'A formal 21-gun salute'

 

One wonders if it took 10 days to notice the error, 10 days to track down the relevant information or 10 days to convince the writer that there really, really is a difference.

True, the three rifle volleys is not a "formal 21-gun salute" (or a 19-gun salute, or a 17-gun salute, or any of the other specified numbers), but that's because it's not a cannon salute -- not because it isn't "formal" (which, you'd like to think someone attending the funeral would have noticed, it is). None of which is any harder to look up now than it was 10 days ago. If it's too late for that prophylactic step, sometimes the best course is just to admit that you screwed up and be done with it.

Meeting on a jet plane

How are things on the opera/romance front, Nation's  Newspaper of Record?

An article on Page 10 about the challenges of contemporary opera performance misstates the subtitle of a Robert Ashley opera being revived in New York. The full title is “Improvement (Don Leaves Linda),” not “Improvement (Don Meets Linda).”

Corrections, policies and trust

Step forward, anyone* who hasn't made that million/billion swap at some point, even if you caught yourself right before going off the road, and even if you saw all the zeroes in your head as you were writing. We all make mistakes, and we all make them in stuff we know like the back of our hands. That's why we read over what we've written and employ editors and do other things to fend off the consequences of the human condition, because one of those consequences is that we all screw up.

You can see the Times's stylistic reasoning emerging in the first and fourth corrections. In the first, OK -- the thought of the writer banging their head on the nearest desk at the thought of having screwed up the million/billion thing probably means punishment enough, so no explanation of how the error came about. In the fourth, sure. Somebody subtracted the birth year from the current year and forgot to ask when the birthday was, or grabbed an outdated bio sheet, or something; there's nothing wrong with making clear that this bit of carelessness belongs with people the paper trusted, not the paper itself.

The other two ought to be a little more troubling:

An article on Monday about President Trump’s continuing conflicts with Congress misstated Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s schedule during the weekend. Her staff said she was in Washington; she had not, as the article stated, left town.

As in the fourth correction, this one suggests that the writer(s) took someone's word for something and didn't do the requisite checking. Is there some reason we're not told who provided the wrong information about the speaker's whereabouts? Because that seems to go to the question of why some people's word is too good for the Times to check, and I'd like to know some of the social/political correlates of that decision.

I can't track down from here the original offense described in the third correction, but it does seem to raise a similar question. The story is about the president's live phone call to a Fox host on Saturday night, in which red herring was one of many dishes on offer. Again: Who took what at face value without checking, and who's getting the benefit of the information subsidy here? Or is this just a case of a writer putting 2 and 2 together and getting 22?

I don't mean to suggest that these "prove" a bias. (I have a methods class to teach tonight, and at some point over the semester, I'll end up quoting a cherished methodology mentor: If you want proof, go to seminary. We're in the probability business.) An appropriate sample of Times corrections might even show that directional partisan trust is normally distributed over a year's worth of blunders.** But if the Times wants to keep suspicious from starting, it could stand to look at its conventional wisdom on when a correction decides to distribute blame. Newsroom politics aren't the only ones at stake.

* OK, "anyone who's written for publication in a hurry more than, like, five or six times." Sheez.
** Which is not the same as a year's worth of stories, but we'll get into that later.

Waiting for the correction

Sure, everybody types on autopilot sometimes, and step forward the lucky soul who's never entered "D-N.C." after a Republican's name,* and obviously this is the sort of thing that slipped through in the days of fully staffed desks, but still -- do they REALLY all look alike to the copydesk these days?

This appears to be the AP's wording; I saw it in the local Gannett fishwrap, which promises on page 2A every day to correct "all errors of fact." I'm not holding out a lot of hope on this one, but there was a day when even something so incredibly trivial as confusing the leader of one Korea with the other would have merited a correction in a metro daily.

* Or vice versa; the force of habit knows no party

On the bringy deep

Damn, Nation's Newspaper of Record! How weird do you think people in the South talk, anyway?

Because of an editing error, an article last Wednesday about the Southern cooks Todd Richards and Virginia Willis misstated Mr. Richards’s recollection about one of the ways his father helped shape his sense of Southern food. He said his father was “brining chickens all over the house,” not “bringing” them.

Nice to see that the Times's beloved "false titles" rule yet survives the hand that mocked it, too.

Emanuelle in ... wait, what?

Fetchez la vache, Nation's Newspaper of Record:

An article on Thursday about Vladimir V. Putin’s recent opportunities to project his power misspelled the given name of the president of France. He is Emmanuel Macron, not Emanuelle.

