Last Updated: September 23, 1999
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Accuracy
Our unscientific study found that most newspapers put
them on the back of the front page
The Mobile (Ala.) Register trumpets its corrections on the front page.
Editor Michael Marshall wonders why other newspapers don’t. “It buys us
a lot of goodwill out in the community,” he said, despite the discomfort
of one recent page featuring four corrections.
Readers of The Wall Street Journal know they’ll find errors corrected
on page 2A, under the bold head: “Corrections & Amplifications.” The
front-page index also points to their location.
Rick Rodriguez, executive editor of The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee, is
thinking about printing each correction twice. In addition to the current
spot on the back of the front section, it would run in the section where
the story with the slipup originally appeared.
“It really is an issue of credibility, whether you try to make your
corrections visible, or whether you try to hide them,” said Rodriguez,
an ASNE board member. Putting corrections in two places, he said, improves
chances that they’ll be seen.
Newspapers are a tinkerer’s dream. Tomorrow is always another day to
do it better. And these days, with journalistic credibility under scrutiny,
corrections are getting a closer look.
Judy Pace Christie, until recently executive editor of Florida Today
in Melbourne, Fla., and now a consultant to Gannett, said editors everywhere
are rethinking the wording as well as the placement of corrections.
“Sometimes it hurts,” she said. But Christie, chairman of the Ethics
and Values Committee, said ASNE studies find readers value newspapers that
own up to mistakes. “Accuracy is key to having readers trust us,” she said.
That’s why Florida Today recently moved all its corrections to 2A. Before,
they ran in the section where the lapse occurred. Now they’re not only
easier to find, corrections and clarifications are better written.
“In the past, some of our corrections were more confusing,” Christie
said. “They didn’t really clear up the error.”
Inside the front page remains a favored spot nationwide to set the record
straight.
“A2, you have to admit, is pretty good play,” said Paul Martin, assistant
managing editor of The Wall Street Journal in New York.
Until about 20 years ago, the Journal ran corrections anywhere there
was space. Then, like other newspapers, the Journal opted for consistency.
“We decided ultimately to have them there (on 2A), so readers can look
there every day and find them,” Martin said.
Some papers underscore their interest in accuracy.
The Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News affirms its aim for an error-free
paper on Page 3 of the front section, regardless of whether there’s a correction.
Along with a statement that the News’ policy is “to promptly acknowledge
and correct errors,” a special phone number is given.
Patrick Dougherty, editor of the Daily News, said this ensures such
calls don’t get lost in the everyday hubbub.
“Newspapers get into trouble by mishandling peoples’ concerns about
what’s in the paper,” Dougherty said, “blowing them off, not taking them
seriously, not being appropriately apologetic if we indeed made a mistake.”
The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer’s editors think corrections get readers’
attention if they run near where the original story ran. Sometimes that’s
the front page.
Content is as crucial. “We want the correction to be clear to
someone who did not read the story, what the error was and what we’re correcting,”
said Frank C. Barrows, managing editor.
The Associated Press has long given its corrections prominence. It handles
errors in one of two ways:
-
If the mistake is discovered during the cycle when the story is live on
the wire, it’s corrected in a writethru that carries an editor’s note that
says “CORRECTS” and clearly spells out what mistake is being fixed. An
exception would be if the error were potentially libelous; in that case,
the story or the relevant portion is killed.
-
If the mistake comes to light in a later cycle, the AP moves a corrective
story. This brief story carries the slug of the original, plus the word
“CORRECTIVE” and an editor’s note with the date and file number of the
original. It asks any member that published the erroneous story to use
the new one. The corrective story explains what the mistake was and corrects
it.
Anne Pershing, editor and executive vice president of the Lahontan Valley
News in Fallon, Nev., puts corrections in the same place as the error.
Readers seldom call to point out mistakes, she said, “because they know
we’ll do it.”
When they do call, she reminds them that journalists are only human.
She once devoted her column to “bloopers,” including: “The wrong date on
the front page. Well, what can we say. Actually, we look at that as good
luck. Every time we accidentally do it, we have a record month in gross
revenues.”
Levinson is a national reporter for The Associated Press.
