We regret the following:

December 28, 2007 2:45 PM

Once again, The Year in Media Errors and Corrections.

Correction of the year:
"Following the portrait of Tony and Cherie Blair published on 21 April in the Independent Saturday magazine, Ms Blair’s representatives have told us that she was friendly with but never had a relationship with Carole Caplin of the type suggested in the article. They want to make it clear, which we are happy to do, that Ms Blair “has never shared a shower with Ms Caplin, was not introduced to spirit guides or primal wrestling by Ms Caplin (or anyone else), and did not have her diary masterminded by Ms Caplin.”

Previously. Also.

posted by gingerbeer (15 comments total)

Even more previously. Tags, people! (please)
posted by gingerbeer at 2:54 PM on December 28, 2007

In the New York Times concerning an article that misquoted the number of hot dog sales in different baseball parks

(A reader raised the issue after an article on May 11 about the introduction of Latin food at Yankee Stadium mentioned the higher figure [of hot dog sales] for the Yankees. Unfortunately for the reader, who vowed not to “consume any dogs at either stadium until it has been settled,” this correction was delayed for research, but the Mets have a home game tomorrow night.)

Ha. That made me smile
posted by heatherbeth at 3:33 PM on December 28, 2007

I like this one from Slate's Explainer:

Michelle Tsai asserted that an eight ball is about 10 lines of cocaine. While the size of a line depends on personal preference, most users would divide an eight ball into more than 25 lines.

Thank God I don't rely strictly on Slate for my narcotic cutting units.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 3:34 PM on December 28, 2007

And if it wasn't in the Guardian I would have assumed this one was a joke:

We misspelled the word misspelled twice, as mispelled, in the Corrections and clarifications column on September 26, page 30.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 3:36 PM on December 28, 2007

In the May 25 “Explainer,” Michelle Tsai asserted that an eight ball is about 10 lines of cocaine. While the size of a line depends on personal preference, most users would divide an eight ball into more than 25 lines.

I wonder how much "research", as well as how much frantic 5am editing went into that correction.
posted by clevershark at 4:06 PM on December 28, 2007

An article about Lord Lambton (“Lord Louche, sex king of Chiantishire”, News Review, January 7) falsely stated that his son Ned (now Lord Durham) and daughter Catherine held a party at Lord Lambton’s villa, Cetinale, in 1997, which degenerated into such an orgy that Lord Lambton banned them from Cetinale for years. In fact, Lord Durham does not have a sister called Catherine (that is the name of his former wife), there has not been any orgiastic party of any kind and Lord Lambton did not ban him (or Catherine) from Cetinale at all. We apologise sincerely to Lord Durham for the hurt and embarrassment caused.

I would loved to be a fly on the wall at Lord Durham's house on January 8th.
posted by nooneyouknow at 5:10 PM on December 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

From The Guardian:

In They live by night, page 4, G2 August 27, we wrote about a man who beat bats to death with a dingy paddle; we meant dinghy paddle.

An easy mistake - wouldn't a paddle get really dingy if you used it to beat bats? (!!!)

And from the Daily Telegraph:

APOLOGY: In Friday’s article on Liz Hurley’s wedding it was wrongly stated that the actress is holding a pheasant shoot on the Sunday after the ceremony. Game shooting is of course illegal on Sundays and the pheasant season ended on Feb 1. We apologise for the error and accept that if any shooting is to be done it will be by the paparazzi, who have no season and do not observe the Sabbath.

Of course.
posted by rtha at 5:12 PM on December 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

We apologise for the error and accept that if any shooting is to be done it will be by the paparazzi, who have no season and do not observe the Sabbath.


That's spectacular.

Wait.. I only mentally inserted 'regrettably' between 'who' and 'have'.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 8:16 PM on December 28, 2007

Wait.. I only mentally inserted 'regrettably' between 'who' and 'have'.

And I had mentally replaced "by" with "at"... it was much more interesting this way. Funny how that works out.
posted by clevershark at 9:46 PM on December 28, 2007

From the ORLY? department: "BIG Brother’s Carole is a sexual health worker, not a sex worker, which usually means something rather different (Page 33, July 13)." (The Mirror, UK)
posted by clevershark at 11:49 PM on December 28, 2007

I wish I could write my paper's corrections and make them fun to read... Alas, the editors have chosen standard sentence forms for corrections, because clarity and consistency are more important.
posted by bugmuncher at 12:21 AM on December 29, 2007

Yikes:

Daily Express (UK):

On Saturday, February 3, we published a photograph captioned as Davina Smith, above, who was jailed for causing death by careless driving. In fact, the photograph was of Marina Gray, the mother of one of the victims. We sincerely apologise for any distress and embarrassment caused to Mrs Gray and her family.
posted by patricio at 3:44 AM on December 29, 2007

I love reading these each year.

This one was probably my favorite:

David Marr unfortunately misquoted me in “A fallen leader of faith” (August 4-5). I actually said that I endured the naked beatings, paternal bum caresses etc from Frank Houston, not enjoyed them. I can assure readers that the experience wasn’t pleasurable but painful, both at the time and for some years later.
Peter Laughton Carrara (Qld)
posted by cmgonzalez at 11:58 AM on December 29, 2007

Actually, I can tell you how the Slate cocaine correction probably evolved (though it's not as funny as version above).

They saw my critique, noting that each line in their eightball would be roughly 1/3 of a gram, which is more than the smallest retail unit of cocaine powder sold (a quarter gram). Since a new user and his partner can typically get high for an evening on a quarter gram, it would be pretty bizarre for most users to make only 10 lines out of 3.5 grams (an eighth of an ounce, hence the term eightball).


As you can see from the dates, their correction occurred after I wrote that piece-- and I know that they sometimes read me.
posted by Maias at 12:15 PM on December 30, 2007

oops, the "sometimes" should have linked here.
posted by Maias at 12:16 PM on December 30, 2007