Regret the Error » slate

Fuzzy (hypothetical) numbers etc.

Craig Silverman — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:30:11 +0000

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

Of Sarah Palin and big butts

Craig Silverman — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:40:29 +0000

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!

Another brick in the Autobot

Craig Silverman — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:47:22 +0000

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!

Lessons in geography etc.

Craig Silverman — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:30:12 +0000

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

Um, okay

Craig Silverman — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:00:41 +0000

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

Fuzzy numbers etc.

Craig Silverman — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:30:13 +0000

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

More Potter errors

Craig Silverman — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 12:00:54 +0000

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 werewolf Fenrir Greyback, but did not become a werewolf himself since Greyback was not in wolf form at the time. He did adopt some wolf-like characteristics, such as a preference for very rare steaks. Link to both

Know your shameful journalism history

Craig Silverman — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:00:57 +0000

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

About that French “ban” on reporters saying Twitter and Facebook

Craig Silverman — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 14:00:46 +0000

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 this same mistake, yet I’ve seen few corrections.

A perp walk for the ages

Craig Silverman — Mon, 23 May 2011 12:00:33 +0000

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

Hypercorrection

Craig Silverman — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:00:53 +0000

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 centuries. Actually the fight's been going on since about the middle of the 20^th, and it's not quite accurate to call "impartial" the "original" sense of disinterested for reasons outlined in an update to the piece. Link

Lose a letter, lose the meaning

Craig Silverman — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:00:29 +0000

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

Green Bay, Florida

Craig Silverman — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 13:52:37 +0000

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

History lesson

Craig Silverman — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 13:49:23 +0000

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!

Rep. Giffords errors continue

Craig Silverman — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 13:00:10 +0000

"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 Shafer misspelled the Twitter alias @weareyourfek and the name James von Brunn. He also stated, incorrectly, that SarahPAC took down its "crosshairs" map. The Mediaite report on which that statement was based was subsequently retracted.Link

See my previous reporting here.