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

The prank-press conference held last week by farcical activists the Yes Men has reopened the “speed versus accuracy” debate, an argument that has taken place in journalism for a good 200 years. Craig Silverman wrote about the issue in the Columbia Journalism Review's blog Regret The Error on October 23. After receiving a faux-press release last week, purportedly from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announcing a shift in policy to support climate legislation in Congress,...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

Usually young journalists learn their ethical lessons from the paragons of good behavior--role models whose writing and conduct embody the highest regard for responsible reporting. But in the spirit of the opposite kind of lesson--learning from someone else’s mistakes--a group of students will be taking some pointers from one of the most famously unethical journalists of the 21st century next month--disgraced former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair. Blair is scheduled...Go to full story

Reuters (and subsequently The New York Times and Washington Post) fell for a hoax press release issued by the farcical activists the Yes Men on Monday, October 19.  Greg Sargent writes in his blog that Reuters published the story, reporting that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had reversed its opposition to climate change legislation, based on a hoax press release.  The Reuters story was then picked up by the New York Times and the Washington Post, among other...Go to full story

Scientific polls can be valuable.  They can give a great overview, track trends, gauge opinions and reveal national tenor.  But what’s the use in an unscientific or even just a frivolous poll—not much. That’s why it’s so strange that the New York Times published this September 27th article about the new CBS 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll without mentioning that the poll was admittedly unscientific and “should not be confused with the results...Go to full story

David Pogue, who is described on the New York Times website as "the personal-technology columnist," is claiming he's not a journalist. Pogue's protestations come in the wake of recent criticisms about his interview with Apple CEO Steve Jobs and concerns about the columnist's varied interests -- specifically, the conflict of interest that arises because of Pogue's personal line of software manuals, some of which provide guidance for the same software Pogue reviews for... Go to full story

Some fake ads riddling The New York Times are down, again...thanks to the Times' continuing efforts and ethical response to our complaints.

Stinkyjournalism.org was promised last week by a Times' spokeperson that they would “prevent unacceptable products (like Resveratrol)” from appearing in the Times. Yet after a successful takedown of the bad ads from Google "Sponsored links" and Ad Network sections, we again spotted more flim-flam--in a...Go to full story

StinkyJournalism.org was told by Rachael Ray's production office that Ray "has nothing to do with" the fake blog endorsements of berry diet products and that  her "lawyers are pursuing" it. "Are you aware that MSNBC is trafficking these fake ads?" StinkyJournalism asked. "We are well aware of it," the producer answered. Again, she said,"The lawyers are pursuing it. You need to contact them for further comment."...Go to full story

The New York Times muffed their reportage of the August 8 mid-air collision between a tourist helicopter and single-engine airplane by failing to call the FDNY and NYPD to quickly establish the most accurate information about the time. This failure to call local agencies resulted in the Times making significant errors—one particularly embarrassing—in two separate reports.

The report for the collision occurred at 11:54 a.m., August 8, 2009. The...Go to full story