That's because it's hard for some people to admit mistakes.
It was refreshing this week to see Tampa police Chief Steve Hogue's response to a minor traffic accident in his own city. He rear-ended a Volkswagen Jetta and sparked one of those chain reaction wrecks that frequently tangle us up on our way to work.
His own officer ticketed him for following too closely.
"It was my fault," Hogue said. "I just wasn't careful enough."
What a refreshing response.
How many times have you heard those words from a public official? Or a newspaper, I might add.
About the same time Hogue was running into his neighbors, the Associated Press was putting out a story suggesting Gov. Jeb Bush was showing signs of running for president despite his denials.
The governor's trip to tsunami-ravaged countries "seems tailor made for a White House aspirant looking to pad his resume," the AP's State Department reporters noted. "Traveling with a press secretary and two security guards, Bush is getting equal billing at news conferences."
The story goes on to note that Bush was even dressing like Secretary of State Colin Powell by wearing khakis and open-necked shirts.
Any Florida reporter would have noted that the governor has been dressing like that for years - particularly at hurricane-related events.
And the press secretary?
That young man was William Piferrer, the governor's brand new 24-year-old travel aide who does not answer questions from reporters. No press secretary made the trip with the governor. Press secretary Jacob DiPietre - the only one who has the title in Bush's office - was safe in Tallahassee working by day in the Capitol and taking care of a new baby at night. Communications director Alia Faraj was fielding calls from frustrated reporters trying to find a way to get access to the governor at some point on the trip.
Yes, there were two security guards - the same Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents that follow the governor everywhere he goes.
On Monday we published a story correctly identifying those who accompanied the governor as a travel aide and security guards.
A sharp-eyed reader noticed the AP story a few days later and wondered if we failed to notice that a press secretary went along on the trip.
I called the question to the attention of editors in St. Petersburg after rechecking the identity of the travelers.
Notify the AP so they can correct it, an editor told me. So I e-mailed Adam Yeomans, a longtime AP editor and reporter in Miami. The rest of the story is a textbook of what happens when folks defend a mistake.
First, news editor Andrew Fraser checked into it and advised me the AP would not correct the story because they were using "a press secretary generically to refer to an aide to the governor who is handling press queries during the trip."
I suggested the context in which it was used made it look like Bush was using the trip to gain a political foothold on the presidency.
"I am finding it hard to see how anything can be inferred from that," Fraser replied in an e-mail with an exasperated tone. But Fraser did promise to run the question by Donna Cassata, the editor who handled the story in Washington.
"We used a press secretary to describe someone who fielded questions in addition to the governor," Cassata said. "The story is accurate and we plan no correction."
Okay. Forget I asked.
But the facts remain. The governor didn't take a press secretary of any kind with him and he refused to take any Florida reporters who might highlight his role on the trip.
Doesn't sound like a man running for president to me.
In this world of journalism, seems to me we are getting awfully thin of skin when we cannot admit we made a mistake.
