Best (Worst) of The Year of Errors and Corrections

Regret the Error rounds up the biggest media errors (and corrections) of the year.

It was the year that Newsweek’s Koran error played a role in deadly riots, the year a Fox News commentator’s error caused a family to be terrorized by its neighbors, the year the Chicago Tribune was sued for $1 million for mistakenly labeling a man a mobster (it did the same to another man the same week but he declined to sue). The year the New York Times' reputation took a beating over its failure to accurately report on WMDs in Iraq. And let’s not forget the furor over a “nudge” that never was.

While some of the mistakes had lasting, serious repercussions, others were just silly, like this gem:

From the Dallas Morning News: Norma Adams-Wade's June 15 column incorrectly called Mary Ann Thompson-Frenk a socialist. She is a socialite.

The so-called "old media" should look to itself before accusing bloggers of being poorly edited.

Tags: media, errors, 2005, best