Author Archive

Articles by Craig Silverman | Email the Author

 

1. Regret the Error

   Don’t Need to Wait, Get the Record Straight

   December 11, 2009 11:20 AM

   Call it the correction that launched a thousand tweets. Over the years, many errors and corrections have spidered their way around the Internet--beef panties, anyone?--but never before has a newspaper error inspired its very own Twitter hashtag. In... Continue reading

2. Regret the Error

   Archival Research

   December 4, 2009 11:12 AM

   Of all the requests she’s received to erase information contained in online articles, Kathy English, the public editor of the Toronto Star, says one in particular stands out. The reason? It came from a fellow journalist, on behalf of... Continue reading

3. Regret the Error

   Sorry, Wrong Number

   November 20, 2009 12:08 PM

   Every year, Scott Maier, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Oregon, asks his students to raise their hands if they went into journalism because they love writing. Unsurprisingly, most of them put their hands in the air.... Continue reading

4. Regret the Error

   A Microformat with Major Implications

   November 13, 2009 09:41 AM

   Imagine this: you visit one of your favorite news sites and the homepage displays a notification that an article you read yesterday has been updated with new information, and a story you read last week has been corrected. The notification... Continue reading

5. Regret the Error

   Truth or Consequences

   November 6, 2009 12:09 PM

   Henry Allen should not have punched Washington Post colleague Manuel Roig-Franzia in the face in the newsroom last week. That’s not constructive behavior. But I salute the man’s passion for accuracy. The Washington City Paper’s detailed report of... Continue reading

6. Regret the Error

   Learning from Our Mistakes

   October 30, 2009 11:16 AM

   They were guaranteed to fail. Participants in a psychological study were asked trivia questions and told to offer their best answers. They could take their time, but that wasn’t going to help them: it was impossible to answer the questions... Continue reading

7. Regret the Error

   Speed Demons

   October 23, 2009 11:22 AM

   The scene that unfolded in the John Peter Zenger Room at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. earlier this week was news-as-comedy at its finest. The Yes Men group of hoaxsters pretended they were the U.S. Chamber... Continue reading

8. Regret the Error

   Meet the Tilburg Checkers

   October 16, 2009 11:35 AM

   If all goes as planned, sometime today a journalism student in Tilburg, Netherlands will walk into the offices of de Volkskrant, a large Dutch newspaper, and deliver a pie to a reporter. This is not the result of... Continue reading

9. Regret the Error

   The New Great American Pastime

   October 9, 2009 10:58 AM

   Fact checking, along with its kissing cousin “calling bullshit,” is becoming one of the great American pastimes of the Internet age. We are in the midst of a blossoming of new forms of fact checking, particularly those that rely on... Continue reading

10. Regret the Error

    Code Talking

    October 2, 2009 11:08 AM

    I’m a man of modest dreams. I’d like to see the Montreal Canadiens win another Stanley Cup as soon as possible, and for the Toronto Maple Leafs to never win one again. I’d like to enjoy good health and a... Continue reading

11. Regret the Error

    Hed Injuries

    September 25, 2009 12:24 PM

    I don’t write the headlines. It’s a line every print journalist will say at least once during his or her career. It’s usually offered because a source or reader was extremely unhappy with a sensational or incorrect headline. The reporter... Continue reading

12. Regret the Error

    “A Big Chance to Win Back the Public’s Faith”

    September 18, 2009 11:37 AM

    Earlier this summer, Scott Rosenberg, co-founder of Salon.com and author of the new book Say Everything, received word that he was one of only nine winners of a 2009 Knight News Challenge grant. As... Continue reading

13. Regret the Error

    Michael Kinsley, Correctionaholic

    September 11, 2009 11:13 AM

    Don’t believe a word of Michael Kinsley’s recent column for the Washington Post. The man would have you assume that he thinks corrections are a silly thing, especially in the New York Times. His larger point, of course,... Continue reading

14. Regret the Error

    Spoiling the Broth

    September 4, 2009 10:35 AM

    Around this time last year, celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson was tucking into a big piece of humble pie. Worrall Thompson gave an interview to Healthy & Organic Living magazine last summer in which he talked about eating healthy, organic... Continue reading

15. Regret the Error

    Lost in Translation

    August 28, 2009 10:05 AM

    It was a perfect silly season story, an article tailor made for the dog days of August. Tuesday morning broke with this offering from a Reuters reporter in Europe: Visitors to a tourist attraction in Berlin have been making off... Continue reading

16. Regret the Error

    Saluting The Sun

    August 21, 2009 10:42 AM

    Very few newspapers or other media outlets provide me with better material for my errors and corrections Web site than The Sun, a British tabloid. The paper is perhaps the most consistent supplier of false allegations and... Continue reading

17. Regret the Error

    Don’t (Mis)quote Me

    August 14, 2009 11:31 AM

    It’s the kind of quote that makes readers sit up and pay attention. In 2002, Moshe Yaalon, then the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, sat down with a reporter from Haaretz and unleashed a sound bite that... Continue reading

18. Regret the Error

    Golden Girl

    August 7, 2009 10:44 AM

    It has been three weeks since The New York Times published Alessandra Stanley’s now-infamous “appraisal” of Walter Cronkite. The eight factual errors contained in the story have resulted in two corrections, an onslaught of criticism (present company <a... Continue reading

19. Regret the Error

    Lessons Learned from “Wafergate”

    July 31, 2009 11:07 AM

    People are calling it Wafergate, which makes it sound silly. But underlying this story is a major mistake by a newspaper, and a common problem faced by reporters and editors. First, the wafer: In early July, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen... Continue reading

20. Regret the Error

    Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong

    July 24, 2009 11:19 AM

    Alessandra Stanley has fallen back into old habits. This week, the New York Times television critic was responsible for a long, embarrassing correction: An appraisal on Saturday about Walter Cronkite’s career included a number of errors. In some... Continue reading

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