Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Newspapers print the darndest things

A collection of the best of the worst newspaper errors from 2006, plus a golden oldie from us.

By Excerpts from regrettheerror.com
Published December 31, 2006

Craig Silverman keeps track of the strangest newspaper corrections of the year on his Web site, regrettheerror.com. He has graciously allowed us to excerpt the best of the worst.

From the Sun (U.K.):

Following our article on Princess Eugenie's birthday celebrations, we have been asked to point out the party was closely monitored by adults throughout and while a small amount of mess was cleared away at the end of the evening, there was no damage to furniture, no revelers dived into bedrooms in search of drunken romps and to describe the house as being trashed was incorrect. We are happy to make this clear and regret any distress our report caused.

From the Wilmington, Del., News Journal:

An article in Sunday's Local section on the estate sale of former Gov. Elbert Carvel quoted Olin Vanaman of Wilmington about his excitement in purchasing 35 of the governor's decanters during the auction, including one used at Queen Elizabeth's coronation.

Vanaman said he used a slang term when describing Carvel as "a big boozer," but he did not mean that the former governor was a heavy drinker. Vanaman refers to people who collect decanters as "boozers," he explained, "the same as guys who collect cars are gear-heads." No reference to drinking or the consumption of alcohol was intended in the article.

From the Chicago Tribune:

An editorial in Friday's paper incorrectly stated that Florida Cresswell, a candidate for state representative in the 28th District, was convicted in 1999 of battery and stealing Tupperware. In fact he was convicted of stealing a battery from a van as well as Tupperware that was inside the van.

- From the Mirror (U.K.):

Following the publication of an interview with Glenda Gilson on 11 September 2006, Ms. Gilson contacted us to state that the words published on the front page: "I haven't had sex for four months" were not words used by her.

While we accept that these precise words were not used by Ms. Gilson, we believe that they conveyed the sense of what was said in part of the article published on pages eight and nine to which the readers' attention was expressly drawn.

We acknowledge that Glenda Gilson was offended by the words in question and we wish to express our regret for any offense caused to her and her family.

- From the Rocky Mountain News of Denver:

An article and headline on Page 17A Thursday incorrectly stated that James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, believes people who don't practice what they preach should undergo an exorcism. His quote, in a TV interview about reaction to the firing of evangelical leader Ted Haggard for "sexual immorality," was: "Everybody gets exercised (worked up about it) when something like this happens, and for good reason."

- From the Daily Press of Newport News, Va.:

A correction in this column Thursday about a June 14 Taste section recipe for French coconut pie incorrectly suggested that the recipe called for a pint of vodka. The accompanying recipe for homemade vanilla extract uses the vodka. The pie recipe then calls for one tablespoon of extract. Here's the corrected recipe for vanilla extract, adapted from Lacy Smith's "Sugar Daddy's Treats": Drop one vanilla bean in a one-pint bottle of vodka, and six months later, you have vanilla extract.

- From the New York Times:

An obituary on Monday and in some copies on Sunday about Isadore Barmash, a retired business reporter for the New York Times, rendered incorrectly the name of a department store that he wrote about frequently. It was Gimbels, not Gimbel's. Gimbels, which closed in 1986, has been referred to correctly in the Times more than 500 times since 1980 and incorrectly more than 120 times; this is the first time the error has been corrected.

- From the Financial Times:

An item in the Observer column on March 14 reported that Ludwik Dorn, Poland's minister of the interior, had said some former police officers used the services of prostitutes. A more correct translation was that they had a "wide social life".

- And finally, just to confirm that the St. Petersburg Times is not immune from these kinds of whoppers, a search of our files turned up this "clarification" from Aug. 18, 1989:

A drawing of the lunar eclipse in Wednesday's Times may have given the impression that the sun revolves around Earth. Earth, of course, revolves around the sun and the moon revolves around Earth.

[Last modified December 31, 2006, 07:01:41]