We incorrectly identified the title of two books by author Mitch Albom as Afternoons with Morrie and The Five People You Most Want to Meet in Heaven. They are actually called Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Link Report an error
In this interview, we attributed the prediction that Dewey would defeat Truman in 1948 to the poll’s reliance on the telephone, which slanted the sample toward wealthier people who owned phones. In fact, that problem occurred in 1936, when the Literary Digest surveyed people whose addresses were taken from phone books. Link Report an error
In some versions of this story, we incorrectly described New Mexico as “the swing state next to Nevada.” New Mexico and Nevada are not contiguous. Link Report an error
We incorrectly described Baron Hill as “a local attorney” in southeastern Indiana. In fact, Hill has never been a lawyer. Link Report an error
Some versions of this story incorrectly said Daniel Day-Lewis acted in the movie The Scarlet Letter. The film actually starred Gary Oldman. Link Report an error
In the story, we described William Ayers as “a member of the radical Weather Underground responsible for deadly bombings in the 1960s.” In fact, no one was killed or injured in any of the bombings that the group claimed responsibility for, and most of their activities, including bombings, were conducted in the 1970s. Link Report [...]
In describing the plot of the musical The Rothschilds, the story referred to “Germany’s Prince Metternich.” Prince Metternich was an Austrian statesman and diplomat; Germany wasn’t a nation until 1871. Link And: Some versions of this story incorrectly referred to Heineken as a German beer. Heineken is produced in the Netherlands. Link Report an error
The audio version of this story described the City Hall in Elgin, Ore., as “makeshift” and “portable.” It is actually a permanent building constructed to house city offices. Link Report an error
In this interview, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is described as an assassin and as head of “one of the most gruesome execution factories that’s ever gone in record.” While many details of the Iranian president’s background remain unclear, the available evidence does not support those allegations. Link Report an error
The story says that “nearly all workers” pay into an unemployment fund. In fact, unemployment insurance is funded by employers. Link The introduction to this story says the 2001 anthrax attacks “shut down the U.S. postal system.” Some post offices were closed by the attacks, but mail continued to be delivered. Link In some broadcasts, [...]
Some versions of this story incorrectly said: “One out of every two Black Americans is infected with HIV, according to a new report from the Black Aids Institute.” In fact, as the story now says, “One in two persons newly infected with HIV in the U.S. is African-American … ” Link Report an error
As you’re no doubt aware, a photograph purporting to show the successful test firing of four missiles by Iran was revealed to have been manipulated. In fact, only three missiles were successfully fired. The image, provided by the Iranian government, was distributed by Agence-France Presse and used by many media outlets. You can view some [...]
The audio for this story incorrectly describes House speaker Nancy Pelosi as “a chief backer of the war funding.” In fact, Speaker Pelosi voted against the Iraq war spending bill. Link Report an error
In the broadcast version of this story, we stated, “The Apollo 10 astronauts even named their command module ‘Charlie Brown,’ and the lunar rover ‘Snoopy.’ It may be telling that Charlie got to orbit the moon, but Snoopy landed there, while Charlie just circled in darkness.” The modules were named “Charlie Brown” and “Snoopy,” but [...]
In this story, a voter suggests that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has made anti-gay comments. NPR has not been able to find any evidence that Wright made such comments. Wright has supported the ordination of gay clergy. He also started a singles group for gay and lesbian members at his church. Our story should have [...]
Over the past couple of weeks, Regret readers have been debating the necessity of this NPR apology: In our newscast at 9:30 a.m. ET on Feb. 14, the phrase “dark continent†was used by one of our newscasters in reference to President Bush’s trip to Africa. This was totally inappropriate and offensive, and we apologize. [...]
In our newscast at 9:30 a.m. ET on Feb. 14, the phrase “dark continent” was used by one of our newscasters in reference to President Bush’s trip to Africa. This was totally inappropriate and offensive, and we apologize. We will apologize on air in the 9:30 a.m. ET newscast on Monday, Feb. 18, for allowing [...]
In the broadcast version of this commentary, Daniel Schorr referred to a human rights activist having trouble delivering a petition to the American Embassy in the United Arab Emirates. According to The Washington Post, which reported the story, the incident occurred in Bahrain, not the United Arab Emirates. Link Report an error
Early versions of the radio story mistakenly identified the former FBI director. His name is J. Edgar Hoover. Link Report an error
Equals a marriage made in heaven as far as we’re concerned. On Sunday’s edition of Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, the wonderful news quiz show that airs on NPR, Stephen Colbert was brought on to do the Not My Job segment. To our joy, the program decided to quiz him about media errors, and it [...]
Our recent post about the state of online corrections was published before an inspired project by the San Francisco Chronicle. The paper is, as far as we know, the first newspaper in the world to introduce audio corrections. Last week it launched Correct Me If I’m Wrong, a regular podcast that will feature selected voicemail [...]
Our obsessive cataloging of corrections occasionally enables us to spot a pattern. Whether it’s the failure of newspapers to identify someone they initially misidentified in a photo, or the inability of newspapers to accurately report on, well, newspapers, we sometimes feel as though we’re listening to a broken record. Such was the case when we [...]
