This is the correction of the year

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The tremendous Web site Regret the Error does the often-hilarious dirty work of keeping tabs on newspaper corrections, and each December releases its comprehensive list of the biggest, dumbest, silliest, and most outrageous flubs, foibles, and fuck-ups the dead-tree media world has to offer.

Here’s their pick for Correction of the Year, from Independent Saturday (UK) magazine:

Following the portrait of Tony and Cherie Blair published on 21 April in the Independent Saturday magazine, Ms Blair’s representatives have told us that she was friendly with but never had a relationship with Carole Caplin of the type suggested in the article. They want to make it clear, which we are happy to do, that Ms Blair “has never shared a shower with Ms Caplin, was not introduced to spirit guides or primal wrestling by Ms Caplin (or anyone else), and did not have her diary masterminded by Ms Caplin.”

That one is pretty indicative of a trend among these corrections — that the Brits have a good sense of humor about making boo-boos. Here’s another, from the Daily Telegraph:

APOLOGY: In Friday’s article on Liz Hurley’s wedding it was wrongly stated that the actress is holding a pheasant shoot on the Sunday after the ceremony. Game shooting is of course illegal on Sundays and the pheasant season ended on Feb 1. We apologise for the error and accept that if any shooting is to be done it will be by the paparazzi, who have no season and do not observe the Sabbath.

Now compare that to the puckered anuses who write corrections for the New York Times. Honestly, these people would apologize for beating us in tennis (which they would never do on account of our Belichick-esque mastery of in-game psychology). Here’s something they pulled out this year:

An obituary on July 21 of Shirley Slesinger Lasswell, who marketed memorabilia and toys based on A. A. Milne’s children’s books about Winnie the Pooh, misspelled the name of the department store that agreed to let her set up Pooh Corners for children. It is Neiman Marcus, not Nieman Marcus. (The Times has misspelled the company’s name in at least 195 articles since 1930.)

Here’s another humorless correction that could have benefited from grander treatment, from the Chicago Tribune:

An item in the Sunday Magazine referred to a popular but unfounded notion that Eskimos have dozens of words for snow, in this case 40. The item failed to note that the assertion has been debunked by linguists and others.

This one is just begging to be made humorous. Like this:

An item in the Sunday Magazine referred to a popular but unfounded notion that Eskimos have dozens of words for snow, in this case 40. The item failed to note that the assertion has been debunked by linguists and others. The Eskimos, do, however, have 126 words to describe the kind of tight-assed dweebs who push for corrections for dumb shit like this.

See how easy it is?

Crunks ‘07: The Year in Media Errors and Corrections [Regret the Error]

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Tags: corrections, errors, Eskimos