Here's a heartbreaking New York Times correction to a story about New Yorker editor David Remnick's forthcoming Barack Obama book: "An earlier version of this post misquoted Mr. Remnick on his comparison between the book and a New Yorker article he had previously written. He said the book would not be a 'pumped up' version of the article; he did not say that it would not be a 'pimped out' version of the article." [Via] @2:10 PM 9
"An article in some editions on Jan. 30 about an exhibition celebrating an abandoned tenement on East Third Street and the squatters who made it their home in 1986 included an erroneous account from one squatter about his involvement. The squatter, Andrew Castrucci, who had said that he was present on the first day that squatters explored the building and that he used a sledgehammer to enter a rear doorway, now says he recalls being at the building sometime after squatters first broke in, but not on the first day, and that someone else first used the sledgehammer on the rear doorway of the tenement, at 292 East Third Street." @9:00 AM 1
"An appraisal on Dec. 31 about David Levine, the caricaturist for The New York Review of Books who died on Dec. 29, may have left the incorrect impression that the Russian writer Aleksandr Pushkin, the subject of one of Mr. Levine’s drawings, was homosexual. The description of Pushkin as “a gay man” was a reference to his demeanor, not his sexual orientation." @9:35 AM 13
The excellent Regret The Error's corrections of the year is up! If you've been paying attention to the Internet for the last couple of weeks you will have a pretty good idea of what takes top honors, but there's a lot to enjoy here. @10:50 AM 3
Corrections: Matt Taibbi, Goldman Sachs and Heidi Moore @10:20 AM
A letter from Jim Ledbetter, the editor of The Big Money, corrects a fact in our column yesterday on Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi's treatment at the hands of the financial press. In discussing a piece by Heidi Moore at The Big Money, we conflated the amount of Goldman Sachs' total mortgage assets with AIG with the amount of their government bailout funds. READ MORE 8
"A humorous feature by Jonathan Margolis about the difference between being Jewish and Jew-ish was illustrated with a picture of Margolis eating a bacon bagel in front of Carmelli's bakery in Golders Green Road, London. The bagel came from the bakery, but the bacon was sourced elsewhere. Carmelli's would like to make clear that they were not aware the picture was taken, they had no connection with the article, and all their products continue to be produced under the strictest observance of Kashrut from the Beth Din and Kedassia (Not strictly kosher, 30 November, page 7, G2)." @10:40 AM 8
"An article on Nov. 13 about Sean Bedford, the Georgia Tech offensive lineman who is also an aerospace engineering major, misstated the terms that David Scarborough, a senior research engineer, used in teaching the jet and rocket propulsion class. The terms were 'isentropic flow,' 'stagnation states' and 'adiabatic efficiency for the diffuser' – not 'isotropic stagnation state' and 'idiomatic deficiency for diffuser.'" @10:00 AM 7
Well, that's a kind of retirement: "The wrestler André 'the giant' Roussimoff has not retired from films, as we said. He died in 1993." @9:20 AM 3
But, Basically, Everyone Still Thinks The Guy Is A Dick @9:40 AM
"An article in some editions on Wednesday about Michael R. Bloomberg's narrow victory in the New York mayoral race referred incorrectly to a voter who said Mr. Bloomberg 'ran a smear campaign against a nonexistent opponent.' The voter, Stav Brinbaum, is a woman. The article also misstated, in some copies, the age of a second voter, Gerni Oster, who called Mr. Bloomberg 'egotistical and arrogant,' and misspelled, in some copies, the given name of a professor who said she voted for Mr. Bloomberg's Democratic rival. Ms. Oster is 32, not 34; the professor is Kathryn Krase, not Katherine." 0
The Corrections @1:20 PM
Interesting piece about a group of j-school students on a fact-checking mission: "Each morning, the students gather in a room to review the day's news and identify stories that seem questionable. Then they go to work, hitting the phones and other sources to pull suspicious stories apart and see if they hold up to scrutiny. As of today, roughly 80 percent of the stories checked have contained some form of factual mistake, according to instructor and Dutch journalist Theo Dersjant." 4
Spider Bites Man @8:55 AM
Paper of Record my ass: "The Really column last Tuesday, about the possibility that the loss of sight might heighten other senses, referred incorrectly to the main character in 'Daredevil,' a film adaptation of a comic book series. Radioactive material that caused the character, a lawyer, to go blind enhanced his remaining senses; his senses were not enhanced because he went blind." 8
Fit To Print @9:00 AM
Good morning! "An article on Tuesday about the sale of a house next door to President Obama's home in Chicago misstated the name of a dog that lives there and misidentified her owners. She is Rosie, not Roxy, and she belongs to the tenants of the property's carriage house – not to the owners of the property for sale, Bill and Jacky Grimshaw." 2
The Corrections Corrections @11:30 AM
One of my favorite corrections to date: "To judge from yesterday's page 34, there was some post-lunch napping by us on Sunday. This column referred to "neices", and a leader comment (In praise of … Norman Borlaug) termed its subject 'a famer's son from Iowa'." The "this column" in question is the actual Corrections column. 0
Wagner Experts Are An Obsessive Bunch @11:30 AM
A Guardian correction: "A comment piece about achievement and frailty in the lives of artistic greats mentioned Wagner's reminder to his favourite Vienna chambermaid to wear purple knickers next time they met. A Wagner expert points out that the pants in question were pink." 3
You Don't Say @9:05 AM
This probably does not even need to be mentioned, but, you know, sic: "An article on Tuesday about DreamWorks Studios' completion of a round of financing its and announcement of some film projects included an incorrect title for one of the movies. It will be called 'Dinner For ********,' a Yiddish vulgarism meaning jerks, used only once in the article. The film is not 'Dinner With ********.'" 9
