The Boston Globe has issued a compact but complete retraction in this latest case of an American newspaper getting a black eye due to poor quality control — a step in the right direction (but the trick is to make sure you don’t have to run these by being more diligent):
Editor’s Note: An article by a freelance writer based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in Wednesday’s Globe said that the season’s hunt for baby seals off Newfoundland had begun the previous day. In fact, the hunt did not begin that day; it was delayed by bad weather, and is scheduled to begin today, weather permitting. The article included details of the day’s hunt as if it had taken place and without attribution or other sourcing, as if the writer had witnessed the scene personally. Details included the number of hunters, a description of the scene, and the approximate age of the cubs. The author’s failure to accurately report the status of the hunt and her fabrication of details at the scene are clear violations of the Globe’s journalistic standards. Because the freelancer was not reporting from the scene, Globe editors should have demanded attribution for any details she provided about the hunt itself. The story should not have been published in the Globe, and the Globe has discontinued use of the freelancer.
Pretty impressive…the correction AND the falsifications…
Read our original post on this issue linked below.
ATTENTION EDITORS: I have a story I’d like to sell you describing my recent trip to Mars. It includes my interviews with its residents Dennis Kucinich and Alan Keyes.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.