Regret the error

When journalists make mistakes in their work, they're supposed to acknowledge and fix those mistakes at the next possible opportunity -- in the next day's paper, by fixing it in an online story, by announcing the mistake on-air. I can really only speak for newspapers, but most, if not all, have a space for those corrections, often on page two.

There's a great Web site that tracks corrections, called Regret the Error. It gets the name from the last sentence of many corrections, which is often the publication saying that it does, in fact, regret having made the error.

They're often entertaining and interesting reads. But I want to call your attention to the 2009 best-of list.

The funny doesn't really start until four screens down (skip the fact-checking part unless you're inherently interested in that sort of thing and start with the Correction of the Year).

I'll let you read the correction itself, which is most unfortunate. And a number of the corrections contained in the list (or more appropriately, the mistakes that were made that led to the corrections being on that list) were hysterical. But the thing that made me laugh out loud while sitting at work was a Twitter meme referring to that correction of the year. Its hashtag is #washingtonpostcorrections and in case they're off the screen by the time you search it, it includes such gems as:

• PamPF99 Please note that The Monkees are in fact believers, and not heretics as reported. The Post regrets the error. #washingtonpostcorrections
• mistabaka: Mo money does not, as was reported, bring mo problems, we regret the error. #washingtonpostcorrections
• cobrown: Snoop Dogg did not, as we reported, contract the plague. It was his chronic that was bubonic. #washingtonpostcorrections
• jsmooth995: George Clinton has assured us his roof remains intact, and he takes fire safety quite seriously. #washingtonpostcorrections
• sethlipkin There is, in fact, a mountain high enough. The Post regrets the error. #washingtonpostcorrections
• nolamomma Dr. Dre is IN Public Enemy. He is not considered by law enforcement to be A public enemy. #washingtonpostcorrections

You get the picture.

And some real corrections (from the best-of) to whet your palate:

Toronto Sun: A headline on page one of the Toronto Sun yesterday was both inaccurate and misleading. In fact, as the story reported, the mother of a boy involved in a high school fight in Keswick said her son “said something stupid.” She did not say nor imply he was stupid. The Sun regrets the error and apologizes to the boy and his family.

Los Angeles Times: Bear sighting: An item in the National Briefing in Sunday’s Section A said a bear wandered into a grocery story in Hayward, Wis., on Friday and headed for the beer cooler. It was Thursday.