We regret the error, Jennifer Carbert

Craig Silverman, author and journalist, commented on the great teacher mistakes can be saying, "Fear of mistakes doesn't lead to accuracy. In fact, one of the best ways to learn how to acoid errors is to make them in the first place". Mistakes are wonderful teachers, Anne of Green Gables said, "Ever since I came to Green Gables I've been making mistakes, and each mistake has helped to cure me of some great shortcoming". Mistakes teach, and a person is less likely to make the same mistake twice; however, factual mistakes in journalism can be defamatory and ruin the life of the subject. Journalists are human beings and succumb to mistakes like everyone else, but they must be careful to double check the facts to the best of their ability or someone's life could be destroyed.

A journalist recently made a major error when they quoted a sources that said Gordon Lightfoot, a Canadian singer/song writer, was dead. The Edmonton Journal printed a headline which said, "Singer-song writer Gordon Lightfoot dead" stating as fact that the man was actually dead. The lead read, "Ontario-born singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot has died, according to sources close to the singer". When the entire thing was revealed to be a hoax the article was removed from cyber-space. A blog from the Vancouver Free press remembered to check the facts and not print anything definite until the suspicions had been confirmed or denied. The rumour did not last very long, the Globe and Mail reported on Feb 18 that he was very much alive, it was all a hoax. In this instance the fear of mistakes might very well have prevented the rumour from spreading as far as it did. The hoax was started through twitter, and any reporter with a healthy fear of error would have known not to trust twitter but rather, find reliable sources to check the information against such as Lightfoot's family. Even though this was a brutal mistake, the first reporter to publish this article will probably learn from the mistake and move forward much more careful to double check facts.

The Telegraphjournal in New Brunswick made an error in fact-checking when someone in the newsroom accused Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper of stealing a wafer from the Catholic Church on July 8, 2009. Journalists are taught to report the facts and let the court convict. In the second graph the article said, "During communion at the solemn and dignified service held last Friday in Memramcook for the former governor general, the prime minister slipped the thin wafer that Catholics call 'the host' into his jacket pocket". This sentence has no evidence or attribution, which is harmful to Haper's reputation. On July 28, the paper finally retracted the comment and apologized for damaging Harper's reputation. This mistake probably cost someone a job. Mistakes are great teachers, I hope the person who made this mistake has learned from it and will never convict someone of something every again. It is too bad that one person's learning oppourunityhad to damage the reputation of another.

The Edmonton Sun also recently published an error. All journalists are taught to put quotes in context before running them. A quote must be explained and given proper representation before it runs in the newspaper. Near the end of the article, Foster home toddler dies, there is a paragraph which says, 'tough work' between two quotes. 'tough work' is not a sentence and does not give any context to the quote that follows. This is a mistake the writer can learn from. Although it makes for rough flow and takes a quote out of context, the article can still be understood and no one's reputation was damaged.

As proven by the previous three examples journalists are human and sometimes make mistakes. Journalists may know a lot of things, but sometimes they are told wrong facts, or tight deadlines create sloppy work. Simple mistakes, such as fogetting to put proper context to a quote or spelling a couple of words wrong, are good to learn from; writers learn to be more careful. A writer will also learn from factual errors, but these errors can potentially damage another person's reputation. Journalists can and will learn from errors, but due to the public nature of their work, each journalist should strive to eliminate errors before the article goes to print.


Note: Image from Mozziestar.