As a general rule, newspapers don’t use up much ink in pointing out the mistakes of other newspapers.
You, the reader of at least one newspaper, might interpret this in several ways: newspapers should have better things to do; they’re above that sort of thing; their editors don’t want to acknowledge the competition; there aren’t that many mistakes to point out; or there’s an attitude of “there but for the grace of God, go I.”
The first and the last interpretations hold sway, in my view.
Read Also
Crop insurance’s ability to help producers has its limitations
Farmers enrolled in crop insurance can do just as well financially when they have a horrible crop or no crop at all, compared to when they have a below average crop
Yet there are times when a newspaper error becomes a story in its own right, as it has on two recent occasions.
Last week the New York Post was red in the face after it published a front page story that Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry had chosen Richard Gephardt as his running mate. Kerry later announced that senator John Edwards had gotten his nod.
Other newspapers then reported on the Post’s error. Some ran small photos of the erroneous front page and a few poked gentle fun at the Post.
A snafu on the editorial page of the Tampa Tribune last month got its share of attention from other newspapers and media too. On the morning after the Stanley Cup final, The Tribune’s editorial saluted the losing effort of the Tampa Bay Lightning. As every Canadian knows, the Lightning beat the Calgary Flames 2-1 in the final.
According to the Tribune’s later explanation, two editorials had been prepared, one to suit either outcome of game seven. The wrong version ended up in the paper.
Sports fans and media had some chuckles over it, but I think many editors harboured silent sympathy.
Here at the Producer, we could have flirted with the same sort of scenario. In our federal election office pool, scarce few people predicted a Liberal win. Our poolies, who for weeks had listened to western Canadian sources describe Liberal disillusionment and vows to vote Conservative, made their predictions accordingly.
The sources were telling the truth, of course but the rest of Canada also had a lot to say about it.
Had our editors decided to gamble on election night, we could have had enough eggs for about 80,000 omelettes on our Western Producer face.
Sure, the news types around here take meagre enjoyment in a journalistic faux pas – as long as it happens to some other newspaper.
The best part of that glee is knowing that major errors are still rare enough to become stories in and of themselves. It seems perverse, but somehow it gives us a bit more faith in the craft.
