Let’s Hope Your Obituary Fares Better

September 21: Nancy Hicks Maynard, one of the first black female reporters at the New York Times and once the publisher of The Oakland Tribune, dies.

September 22: The New York Times publishes its obituary.

September 25: The Gray Lady admits that “An obituary on Tuesday about Nancy Hicks Maynard, a newspaper publisher and journalism educator, included a number of errors.”

October 9: The Gray Lady admits that it had erred again: “An obituary on Sept. 23 about Nancy Hicks Maynard, a newspaper publisher and journalism educator, attributed an erroneous distinction to her, and a correction in this space on Sept. 25 repeated the error. She was one of the first black women to become a reporter at The New York Times, but not the first; at least one, Bernadette Carey, a reporter in society news, preceded her.”

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