Kudos to Robert Rector, whose media criticism can be followed regularly at his website, for compiling the best (that is worst) media corrections of the year. Here are my five favorites, though the whole review is worth taking in:
“Norma Adams-Wade’s June 15 column incorrectly called Mary Ann Thompson Frenk a socialist. She is a socialite.” — The Dallas Morning News.
Comment: It is less than clear these days that these two categories are mutually exclusive. There are lots of socialite-socialists around these days. It’s practically mandatory if you want to be a female Episcopal bishop, for example. Anyway. . .
“Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified the number of years E.B. White wrote for The New Yorker. It was five decades, not centuries.” —The New York Times.
“Just to keep the record straight, it was the famous Whistler’s Mother, not Hitler’s, that was exhibited at the recent meeting of the Pleasantville Methodists. There is nothing to be gained in trying to explain how the error occurred.” —Titusville (Pa.) Herald.
“Karol Wojtyla was referred to in Saturday’s Credo column as “the first non-Catholic pope for 450 years”. This should, of course, have read “non-Italian pope.” —London Times.
Finally, this one sounds positively Pythonesque, which I am sure amuses Mark Steyn:
“The Ottawa Citizen and Southam News wish to apologize for our apology to Mark Steyn, published Oct. 22. In correcting the incorrect statements about Mr. Steyn published Oct. 15, we incorrectly published the incorrect correction. We accept and regret that our original regrets were unacceptable.” — Ottawa Citizen and Southam News.
Happy new year.
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