In the Sept. 21 “Moneybox,” Annie Lowrey miscalculated a hypothetical scenario about how long it would take Mark Zuckerberg to become a trillionaire, saying it wouldn’t be possible within 50 years. Under the hypothetical (though highly unlikely) circumstances, he would reach $1 trillion well within 50 years. Link Report an error
This story originally misidentified the title of the Sir-Mix-a-Lot song that Sarah Palin sang along with. It is “Baby Got Back,” not “I Like Big Butts.” Link Thanks, Jim! Report an error
In a Sept. 15 “Science,” Daniel Engber mistakenly referred to the latest Transformers movie as Dark Side of the Moon. That’s the title of a Pink Floyd album. The movie is subtitled Dark of the Moon. Link Thanks, James! Report an error
In an Aug. 11 “Slatest” blog post, Peter Fulham stated that Ellis Island is home to the Statue of Liberty. The statue is on Liberty Island. In the Aug. 8 “Well-Traveled,” a map mislabeled Germany and Austria. Link to both Report an error
In the July 22 “Movies,” Dana Stevens originally and incorrectly stated that the childhood home where the lovin’ feelin’ came creeping in belonged to Jamie. It belonged to Dylan. Link Report an error
In a July 18 “Politics,” David Weigel misstated the number of Rebuild the Dream house parties over the weekend of July 16. There were 1,600, not 15,000. Link Report an error
In a June 23 “Brow Beat” post, Chris Wilson wrote that J.K. Rowling’s new Pottermore website would have 18,000 pages of extra content; the correct figure is 18,000 words. And: In a June 17, “Brow Beat” post, Chris Wilson stated that the Harry Potter character Bill Weasley is a werewolf. He was injured by the [...]
In the June 23 “Press Box,” Jack Shafer misspelled Jimmy in the name of Janet Cooke’s fabricated 1980 Washington Post article, “Jimmy’s World.” Link Report an error
In a June 8 ” Explainer ,” Brian Palmer suggested that the French government had banned reporters from using the words Facebook and Twitter altogether. In fact, reporters are permitted to use the company names, just not as generic references to social media. Link It seems to me that a lot of news organizations made [...]
In a May 18 “Crime” column, Christopher Beam incorrectly stated that Timothy McVeigh’s perp walk lasted three hours. It occurred three hours before his official arrest. Link Report an error
Because of an editing error, the April 7 "Good Word" stated that pompon was an alteration of the word pompom, rather than vice versa. "Pompon" is the hypercorrect word. Also in the same article, author Ben Yagoda originally stated that prescriptivists have been fighting on behalf of the "original" sense of disinterested (meaning "impartial") for [...]
In a Feb. 22 "Slatest" item headline, Meredith Simons accidentally omitted the letter o from the word account, which resulted in an unfortunate typo. Link Report an error
In the Feb. 7 Slatest, Sonia Van Gilder Cooke misidentified the Green Bay Packers as a Florida team and misspelled Pittsburgh in a headline. Link Report an error
In the Feb. 7 "Spectator," Ron Rosenbaum originally transposed the words former and latter, inadvertently suggesting that the Allies used Hitler to defeat Stalin, rather than vice versa. Link Thanks, Hannah! Report an error
"Toxic politics assassinates American spirit," Jan. 12, Scottsdale Republic, Page 4; Northeast Phoenix Republic and Phoenix Republic, Jan. 14, Opinions page: The column should have said that Sarah Palin placed crosshairs over a map showing Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' district, rather than over a picture of the congresswoman. Link And: In the Jan. 8 "Press Box," Jack [...]
In the Nov. 30 "Green Lantern," Brian Palmer stated that a treadmill produces 110 tons of carbon dioxide annually. It's 110 pounds. Link Report an error
In a Nov. 2 "DoubleX," Emily Bazelon misstated the name of Linda McMahon's yacht as Sexy Beast. The correct name is Sexy Bitch. She also referred to a group of candidates as hopefuls for the U.S Senate, though some on the list were gubernatorial candidates. Link Report an error
In a Oct. 27 "Politics," John Gravois referred to a government seizure of "134,000 metric tons of marijuana." If that were true, one drug bust would have accounted for almost three years' worth of global marijuana production. The correct figure is 134 metric tons. Link Report an error
In the Oct. 27 "Press Box," Jack Shafer misspelled Barack Obama's first name. Link Report an error
If you're a would-be plagiarist looking for a place to pilfer, I'd advise you to think twice before stealing from Slate. Two years ago, Slate's Jody Rosen busted a Texas weekly for plagiarizing. And last week, another Slate writer, Grady Hendrix, revealed publicly that his work has been stolen by a magazine, India Today. Both [...]
In the Sept. 23 Slatest, Jessica Loudis misidentified Apple co-founder Steve Jobs as an employee of Google. Link Report an error
I forgot to add a link to my Columbia Journalism Review column from last week, which provides journalists with a wealth of advice and resources for online verification. An excerpt: Content Analysis Author – Is someone identified as the author of the site or article? Google them, look for a personal website. If their byline [...]
Slate published an interesting article by Jeremy Singer-Vine about “What the politics Web site [Politico] deletes from its articles without telling anyone.” From the piece: … How often does Politico, in the din of the news cycle, make significant changes to its copy after publishing it—without telling readers? Part of the answer, of course, depends [...]
In a June 17 “Politics,” John Dickerson misquoted BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg as calling residents of the Gulf “little people.” He called them “small people.” Link Report an error
Here’s what showed up in a slate reader’s RSS feed (click for larger): The article has been fixed, though no correction was added. Thanks, Andrew! Report an error
