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Articles by Craig Silverman | Email the Author

 

1. Regret the Error

   Reuters Opens its Kimono

   July 17, 2009 11:02 AM

   Dean Wright recently printed out a copy of the Reuters Handbook of Journalism—all 500-plus pages of it. Yesterday he used it as a prop in a video he shot for YouTube’s new Reporters’ Center. Wright, Reuters’s global editor... Continue reading

2. Regret the Error

   The Copy Editing Equation

   July 10, 2009 11:15 AM

   As far as arithmetic goes, it’s a pretty simple equation. “Fewer Copy Editors, More Errors,” declared the headline over the July 5 column by Washington Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander. It reminded me of another ombud column... Continue reading

3. Regret the Error

   Three Strikes and You’re Fired

   June 26, 2009 11:00 AM

   Matt McCann wasn’t supposed to spend his summer working for St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick. For the second year in a row, McCann, a journalism student at St. Thomas, had landed a summer internship at the Telegraph-Journal.... Continue reading

4. Regret the Error

   What’s Wrong with This Picture?

   June 19, 2009 12:36 PM

   South Korean construction worker Bae Seok-bum is used to being teased about his uncanny resemblance to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. His friends sometimes call him “Comrade Chairman.” He takes it in stride, and at one point uploaded a... Continue reading

5. Regret the Error

   Retweet the Error

   June 12, 2009 11:24 AM

   In exploring the emerging universe of Twitter, the service’s users have created hashtags and retweets, and have helped popularize URL shorteners. Alongside these innovations, Twitter users have also adopted a practice that is decidedly old media. Yes, I’m talking about... Continue reading

6. Regret the Error

   Off the Map

   June 5, 2009 11:09 AM

   This week, a high school in Liverpool, England caused a stir by announcing it would no longer offer separate classes in geography and history. “The school – formerly Manor High School – said a decline in students wishing to study... Continue reading

7. Regret the Error

   New Yorker Under Siege

   May 22, 2009 12:52 PM

   The story has everything: murder, tribal warfare, a famous writer, and a lawsuit involving him and one of the world’s most prestigious magazines. So why are so few media watchers paying attention to the suit recently brought against Pulitzer winner... Continue reading

8. Regret the Error

   The Wrath of Khan

   May 15, 2009 10:20 AM

   Hell hath no fury like a Trekkie scorned. Or a comic book collector scorned. Or a Star Wars geek scorned. When reporting on these areas of extreme fan devotion, you better get the facts right. Hard core fans are... Continue reading

9. Regret the Error

   The Wikiback Effect

   May 8, 2009 12:04 PM

   At the end of last month, Shane Fitzgerald, a twenty-two-year-old student at University College Dublin in Ireland, performed an experiment for one of his classes. The goal was “to show that journalists use Wikipedia as a primary source... Continue reading

10. Regret the Error

    Compounding the Error

    May 1, 2009 11:40 AM

    The first thing you need to know is that Tim Hortons is a Canadian coffee chain. More than that, however, it’s a staple and symbol of Canadian life. Tims, as some call it, is everywhere in Canada. They... Continue reading

11. Regret the Error

    Rethinking the “Assembly Line”

    April 24, 2009 11:32 AM

    "When you think about the assembly line that was a newsroom, it's changed," Arnie Robbins, editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, says in the latest issue of American Journalism Review. Robbins is quoted in“The Quality-Control Quandary,” a must... Continue reading

12. Regret the Error

    It’s a Small Word

    April 17, 2009 11:29 AM

    I’ve read hundreds of thousands of corrections over the last nearly five years, and one of my favorites is also one of the first I read. Here it is, as published by the Dallas Morning News in October of 2004:... Continue reading

13. Regret the Error

    Total Recall

    April 10, 2009 11:25 AM

    How bad does an error have to be to warrant the journalistic equivalent of a product recall? In 1948, the Chicago Daily Tribune sent out the trucks to bring back copies of its famous “Dewey Defeats Truman” edition.... Continue reading

14. Behind the News

    The Human Strain

    April 8, 2009 03:00 PM

    Perhaps it’s a bit cliché for a panel about the future of news to discuss how humans and computers will interact, but the good news is that the future of journalism includes humans. The tricky part will be figuring out... Continue reading

15. Regret the Error

    The Name Game

    April 3, 2009 11:27 AM

    Even if you remove the element of fame, you’re much better off being Engelbert Humperdinck than John Smith. Though unique names are often misspelled by the media, it’s far more dangerous to share a name with somebody else. Other people... Continue reading

16. Regret the Error

    Violating the “Contract of Correction”

    March 27, 2009 11:10 AM

    Roughly a year ago, The Washington Post embarked on what has become a seven-part investigative series about housing issues in D.C. The sixth installment examined the dispersal of $30 million earmarked to “rid the District of dangerous, dilapidated... Continue reading

17. Regret the Error

    Comedy of Errors

    March 20, 2009 10:37 AM

    Jay Leno has made amusing, mistaken, and otherwise notable newspaper headlines a staple of his show. Recently, his rivals got into the media mistake act. This could either be a disconcerting example of kicking newspapers when they’re down, or perhaps... Continue reading

18. Regret the Error

    Everything Old Is New Again

    March 13, 2009 12:08 PM

    During The New York Times’s 4 p.m. news meeting on Tuesday, a gathering that draws top editors from the paper, the culture editor described a story for the next day’s paper that included a connection to a Times article from... Continue reading

19. Regret the Error

    Sources of Error

    March 6, 2009 11:55 AM

    He spoke with a polished English accent, once shared a crème brûlée torte with Hillary Clinton, and spent part of the summer officiating tennis at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Charles Carlson gave every indication that he was a student worth... Continue reading

20. Regret the Error

    Close to Home

    February 27, 2009 11:39 AM

    One strict rule in the medical profession holds that no doctors can treat themselves or any member of their immediate family. The press, however, is without a similar proscription. Be it good news or bad, news organizations routinely report about... Continue reading

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