When a newspaper makes an error that causes you heartburn, your resulting choice is really not much of one, is it?  If the reporter or editor concurs that a mistake has indeed been made, and thus agrees to run a printed correction or retraction, you know that it will not get nearly the "play" the original offering did, with only the most avid news readers actually seeing such apologetic tidbits.

Alternatively, you could write a letter-to-the-editor, correcting the mistake in greater detail and noting the actual facts.  Other than making you feel better, perhaps, this too has its shortcomings.  By appearance anything other than the paper’s admission of error will simply look like your differing opinion.  As well, how many readers of the original piece will actually get to the letters section of the editorial page?

You could sue.  Uh-huh.  Moving on, then…

It’s a catch-22, with the print news media in most cases in a much stronger position than those they cover.

So, it’s nice to see a newspaper, even after a fairly egregious and blatant error, taking action to own up, retract and apologize, while displaying the correction in as prominent a fashion as the original piece.

My personal case in point.  A few weeks ago, I posted to the FlashReport a piece on Auday Arabo’s entree into the AD 78th race (read it here), to replace Shirley Horton who will term out next year.  Among other things, Democrat Arabo is the nephew of retired State Senator Wadie Deddeh and a prominent figure in the Chaldean community.  The post generated several comments, from the partisans of vying candidates, as well as from Party-sans weighing in on the prospects of the seat going R or D in the 2008 general.

A local San Diego weekly newspaper, the East County Herald-News, has an anonymous columnist who simply goes by the name Mr. East County.  In most weeks the paper will include a satirical column by the unknown writer, usually including some sort of fun poked at area politicians, in most cases completely fabricated but benign passages, in some instances funny, in the very rare instance a gem, but in most cases too "insiderish" for even the average reader to have any clue at all what is being communicated.

In East County folks in the political arena have kind of become used to Mr. East County, even though more often than not the column is incomprehensible.  Kind of like Saturday Night Live in the latter years, we wait for the line or two that actually makes us laugh.

At any rate, in the Dec. 14 Herald-News, Mr. East County took my FR posting on Auday Arabo and the 78th, and decided to satirize it by running it "almost" in its entirety, but with several changes and additions in an ill-fated stab at humor.  Entitled "Mr. East County with Barry Jantz," the column included no disclaimer about the satire, nor any mention that I actually didn’t write it.  The unfortunate result is not worth repeating here, other than to say that it bordered on racial overtones about anyone’s name which apparently to the columnist may be considered "different."  

Within a few days, I was communicating with reporters from the Union-Tribune and two local TV stations, all of whom were wondering whether I wrote the column.  Fortunately, I was able to link them directly to the original FR posting.  Auday, as well, was contacted by several people.

After a few emails back and forth with Mr. East County (who called it a "tempest in a teapot" and rued only the lack of disclaimer, not the piece itself) and Publisher Dee Dean (who clearly understood the column’s failings), following is the result that ran in the Dec. 28 Herald-News:

Column crossed the line

Dee Dean, Publisher, East County Herald News

Now, that’s a correction!  As I wrote to Dee, she ultimately went above and beyond…and I appreciate it.  It gives the paper an air of distinction to own up, take responsibility, and apologize.

As I further wrote in one of my communiqués with Mr. East County and the publisher, the fact that East County has long suffered with the incorrect stigma of being a back-water, racially insensitive community cannot be ignored, not even with misguided satire.

Have a great week!

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 7th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.