Regret the Error’s Annual Awards
Regret the Error — a website documenting the goofs and gaffes of journalists everywhere — have released their annual awards, entitled, “Crunks of the Year.”
The Washington Post takes home two prizes:
Best Unintended Hoax and Best Repetition of An Error
This one simultaneously demonstrates the gullibility of the media and its low opinion of Britney Spears.
In March Allure magazine ran an interview with pop songstress Britney Spears. A columnist at the Philadelphia Daily News read the interview and proceeded to write a spoof column that purported to have quotes from Britney. Any reader could tell it was a spoof. MSNBC.com, however, couldn’t. It picked up one of the fake quotes and published it. This in turn caused The Washington Post, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Richmond Times-Dispatch and Us Weekly to pick it up. Here is the “quote” in question:
“It’s this reality. Like omigod, I have to tell the maid to buy diapers and get the pool boy to walk the dog? Can’t I just make out with Kevin all the time? Being married sucks.”
The incident caused the Post to run this correction
The March 18 Names & Faces column included a quote that was attributed to Britney Spears via Allure magazine. The quote was actually a spoof, written by a Philadelphia Daily News reporter, of an Allure interview with Spears. The spoof was then picked up as an actual quote by MSNBC.com.
And Richard Leiby thought he was totally of the hook…
More after the jump.
The Post’s other award:
Parting Shot
One of our other favorite corrections from the past year was this one from the Washington Post:
An article in the Feb. 6 Arts section implied incorrectly that Eva Zeisel was involved in a plot to assassinate Joseph Stalin. That was the unsubstantiated charge made to arrest and imprison her.
Looks like it has held up well.
This one also should be of interest to Washingtonians:
Best Judy Miller Correction
Gawker got its hands on an internal New York Times memo that was also a correction. It seems that the address provided for people to send books to imprisoned Times staffer Judith Miller was wrong. The memo:
August 22, 2005
Judy Miller Address Correction
The address to send books to Judy Miller was incorrect. The error was caught by C.J. Satterwhite, a news assistant for City Weekly, who had a 34-lb box of books returned to her.
Here is the correct address:
Barbara Brincefield
Cahill, Gordon, Reindel
1990 K St. N.W., Suite 950
Washington, DC 20006
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Nadine Cheung
Editor, The Job Post
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