Tag Archives: new york daily news

Slate story about rapper’s questionable claims leads to NY Daily News correction

September 7, 2009 – 4:34 pm

nydailynewsI placed a link to this remarkable Slate story on the What I’m Reading sidebar on this site last week. Now the New York Daily News has finally responded to the evidence uncovered by Slate. The News published this correction on Friday:

AN AUG. 23 Daily News story by a freelance reporter about the hip-hop artist Roxanne Shanté contained several statements that were, or may be, false.

Shanté told the reporter that she earned a Ph.D. from Cornell University, a statement that was confirmed in several publications on Cornell’s Web site. But the university has now informed us that it has no record of Shanté ever attending the school.

In addition, Shanté’s story that her early recording contract with Warner Music contained a clause under which the record company was obligated to pay for her education for life has been called into serious doubt in recent media reports.

Numerous attempts by the freelance reporter to find out about the contract from Warner Brothers Records led nowhere. Warner Music Group now claims it never had a contract with Shanté – only a distribution agreement with her label – and a former lawyer for the label says he is "confident" its contract with Shanté contained no education clause.

Shanté also claimed in the article that a dean at Marymount College helped her force Warner to honor the clause and obtain more than $200,000 in education expenses. But, after refusing to return numerous calls and e-mails during the preparation of the article, Marymount now states that Shanté attended the college for less than one semester.

Thanks, Eugene!

By Craig Silverman | Posted in Major Errors, Newspapers | Also tagged , | Comments

A convicted fraudster, but not a drug addict

July 6, 2009 – 8:00 am

nydailynewsAN ARTICLE IN Tuesday’s Daily News incorrectly stated that former Tyco chief executive Dennis Kozlowski was a substance abuser when he defrauded his company and investors. There is no credible evidence to support that statement. The story also misstated the amount of money involved in Kozlowski’s fraud on Tyco. It was $156 million. He also was found guilty of massive illegal stock sales, but the conviction did not specify an amount. Prosecutors charged the tainted sales totaled $280 million.

By Craig Silverman | Posted in Newspapers | Also tagged | Comments

Not a help in clearing his name (or face)

April 14, 2009 – 8:00 am

nydailynewsA photo in yesterday’s Daily News is incorrectly identified as that of Matias Reyes, the man who claims he raped a jogger in Central Park in 1989.
The photo actually shows Yusef Salaam, who was imprisoned in the attack, but later cleared of the rape. He denies involvement in the crime.
The News regrets the error.

By Craig Silverman | Posted in Newspapers | Also tagged , , | Comments

How allegations turn into facts

April 1, 2009 – 8:00 am

nydailynewsAn item in Mitch Lawrence’s “Slam Dunks” on Sunday stated that agent Jeff Schwartz financed a conditioning camp in California attended last summer by Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin. The item should have stated that this was only an allegation and that there was no proof of the allegation. The Daily News regrets any misunderstanding this item may have caused.

By Craig Silverman | Posted in Newspapers | Comments

Plagiarism at the NY Daily News

February 12, 2009 – 8:00 am

nydailynewsAn article published on the New York Daily News’ website stole two paragraphs and two quotes from a story published on the front page of the San Antonio Express-News. Bob Richter, the Express-News public editor, described the theft on his blog:

An editor at nydailynews.com, the Web site of the New York Daily News, acknowledged Thursday that a Web reporter, Rosemary Black, lifted, without attribution, part of a Feb. 3 Express-News story.
Plagiarism, or passing off another person’s work as though it were your own, is considered a cardinal sin of journalism.
The Express-News story, “Kissing at mall leads to fight in court,” by E-N staff writer Jeorge Zarazua, was published on Page 1.
The nydailynews.com story, published online a day later, “Kissing is no crime, say women arrested in San Antonio mall,” used, without crediting the Express-News, two quotations given only to Zarazua and two paragraphs crafted by Zarazua that led into the quotes.

After hearing from the Express-News, the Daily News updated the article to include the proper attribution. The paper also appended an editor’s note:

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story should have attributed quotes by certain individuals to reporting by the San Antonio Express-News.

This is about as weak as the paper’s earlier correction for twice misidentifying a woman as the “Manhattan Madam.” The note doesn’t mention plagiarism, and it ignores the two stolen paragraphs that preceded the copied quotes.

By Craig Silverman | Posted in Major Errors, Newspapers, Plagiarism | Also tagged , | Comments

NY Daily News sued over “Manhattan Madam” photo errors

February 8, 2009 – 3:00 pm

nydailynewsA Queens hairstylist is suing the New York Daily News after the paper twice identified her as the woman accused of helping run a prostitution service allegedly patronized by former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer. In two stories from last week, the paper published a photo of Bojana Vuleta and identified her as Kristin Davis, the alleged madam.

