Regret the Error

 

A couple of days ago I bought a new set of shelves for in my bedroom/office, and decided to sort out the excess books on my lounge bookshelf. I moved some of the women's writings, and some writings which interested me – including “The Stories that Changed Australia” - a 50-year look at 4-Corners, Jane Caro's “Destroy the Joint” and Richard Dawkin's “The Greatest Show on Earth: the Evidence for Evolution”. Another one I found in my lounge was “Regret the Error” by Craig Silverman. It was published back in 2007 and I bought it some time after that, but it sat in my bookshelf and I hadn't read it. I started this week.

This book seemed to be close to information I had already gotten from Snopes: “rumour has it”. Founded by David Mikkelson in 1995, Snopes has grown since then because it is “widely regarded by folklorists, journalists, and laypersons alike as one of the World Wide Web's essential resources.” Often, when I found something which didn't sound right, I'd check it out in Snopes. (I also used to check facts with the ABC, which now doesn't seem to be doing what they used to – the most recent I found was 1 July 2016.)

Craig Silverman's original website was regrettheerror.com. It's now part of Poynter's, which advertises as “a global leader in journalism”. Silverman's last issue was in March 2015 and the Regret the Error page in Poynter leads to some issues written by other writers as late as August 2015. Whilst Poynter says about themselves that “[t]he Poynter Institute is a global leader in journalism. It is the world’s leading instructor, innovator, convener and resource for anyone who aspires to engage and inform citizens in 21st Century democracies”, Silverman is now the media editor on BuzzFeed in Toronto.

Reading his book intrigued me. Checking other websites he mentioned, I found FactCheck, which is a “Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center” and says “We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases.” NewsBusters is a Trump supporter website, which says they are “exposing & combatting Liberal media bias”. PolitiFact is “a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others who speak up in American politics.” Why don't I believe NewsBusters? Perhaps Politifact are more believable because they don't simply say they support one political party.

Two other websites in the book don't seem to be available online – at least, not for me today: NewsTrust.net and StinkyJounalism.org. 

Silverman looked at early publications of newspapers by Hearst and Pulitzer during 1897-1898 which fought a writing war, saying “That time is commonly viewed as a low point in journalism, a period when the two press magnates sought to outdo each other with the most lascivious, outrageous, and attention-grabbing reporting possible. In the course of trying to destroy each other, they came close to destroying the reputation of the press itself.”

Later, throughout the book he provided sections called “The Corrections” where newspapers, who had themselves printed incorrect information, reprinted what could have been classed as an apology. The sections looked at various issues, and I've printed some that amused me. Have a look.

“Multiple offenses” (p87): “A brief report incorrectly referred to Nottingham as the gun crime capital of England and the least-secure university town with a third students beings victims of muggings (University crime, August 17). In fact, the first description is untrue, the second was based on statistics for the whole of Nottinghamshire, not just the city, and the third was a national statistic. - Times (UK)”

“Names and titles” (p98): “Wednesday's editorial about the lobbyist Jack Abramoff gave the wrong name for the President of Gabon in one reference. It should have been President Bongo, not President Gabon. - New York Times”

“Typos” (p107): “A review of Wikinomics on Tuesday should have said, “This is not another book about profitless Internet start-ups.” The word “not” was inadvertently omitted. - USA Today”

“Fuzzy numbers” (p128): “Any number divided by zero is undefined, not zero as reported last Sunday in a Starship article about the number zero. Zero divided by zero is also undefined. The Star regrets the error. - Toronto Star”

“Death by media” (p181): “Because of incorrect information provided to The Sun, an article about Charles Village in Sunday's Maryland section reported that Precious the Skateboarding Dog had recently gone “to the great skateboard in the sky”. Precious is still alive. - Baltimore Sun

This correction was printed in June 2006. Precious, unfortunately, only lived for a further month – see the article at the bottom.

“Misidentifications and personal errors” (p203): 

 

A picture on the cover of the Real Estate Section Friday was incorrect. The picture was not the gangster Al Capone, but the actor Rod Steiger playing Capone. - Newsday (New York)

“Strange and sublime” (p249): “For the Record... In the December issue, we mistakenly ran the box cover art of the first “Swallow My Squirt” from Elegant Angel with our review of “Swallow My Squirt 2”. Here's the correct box. We swallow our pride and apologize. - Adult Video News”

If you read this book, enjoy it. If you don't, then take notice of what you read in newspapers or online – errors happen every day. I hope there are many editors or publishers who, for errors in their newspaper or online, will say that they“Regret the Error”.