David Monson Is Upbeat, Well-Dressed @9:00 AM
Also, he spells his surname with an 'o': "An article last Sunday about older alumni who have been helped by university career counselors referred imprecisely to David Monson, a 1990 graduate of Lehigh University, and a previous correction misspelled his name. Mr. Monson, who lost a job in February when his company was downsized, was speaking generally – not about himself specifically – when he said that newly unemployed people sometimes mope around the house in sweatpants." 2
Walter Cronkite's Memory Will Be Kept Alive Through 'Times' Corrections @8:53 AM
The revisions keep coming on the Walter Cronkite obituary—and this is not the one that Clark Hoyt chewed out Alessandra Stanley for, this is the actual obit. The latest appendage blames Cronkite's own autobiography for the errors, but here's the running tally thus far. READ MORE 13
Correction! Science Slightly Smarter Than We Assumed @3:30 PM
Earlier today, we referred to a study in the August issue of Pediatrics as a no-brainer, as it is titled "Paternal Depressive Symptoms During Pregnancy Are Related to Excessive Infant Crying." But it is so much more interesting than we assumed, due to the vagueness of English! Writes a smart reader, who actually, uh, reads Pediatrics: "This study was actually looking at whether fathers who are depressed before the kid pops out have babies that cry more." Now that is something that we would like to know before we get knocked up again. 2
Editing Error Makes Paper Blame Victims @1:20 PM
Correction time in the Telegraph: "Owing to an editing error, our report 'Women who dress provocatively more likely to be raped, claim scientists' (June 23) wrongly stated that research presented at the recent BPS conference by Sophia Shaw found that women who drink alcohol are more likely to be raped. In fact, the research found the opposite. We apologise for our error." Don't bother looking for the original article; it's been pulled. (It also got the part about provocative dress wrong.) [Via Felix Salmon.] 7
See? No One Can Even Keep The Whole "Landing On The Moon" Hoax Straight! @8:45 AM
An article on Tuesday about people who believe that the Moon landing was a hoax referred incorrectly to a picture in a feature on the Lens blog at nytimes.com. As correctly noted in the feature, "Dateline: Space," the photograph of an astronaut standing on the surface of the Moon shows Buzz Aldrin-not Neil Armstrong. (Mr. Armstrong took the picture.)
Mmm hmm. Sure he did. 6
Monstrous Occasion Of Censorship Actually Just Twitter Bug @8:11 AM
Corrections 2.0: "A G2 article called the censorship from Twitter of the hashtag (equivalent to a subject line) 'Mrs Slocombe's Pussy' the worst outrage against freedom of expression ever. We should have noted the explanation provided by Biz Stone, the founder of Twitter, for the problem users encountered searching for #MrsSlocombesPussy: a programming bug means that Twitter's search function does not work on hashtagged words of more than 16 characters. MrsSlocombesPussy is 17 (The strange case of Mrs Slocombe's vanishing pussy, 8 June, page 15)." 5
NYT Buries Truth About Undead Animator @9:05 AM
One of the knocks on the mainstream media is its function as "gatekeeper," deciding what news the public should know and which details should be withheld. Last week the Times—the greatest "gatekeeper" of all, unless we're talking about national security, in which case everything's fair game—inadvertently let slip an important secret about cryogenics which threatened to change public awareness of what lies beyond the death of the body; today they issue an important corrective. READ MORE 0
Maureen Dowd's Tiny Error @9:11 AM
Maureen Dowd picks up a funny little correction today, as her weekend column lifted a paragraph from a blog. And we do mean "little"! READ MORE 18
When corrections are not necessary. @9:43 AM
The Guardian flags this line, from Thursday: "In further proof of why old people should not be allowed to run media conglomerates, media magnate Rupert Murdoch has announced that News Corporation's newspaper websites will begin charging for access within a year". The tag? "Naked ageism." Perhaps, but is it necessarily incorrect? Also, now we're picturing Rupert Murdoch naked, which is more cause for an apology than the line itself, we think. 5
Correction: Perez Hilton @10:37 AM
In an assessment of Perez Hilton's oeuvre last month we suggested that the legendary draftsman's best days were behind him and, furthermore, that he had always lacked a facility for penile composition. There's an important lesson to be learned here: It is always too early to render final judgment on an artist's career. 0
Why Is The Batter Out Before The Ball Is Caught? @8:20 AM
There's something very Zen about this correction: "An article on April 14 about John Grunsfeld, an astronaut who is scheduled to lead the final servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope, referred incorrectly to the capacity of the indoor pool where Dr. Grunsfeld does some training for the mission. The pool holds 6 million gallons, not 11 million. The article also described incorrectly the events leading to his decision to return to the United States after working in Tokyo. Dr. Grunsfeld was living in a Zen monastery, meditating in the morning and then going to work at the University of Tokyo. He came home early one day and found the monks watching baseball on television, breaking the spell of his experience there. He did not find the monks playing baseball." 3
Joe Girardi sounds just like George Vescey! @7:54 AM
I guess if you're going to be misquoted it could be worse: "Because of an editing error, a Sports of The Times column on Saturday, about the new ballparks for the Yankees and the Mets, erroneously attributed, in some editions, an observation to Joe Girardi, the Yankees' manager, after his team won an exhibition game in its new home. He did not say, 'The bleacher fans chanted the names of the starters; Ronan Tynan sang "God Bless America" in person; and Sinatra delivered "New York, New York" after the last out, although not in person.' Those were the columnist's own words." 0