Vuleta’s photo first appeared with a February 1 article, “Madam’s Slippery Story of Sex Attack.” On Feb. 5, lawyers representing Vuleta sent a fax to the News informing the paper of its error. Then the incorrect photo appeared again the next day. The offending articles have been scrubbed off the News’ website, and the paper today published a very weak correction:

A PHOTO in Sunday’s and yesterday’s Daily News of a woman identified as the madam Kristin Davis was in fact another woman, Bojana Vuleta. The News regrets the error.

The News should have printed an apology. A basic correction isn’t enough, and the paper’s weak response only serves to compound the errors. It’s possible that the News published a basic correction to have something on the record that demonstrates the mistakes were unintentional. Their lawyers will probably offer Vuleta a more formal apology, possibly in the form of a corrective article or retraction. That would be an easier sell if the paper hadn’t printed her picture a second time. It’s more common to see a cash settlement in the U.K., but the News may need to open up its wallet.

Vuleta filed a complaint and is seeking $80 million in damages. As you can imagine, the New York Post is having a field day with the story. From its Saturday article:

A humble hairstylist from Queens is living proof you can’t count on what they print in the Daily News – she says the paper smeared her twice by running a picture of her and mistakenly identifying her as the madam who set up Eliot Spitzer’s sex trysts.
Now she’s suing for $80 million on a claim that the paper callously destroyed her reputation.
“All my life is ruined. I just feel insecure, scared and devastated,” said Bojana Vuleta, who cried at a news conference to announce the suit in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“I can’t believe they did such a mistake. They just don’t care,” said Vuleta, 29.
The suit calls the News “grossly irresponsible.”
News lawyer Anne Carroll declined to say whether any employees faced punishment …

Some important information from the Post article:

Vuleta said the shot was taken last Saturday by a photographer and reporter who did not identify themselves as News journalists, or try to check her name.
Her lawyer, Michael Hiller, tried on Thursday to alert News editor-in-chief Martin Dunn by phone about the error.
Hiller said he couldn’t get Dunn on the line, so he faxed a cease-and-desist letter to a number provided by News staffers.
Dunn and the rest of the Newsers must have been snoozin’ when the lawyer’s missive arrived – they put Vuleta’s picture in the paper again yesterday, on Page 2.
Vuleta said that because of the pictures, her hairstyling clients canceled appointments and accused her of living a double life.

The press release issued by Vuleta’s attorneys contains additional information about the lawsuit:

The Complaint also alleges that the Daily News falsely reported, among other things, that Ms. Vuleta:

  • lied to the police;
  • was sexually attacked;
  • was incarcerated for commission of various crimes; and
  • was drunk and slurring her words in public.

Ms. Vuleta, who has never been involved in any of the above acts and who does not even know the “Manhattan Madam,” has been harassed at her job and in her neighborhood by people who now claim to believe that she is living a double life. Ms. Vuleta’s image, tagged with the term, “Manhattan Madam,” has spread virally across the Internet, and is now linked with pornography, homosexuality, bestiality, transsexualism, sex toys, and similar topics.

By Craig Silverman | Posted in Major Errors, Newspapers | Also tagged , , | Comments

And we don’t know who it is

December 16, 2008 – 7:59 am

A PHOTO IN Sunday’s Daily News incorrectly identified a member of the Newburgh Free Academy swim team as Michael Mele, a person of interest in the disappearance of Laura Garza. The young man circled in the picture is not Mele.

By Craig Silverman | Posted in Newspapers | Also tagged , | Comments

Paper ends marriage

December 10, 2008 – 8:00 am

A story in yesterday’s Daily News incorrectly reported that city Board of Elections employee Valerie Vazquez-Rivera is the former wife of City Councilman Joel Rivera. They are still married.

By Craig Silverman | Posted in Newspapers | Comments

Bad for business

August 8, 2008 – 8:00 am

AN AUG. 3 article about the partnership of Jamie Masada and Richard Basciano in the Laugh Factory mistakenly reported that Basciano’s brother is the former Bonanno crime family boss known as “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano, who is serving a life sentence for murder. In fact, the two are not brothers.
The News regrets the error.

By Craig Silverman | Posted in Newspapers | Also tagged | Comments

NY Daily News tries to scrub away a bad error

April 30, 2008 – 9:55 pm

Earlier this morning, a story on the New York Daily News’ website reported that New York Rangers forward Sean Avery “was rushed to a Manhattan hospital Wednesday morning in cardiac arrest just hours after his team’s playoff loss.” The story also reported that Avery was “unconscious and not breathing.”

The information was attributed to “sources” — and it was far from the truth. In fact, Avery suffered a lacerated spleen. He did visit a hospital, but he was conscious, breathing, and not in cardiac arrest.

Roughly an hour after the News story went online, the Rangers issued a statement that contained the correct information. Canadian media outlets also ran stories with the correct information. So, how did the News correct its false report?

It didn’t. The paper scrubbed the story of its former claims and didn’t include a correction. Hockeyfights.com has a screengrab of the original story (and a great timeline of events). Now compare it with the post-scrub version.

