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A video that appeared on newsday.com March 5-8 about a Garden City woman accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill her husband incorrectly included images of a man who is not her husband and who is unrelated to the story.
Due to an editing error, a letter about American flags by Tom Carbone of East Meadow, published Tuesday, mistakenly suggested that people should “buy now.” The sentence should have read, “But now, more than ever, we need to show our pride and support for our flag.”
U.S. special envoy George Mitchell was incorrectly identified as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pictured here, in a photo caption yesterday.
A story Monday about the use of ignition interlock devices by people convicted of driving while intoxicated misstated which vehicles are covered by the existing state law. Any vehicle driven by the person required to use the device would have to have the device. Link
Not sure if I’m the only person who finds that last sentence a bit convoluted…
A story Jan. 29 used an inappropriate word to describe patrons at the Massapequa Post 1066 of the American Legion. The word could be read as disparaging, which was not Newsday’s intention. Its use did not reflect Newsday’s policy to avoid loaded terms and imprecise language when reporting on individuals or groups. Link
The paper corrected the story in Nexis, which is good to see. Of course, it also means I don’t know what the offending word was.
UPDATE March 4: It appears the word was “barflies.” Reader Fev sent me a link to a letter to the editor sent to Newsday and massapequanews.com by Commander Jack Hipp of the Massapequa Post 1066-American Legion:
I am writing in regard to an article entitled “Taking Inventory of the Homeless” written by your reporter, Michael Amon in the Thursday, January 29, 2009 edition. This article did a public service by raising awareness of the plight of homeless veterans. However, in the last paragraph of this reporter’s article he refers to members of Massapequa Post 1066 of the American Legion as “barflies.” As the Commander of that Post, I vehemently object to the language used by this reporter towards members of my Post …
*Correction March 4: The headline of this post initially and incorrectly referred to Newsweek instead of Newsday. I regret the error. Thanks, Linda!
A story yesterday about members of Temple Beth El in Patchogue hosting Hispanic residents mischaracterized statements by Jeremy Pomerantz, a senior at Sayville High School. He participated in the event because he said he believes in community outreach. He said he does not feel ostracized as one of the few Jewish students at his school. Link
Here’s the original paragraph:
Nearby, Jeremy Pomerantz, a senior at Sayville High School who speaks Spanish, chatted with several families from Ecuador. He said he could empathize with their feeling of being ostracized because he is one of only a few Sayville High students who is Jewish.
My weekly Columbia Journalism Review online column is live on the site. The topic: obiticide. Death by media. An excerpt:
Death by Obiticide
I have some bad news to pass along this week: two people were killed as a result of sloppy journalism.
It happens more often than you might expect. It’s frequent enough, in fact, that I’ve come up with a name for this phenomenon: obiticide. Death by media error.
Newsday was one of the guilty parties, as evidenced by this correction:
In an article published yesterday about autism, some editions reported incorrectly that Vito “Billy” Albanese Jr. died at an out-of-state residential facility. Albanese is living in Brooklyn with his father.
British paper The Observer also published a correction to atone for shunting Ted Sorensen into an early grave:
Ted Sorensen, the author of Counselor, was unfortunately described as ‘the late’ in our Books pages last week; we are happy to report that John F Kennedy’s adviser and speechwriter is still very much with us. And Julia Blackburn, not Blackwell, wrote The Three of Us, published by Cape (Books, last week). Apologies.
Sorensen is something of a mistake magnet. Last year, The New York Times admitted that it had misspelled his name more than 135 times over the last fifty-plus years. If given the choice, though, Sorensen probably prefers having his name mangled to being knocked off. Still, he’s in good company. This Wikipedia page shows just how many famous people have been felled before their time by premature obituaries.
I dedicated an entire chapter of my book to obiticide (and you can read a chapter excerpt here), but that’s hardly put the issue to rest. Just this past year, newspapers have killed off Frank McCourt, Billy Graham (twice!), Muhammad Ali, Pat Robertson and Victor Willis of Village People fame. (Okay, it’s a bit of a stretch to include the last one.) …
In an article published yesterday about autism, some editions reported incorrectly that Vito “Billy” Albanese Jr. died at an out-of-state residential facility. Albanese is living in Brooklyn with his father. Link
A story yesterday characterized defendants in a lawsuit filed by the family of Marc Dawson, who drowned in a pool at the Huntington YMCA last winter, incorrectly as plaintiffs. Link
A story in yesterday’s business section about Steve Murphy’s Bloody Mary mix incorrectly referred to his mother as the late Mary Murphy.
The late brother of Hofstra lacrosse player Michael Colleluori was misidentified yesterday. His first name was Nick and he was not Michael’s twin.
Beatrice Freeman, whose obituary was published yesterday, is pictured above. The photo of a woman with a camera that appeared with the obituary showed her sister. Link
David Paterson is pictured above in the Hempstead High School 1969 yearbook. A photo yesterday incorrectly showed another student in some editions. Link
A photo yesterday showed suspected drug dealers sitting among Hempstead residents at a town-hall-style meeting. The caption did not make clear that some of those pictured were not suspected of crimes. Link
A photo published yesterday did not show Talani John- son, who died last week of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning. It showed Azariah Johnson, a surviving sibling. The correct photo appears here.
Regret the Error Columns on Columbia Journalism Review online From My Posterous
Jason Simonetti is a Mets fan. A story Tuesday said he was a Yankees fan. 