Aside from the general can't-anybody-here-play-this-game-ness, my favorite part of the correction is the coy intrusion of Times style. Apparently we're supposed to know this Putin fella well enough that we don't need to be told which country he's projecting his power from, but we still need the "V" to distinguish him from Vladimir D. Putin or Vladimir "Babycakes" Putin or any of the other Putins who came to Casablanca for the waters.

What if you had this book ...

... and it had all these words in it, and it told you where they came from, and it was in alphabetical order for your convenience! Right, Nation's Newspaper of Record?

This appears to have been the offending text:

The Bight gets its name from its appearance: From space, it looks as if a giant bit into the southern coast of Australia. The crescent-shaped bay runs for more than 700 miles, lined by the longest stretch of sea cliffs in the world. 
 
And that pesky book with all the words? It gives "a bending or curved geographical feature, as an indentation in a coast line or mass of ice, a bend in a river, etc." from Old English and "a stretch of water between two headlands; a bay, esp. a shallow or slightly receding bay" dating to 1555.

The fundamental things still apply: If you don't know what it means, look it up. If you do know what it means, look it up anyway.
 

RTFB

Dear Nation's Newspaper of Record:

A review on Dec. 3 about “GenerationWealth,” by the photographer Lauren Greenfield, referred incorrectly to one of the book’s conclusions. Greenfield does refer to the media’s influence on people’s obsession with wealth and fame; it is not the case that “she never mentions” that influence. The review also misstated the provenance of some of the book’s images; many of them accompanied reports that appeared in major publications, not “most” of them.

Did you think about reading the book before you reviewed it? Just wondering.

Gordie Howe hat trick

When three of the day's corrections are from stories about Canada, you're entitled to wonder if the Nation's Newspaper of Record gets anything right at all about our neighbor to the south:

The Inside The Times article on Friday about the close attention paid to indigenous people and their culture in Canadian media relative to media in the United States misstated the province in which indigenous groups account for nearly 17 percent of the population. It is Manitoba, not British Columbia.

An article on Monday about communities in Northern Canada affected by receding sea ice gave the incorrect age for Derrick Pottle when he moved to Happy Valley-Goose Bay from Rigolet as a child. He was 11 years old, not 9.*

... An article on Monday about a New York Times Twitter account being accidentally locked referred incorrectly to the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is a single province, not two separate provinces.

There is also, of course, the usual confusion about proper names:

Because of an editing error, a subheading in the Scoreboard column on Saturday about a fine for an Arizona Cardinals receiver misstated his surname. As the article correctly noted, he is Larry Fitzgerald, not Fitzpatrick.

A film review on Friday about the documentary “Eric Clapton: A Life in 12 Bars” misidentified one of the musicians who inspired Eric Clapton. It was Little Walter, not Little Milton.

Yes, all those people whose first name is Larry look alike. Yes, all those blues players whose first name is Little look alike. On the bright side, at least the Times no longer seems to think they're all blind.**


* And thanks to Fish for the meta-correction here.
** Would a "because of a reporting error" on the last one there be too much to ask?

A date which will live in ... wait, what?

Thanks for letting us know it was "an editor's error," Ohio's Greatest Home Newspaper. Do you suppose it might have made a difference if "an editor" had been in the same time zone as the rest of the paper?

True it is that we've been putting these on quizzes in the editing class since before there was a War on Editing, because people have been counting the toes and forgetting to divide by 10, or something like that, since more or less the dawn of time.* And equally true that no single error can be causally linked to any single policy or personnel decision. Eventually, though, do you think we might want to pay a little more attention to the correlations?

* Thucydides was unimpressed by the ship tallies in Homer's war stories, because poets.

Thufferin' thuccotash

How's it going with your decision to cut out those pesky layers of editors, Nation's Newspaper of Record?

A report last Sunday about the wedding of Spouse I and Spouse II Jr. misstated the name of the town in Maine where the groom’s parents worked. It is Bath,* not Bass. The report also misstated the name of the company where the groom’s father worked. It is Bath Iron Works, not Bass Iron Works.

Now close your eyes and imagine an age in which Jane's Fighting Ships was as easy to find in the newsroom as a guide to the "Star Wars" canon. On second thought, don't.

* As your paper appears to have noted on 10 other occasions in the past year.

 

No school is an island

Any correction diminishes me, but some diminish me less than others:

The Living In column last Sunday, about East Hills, N.Y., referred imprecisely to one of the high schools that East Hills students attend. The Wheatley School is a secondary school in the East Williston Union Free School District; Wheatley is not a district unto itself.

Thank you, Nation's Newspaper of Record.

