This particular LA Times correction was published in June of 2010. It was admittedly a pretty funny one, involving the accidental swap of the word “antidote” for  ”anecdote” in a freelance Health section piece by Alene Dawson.

Even funnier is the fact that the New Yorker has chosen to source this bit of LAT history for its March 4, 2013 issue “Correction of the Week.” From the reaction-post by LAT reader’s representative Deirdre Edgar:

Times assistant managing editor Henry Fuhrmann, who pointed out the curiousness of the date, said, “The magazine’s fact-checkers are legendarily methodical, but still…”

Maybe in a year or two we can look forward to seeing some others from our personal Hall of Shame, such as the “blue-color” immigrants in the city of Bell.

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Yesterday, the LA Times ran a small, rather mundane correction on its op-ed page.

Free speech: A March 9 Op-Ed about the erosion of free-speech protections referred to a controversy over 2005 cartoons that satirized the prophet Muhammad. Those cartoons were Danish, not Dutch.

Not a big deal. This Fishie once mistook Lake Forrest for Lakewood and got annihilated for it. It happens. Only one problem: a Times reader dug up the fact that Dutch/Danish mixup had happened not once, but no less than seven times in the past few years. Times reader representative Deirdre Edgar cataloged the errors in a post–which including another Dutch/Danish Muhammad cartoon screw-up.

Assistant managing editor Henry Fuhrmann was not pleased at the discovery.

“One aspect of good editing is what I think of as pattern recognition: knowing the quirks of a particular writer, the nuances of a certain subject, the grammatical and factual errors that come up time and time again. Here, though, the pattern defies explanation.

“Errors of this sort are always a good reminder that we can be more diligent. We truly have nothing against the Danes (or the Dutch).”

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Yesterday was an exciting day for followers of LA Times journos and their Twitter feeds. And by exciting we mean fairly chaotic. First, Pulitzer Prize winner Ruben Vives had his Twitter account hacked.

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The LA Times is taking a little heat from one of its readers over the decision to run the obit of Amy Winehouse on its cover, but not of former first lady Betty Ford. Reader Colleen Bennett writes: “OK, let me get this straight. The L.A. Times didn’t think the death of Betty Ford, former first lady and substance abuse treatment icon, deserved a front page obituary. But Amy Winehouse, a flash-in-the-pan singer who didn’t see the need to recover from said substance abuse, does?”

Good question. Kind of cute too. How many people do you see get all worked up about newspaper covers these days?

Anyway, LA Times reader representative Deirdre Edgar says that deadlines are to blame. “Winehouse’s death was reported before noon Saturday, leaving plenty of time to be considered for Sunday’s front page.”

News of Ford’s death, on the other hand, broke late on a Friday.

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Last week, the National Book Critics Circle awarded “A Visit From the Goon Squad” by novelist Jennifer Egan its highly-touted prize for fiction. It was a huge honor for Egan’s work, but you really wouldn’t know it from glancing at the LA Times’ website. Alongside its writeup of the awards ceremony, the Times chose to run a shot of Jonathan Franzen–who’s novel “Freedom” was arguably the favorite to pick up the award–instead of Egan.

Times readers weren’t having it.

“Seriously? Seriously???,” one wrote. “The news is that literary darling Jonathan Franzen LOST an award, not that (talented but less well-known female) Jennifer Egan WON? Please spend a couple of minutes gazing into your editorial navels today and ask yourselves what happened.”

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