Presto, no errors! No ethics, either.

The News sent hockey reporters and blogs into a frenzy with its shocking scoop and then tried to act like nothing happened. It’s ridiculous to have to point out that the paper has a responsibility to issue a correction and explain how the error occurred. Did a good source give it bad information? Did the reporters misunderstand the information they were given? There could be any number of reasons, but the News has chosen to scrub the record clean and remain silent. As is frequently the case today, other journalists and bloggers aren’t letting them get away with it.

Scrubbing is a fundamentally dishonest practice. Sure, you can fix a typo that doesn’t cause a factual error, or that doesn’t change the meaning of a sentence. But scrubbing even a minor factual error is unethical. It’s an attempt to save face that breaks the corrections contract (”if we make an error, we’ll correct it in a public manner”) that the press is supposed to have with readers.

Thanks to Andrew Bucholtz for the tip.

By Craig Silverman | Posted in Major Errors, Newspapers, Regret Articles, Uncategorized | Also tagged | Comments

Cop or accused murderer?

February 14, 2008 – 8:00 am

A CAPTION in some editions of yesterday’s Daily News incorrectly identified a photograph of Detective Sgt. Fred Santoro of the NYPD’s Organized Crime Investigations Division (above) as Frank Santoro, a defendant in a Bronx murder case. The News regrets the error.

By Craig Silverman | Posted in Newspapers | Also tagged | Comments

Paper (wrongly) ends Rich Eisen’s marriage*

December 20, 2007 – 8:00 am

THE NEWS mistakenly reported yesterday that former ESPN anchor Rich Eisen and his wife divorced after Philly newswoman Alycia Lane sent him racy photos. It is Lane who is divorced.

*Correction: The headline on this post originally misspelled “wrongly” and “Eisen.” We regret the errors. Thanks, Jay!

By Craig Silverman | Posted in Newspapers | Comments

Sounds like plagiarism to us…

May 21, 2007 – 8:00 am

Some portions of an article about Hollywood romantic comedies (Boy meets girl: it always ends in tears, Screen, May 10) should have been attributed to Joe Neumaier in a New York Daily News article on the same subject from January 28, 2007.
We regret the error Link

And Joe Neumaier agrees this is plagiarism. He contacted the Times to object to the theft of his work, and he also forwarded one of his letters to Romenesko. The Times’ response appears to be entirely inadequate in this matter. It needs to formally name the reporter responsible (Ian Johns) and investigate their previous work for other examples of plagiarism. And it should offer a proper apology to Neumaier. His letter:

To Whom It May Concern:

I’m the Sunday Features Editor with the New York Daily News, and read this story link via MovieCityNews.com.
However, I believe a piece from Ian Johns in the Times of London (online edition), May 10, 2007, is, in part, a plagiarizing of a story I wrote in the Daily News published Jan. 28, 2007 (see attachment), in which my lede was: “If the current state of romantic comedy films could be summed up by a self-help book, here’s a suggested title: ‘We’re Just Not That Into You Anymore.’ ”

Writer Ian Johns’ lede: “If the current state of romantic comedy films could be summed up by a self-help book, a suggested title might be: We’re Just Not Connecting Any More.”

Later, I wrote, “…audiences and romantic comedies are going through a bad patch, and it’ll take more than a pint of Haagen-Dazs and a crying jag to forget …”Must Love Dogs” (John Cusack is neutered by Diane Lane)…”

Mr. Johns: “It’ll take more than a pint of Haagen-Dazs to forget the joylessness of Must Love Dogs (John Cusack neuters Diane Lane) and Failure to Launch (Sarah Jessica Parker nudges slacker Matthew McConaughey from his parents’ home).”

There are other similarities in tone and word usage. Simply lifting a quote from the industry analyst I used in my piece and attributing that as “…told the Daily News…” is insufficient. (Per Mr. Johns’ piece: ‘According to Robert Bucksbaum, of the US box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations, romantic comedies have gone off-track. As he told the New York Daily News recently: “The genre’s hokey now, which is why a film like The 40-Year-Old Virgin felt new. It was a movie made for men that women also wanted to see. That may be the way of the future: unless these films have got another attraction, they’re going to be a tough sell.’)

I expect an explanation, and expected more from the Times of London.

Joe Neumaier
Sunday Features Editor/Feature Film Writer
New York Daily News

Thanks for the tip, Jessica!

By Craig Silverman | Posted in Major Errors, Newspapers, Plagiarism | Also tagged , | Comments Off

How to become a “Fat Actress”

November 8, 2006 – 8:00 am

IN AN ITEM in yesterday’s paper on how Kirstie Alley lost 75 pounds, it was incorrectly stated that she “ate . . . Twenty-six, seven, eight thousand calories a day.” The correct figures are six, seven, eight thousand calories a day.

By Craig Silverman | Posted in Newspapers | Also tagged | Comments Off