Corrections

We recently received a tip from a reader pointing us to an error in a New York Times story about the same-sex marriage vote in Maine on November 3. The article discussed the repeal of Maine's law by public referendum, which had granted same-sex partners the right to marry and was signed into law by Governor John Baldacci in May 2009.

Written by Abby Goodnough, the New York Times article looked at the effects and ramifications of the law's defeat. Yet in the third...Go to full story

On Monday, November 2, in the wake of the New York City Marathon, CNBC published an article by sports business reporter Darren Rovell about the men’s winner, Meb Keflezighi--the first American man to win the New York City Marathon since 1982.

The story, “Marathon's Headline Win Is Empty,” argued that Keflezighi’s achievement was a hollow one for America, because the runner is only “technically American.” Of course, there is...Go to full story

If you were wondering why we need ombudsmen (or even what the heck ombudsmen are), Jeffrey Dvorkin, formerly of NPR has the answer for you in an October 13 post at the Common Ground News Service.

In his essay, Dvorkin discusses the strengths of the position (also called a readers’ representative or public editor) in a changing news environment, and advocates continued hiring of ombudsmen, especially for coverage of the Middle East. Dvorkin, Executive...Go to full story

On October 27, a story posted at the Huffington Post announced the news “Scalia on Brown v. Board of Education: I Would Have Dissented.”

The post described how in a University of Arizona talk, Supreme Court Justice Scalia had apparently said that if he had been on the high court in 1954, he would have disagreed with the historic decision ending school segregation. It turns out, Scalia didn’t say that at all (more on this later).  Megan...Go to full story

Apparently, October is National Hoax Month -- or so it would seem, given the proliferation of fraudulent stories that appeared over the past couple weeks. It all began with a boy not in a balloon... By now, you've almost certainly heard of Falcon Heene, the 6-year-old boy from Fort Collins, Colorado who, for a brief period of time, was thought to be trapped inside his father's homemade weather balloon. News crews flocked to capture the scene and helicopters from the Colorado...Go to full story

Last Friday, New York attorneys Jack Litman and Richard Asche filed an amended complaint for their clients New Guinea Tribesmen Daniel Wemp and Isum Mandingo in the New York State Supreme Court.

Wemp was the main source and character in Jared Diamond's New Yorker article, "Vengeance is Ours," in which Diamond depicted Papua New Guinean Wemp and his co-plaintiff Isum Mandingo, as murderers. Previously, Wemp -- who claims that because of Diamond's story,...Go to full story

Corrections offer a news outlet the chance to right their wrongs transparently.  But because of the way corrections are issued—in a later issue, or added to an online story in an amended note—many who view false information may never catch wind of the correction. Imagine instead that readers could receive corrections in an RSS feed or emailed to their inbox as a daily digest. Craig Silverman writes in the Columbia Journalism Review that such a system is now...Go to full story

Student-run newspaper The Michigan Daily grabbed a mention in a Time magazine article titled “Ann Arbor Kills Its Newspaper — To Save It” that ran in last week’s issue [August 17, 2009]. The plug was bittersweet because of an error. Here is the print version. In the article, reporter Belinda Luscombe chronicles how a college town with no print newspaper has staved off a massive brain drain and managed to stay viable while...Go to full story

BBC editors write, June 19, that they made a caption error two days before--that bloomed into controversy and accusations of biased coverage by bloggers who discovered the error.

BBC explains, "We made a mistake in a picture caption published on BBC News online. In the story Obama refuses to 'meddle' in Iran, we mistakenly stated that a Getty agency picture of a pro-Ahmadinejad rally was a pro-Mousavi rally."

BBC indirecly acknowledges...Go to full story

This is #2 in a Series of StinkyJournalism.org blog posts that respond to Jared Diamond’s and New Yorker’s exclusive statements to Science magazine, published May 15, 2009. Blog post #2 is by journalist and guest blogger, Alan Bisbort. (Read summaries about the controvery and the $10 million libel suit against New Yorker and Diamond in AP and Chronicle of Higher Ed ).

As I read Michael Balter’s detailed account of the scandal involving Jared...Go to full story