus (which is based on the Greek Cypriot population). The enmity between the Greek and Turkish communities on the island has created a social barrier.

It was not the intent of ESPN or any of its analysts to discuss the territorial declarations of the island’s inhabitants. Rather, the intent was to offer some background on Baghdatis and where he lived. The comments by Drysdale, who referred to Baghdatis as hailing from the “Greek part of Cyprus,” could be interpreted as political but were meant as communal. Link

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Know thyself

January 7, 2008 – 8:00 am

An article last Sunday about the first ball dropped in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, in 1907, referred incompletely to the origins of the tradition. It was begun by Adolph S. Ochs, the publisher of The New York Times, as part of an annual promotional celebration outside the Times Building, which had been the newspaper’s home for three years. The first ball was dropped from a structure atop the building. Link

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History lesson

November 30, 2007 – 8:00 am

“Border War” game: In Saturday’s Sports section, an article on the Kansas-Missouri football rivalry said the game is called the “Border War” and dates to before the Civil War. However, it is the name “Border War” that dates to before the Civil War, when Missouri was a slave state and Kansas was a free state, not the game itself. The same article said “fans still argue about a massacre in Lawrence supposedly caused by a band of Missouri fighters shortly before the Civil War.” A massacre in Lawrence is well documented by historians; however, it occurred during the Civil War, when Confederate guerrillas attacked the abolitionist town. Link

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Pardon our error

November 26, 2007 – 8:00 am

Presidential turkey pardon: A caption in the Nation in Brief in Wednesday’s Section A said that the Thanksgiving tradition of pardoning turkeys dated to President Truman. The Truman Library has been asked for years about that claim but has found no evidence to support it. Link

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History lesson

November 12, 2007 – 8:00 am

An article yesterday about the anger on the streets of Pakistan over President Pervez Musharraf’s declaration of emergency rule misstated the circumstances of Pakistan’s independence 60 years ago. It was created when the British partitioned colonial India into the states of India and Pakistan. It was not granted independence by India. Link

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Know thyself

November 8, 2007 – 8:00 am

An advertisement for the Guardian and Observer’s new digital archive, which ran in the paper on November 3, 5 and 6, said, in error, that three US presidents were assassinated between 1821 and 1975; in fact four were assassinated during that time. Link

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