Knights in white satin

How are things in popular culture today, Nation's Newspaper of Record?

An article last Sunday about different film stars’ audition experiences misspelled part of the title of the coming “Transformers” film. It is “Transformers: The Last Knight,” not “The Last Night.”

Yes, but what about the kind that has books in it?

Because of a transcription error, an article on April 30 about a new Netflix series based on “Anne of Green Gables” included an incorrect word in dialogue from the series. The character Anne Shirley says, “Shouldn’t we hold hands over a running stream and pledge ourselves to each other as Cuthberts forever, or prick our fingers and mingle our blood as a symbol of our lasting devotion?” The character does not say “break our fingers.”

Yes we kahn khan

How many times, Nation's Newspaper of Record?

The About New York column on Wednesday, about the challenges of resettling refugees under President Trump’s recent executive order, misstated part of the name of a refugee agency in Connecticut. It is the Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services, not the Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Assistance. The article also misspelled the surname of a member of a group that helped to raise money for refugees. She is Megan Khan, not Kahn.

Let's try again on that stylebook entry:

Kahn, Khan: Oh, hell. Just toss a coin. See Khan, Kahn.

A million here, a million there ...

What's the N on that survey again, Nation's Newspaper of Record?

An article on Tuesday about the proportion of American adults who have taken a psychiatric drug misstated the number of adults involved in a 2013 prescription drug survey done by the government. It was 37,421, not 242 million.

We should all hope for response rates like that.

My pet tikva

You'll note that the Nation's Newspaper of Record doesn't blame this one on "an editing error":

A theater review on Friday about “The Band’s Visit,” which is set in Israel, at the Atlantic Theater Company in Manhattan, misstated the name of an Israeli city. It is Petah Tikvah, not Pet Hatikva.

Remember when newsrooms had "maps" and "atlases" and people had "time" to look stuff up?

Order word matters

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Space is limited, and it doesn't always lie in the configuration we wanted, and there's not an "error" here -- but if I had to call this one, I'd say Castro should be filed under Cuban revolutionary, not revolutionary Cuban.

And for those moments when "Due to an editing error ..." isn't enough:

An article on Monday about a rally to protest anti-Semitic, pro-Trump graffiti found in a Brooklyn Heights playground misidentified one of the songs protesters sang. It was “This Land Is Your Land,” not “America the Beautiful.”

Ice Krispies

Even if you're the Nation's Newspaper of Record, isn't it kind of customary to look at the food sometime during the meal?

An entry in the “This and That” feature on Page 40 this weekend about the increasing popularity of regional Japanese fare in America misstates one way in which an udon-noodle dish is served at TsuruTonTan. The noodles are served over a bed of ice, not a bed of rice.
 

My hovercraft is full of eels

How are those Rosetta Stone lessons going, Nation's Newspaper of Record?

An article on Oct. 3 about the defeat of a referendum in Colombia on a peace deal between the government and its largest rebel group mistranslated a comment on Twitter by former President Álvaro Uribe. He wrote, “Peace is exciting, the Havana agreement disappointing,” not “Peace is an illusion, the Havana agreement deceptive.” The article also misstated, in some editions, the surname of a Colombian novelist who voted for the deal and the surname of a music teacher who voted against the deal. The novelist is Juan Gabriel Vásquez, not Velásquez, and the music teacher is Roosevelt Pulgarin, not Pulgarib.

Everybody who's run across the basic agenda-setting proposition has heard the summary that McCombs and Shaw borrowed from Bernard Cohen's The Press and Foreign Policy: "The press ... may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about." Cohen's next line is worth attention as well: "And it follows from this that the world looks different to different people, depending not only on their personal interests, but also on the map that is drawn for them by the writers, editors, and publishers of the papers they read."

Modern castle magic

What exactly are they doing over at the Nation's Newspaper of Record when they hit the "play" button?

An article on Oct. 9 about Art Deco Los Angeles quoted incorrectly from comments by the author Marlyn Musicant about the design of Union Station. She said that by utilizing bronze chandeliers, the architects wanted “a more modern influence,” not “a more Spanish influence.”

Here's the offending paragraph, in its corrected form:

“The architects wanted to go with a more modern influence,” Ms. Musicant added, “so instead of utilizing wrought-iron chandeliers, the designers went with bronze chandeliers.”

Some corrections set the mind at ease (next time we'll look up any assertion about Mount Everest; we'll never annoy "Star Wars" fans again; it's Edgar Allan Poe, three A's). Others leave you wondering whether anything else in the quotation actually happened as reported. Guess which kind this is?