Crunks 2007: The Year in Media Errors and Corrections

Reuters, the reigning back-to-back champ in this category, didn’t win but did come in second place by calling the Muttahida Quami Movement the “Muttonhead Quail Movement.”

Someone should definitely start a Muttonhead Quail Movement. Perhaps I should. I’ll spend the holiday season mulling over what its aims, aspirations and costume will be.

Edit: muttonhead.com is not available. Registered in 1999! Whoever owns it doesn’t seem to be using it for anything. Luckily muttonhead-quail.com is still available.

Some other flashes of journalistic and / or editorial brilliance -

Sunday Star-Times (New Zealand):

OUR STORY on the price of tomatoes last week misquoted Alistair Petrie, general manager of Turners and Growers. Discussing the price of tomatoes Petrie was talking about retail rate not retail rape. We apologise for the misunderstanding.

Los Angeles Times:

Mexico City newspaper: An article in Wednesday’s Calendar section about an English-language newspaper in Mexico City referred to the many U.S. ex-patriots who live there. It should have said expatriates.

The Guardian:

In a report about the Scottish elections, an editing error led to us wrongly suggesting that John Swinburne of the Scottish Senior Citizens’ Unity Party had been accused of allegedly causing a breach of the peace by running amok in a polling station with a golf club (Recrimination follows chaos over new Scots voting procedures, page 5, May 5). We apologise to Mr Swinburne for any embarrassment or distress caused.

The Miami Herald:

In an article on drug smuggling in Venezuela that began on Page 1A Monday, an incorrect photograph was used on Page 2A for jailed drug trafficking suspect Feris Farid Domínguez. The error occurred in the newsroom production process. The photo that was used was that of Leonel Fernández, president of the Dominican Republic. The Miami Herald regrets the error.

Mischievous spellchecker [from New Scientist]

DO WE detect the hand of the mischievous spellchecker in the following apologetic note from the April issue of Contemporary Sociology? “In the January issue… in the review written by Elizabeth Gorman of The Work and Family Handbook: Multi-disciplinary perspectives and approaches, edited by Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, Ellen Ernst Kossek and Stephen Sweet, the contributors’ last names should have been spelled ‘Karen Gareis’ instead of ‘Karen Agrees’, ‘Laura Beavais’ instead of ‘Laura Beavers’, and ‘Gerstel and Sarkisian’, not ‘Gretel and Sardinian’. We regret the errors.”

I had to save the best until last.

The Guardian:

We misspelled the word misspelled twice, as mispelled, in the Corrections and clarifications column on September 26, page 30.