I Love Newspaper Corrections

The Duchess of Cornwall might have been somewhat surprised to read in an article that she is due to...

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0100

The Duchess of Cornwall might have been somewhat surprised to read in an article that she is due to give birth next month. It is the Duchess of Cambridge who is expecting a baby.

— The Guardian

The Maori placename Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamate...

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0100

The Maori placename Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamate aturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenua-kitanatahu is not quite as lengthy as we rendered it in a panel accompanying an article about very long words. Our spelling twice included a stray j – a consonant that does not appear in the Maori language.

— The Guardian

The edition numbers printed in the newspaper were one number less than they should have been every...

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0100

The edition numbers printed in the newspaper were one number less than they should have been every day from 29 May to 4 June because the 28 May edition number was inadvertently repeated on 29 May.

— The Guardian

Because of editing errors, an article on Thursday about a duo that has its first Top 10 single and...

Thu, 30 May 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Because of editing errors, an article on Thursday about a duo that has its first Top 10 single and its first No. 1 album on the Billboard album chart misstated its name at two points. As the article correctly noted elsewhere, it is Daft Punk — not Daft Puck or Daft Pink.

— The New York Times

An interview with Saul Bellow’s son Greg said he was now 68, but also suggested he was 44 at...

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:00 +0100

An interview with Saul Bellow’s son Greg said he was now 68, but also suggested he was 44 at the time of an incident that occurred in 1976. As at least one reader noticed, those figures did not add up. We now believe that Greg Bellow was born on 16 April 1944 and was 32 at the time of the incident in 1976; he was 68 at the time the interview was carried out, but was 69 by the time it was published.

— The Guardian

Diary: Who was the quickest quick-change artist of them all? Bernard knows was amended because the...

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Diary: Who was the quickest quick-change artist of them all? Bernard knows was amended because the original referred to speculations on whether Barbara Castle could have become Britain’s first prime minister. Britain’s first female prime minister, it should have said.

— The Guardian

An article about eating mutton referred to the disastrous effects of the prolonged winter on sheep...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0100

An article about eating mutton referred to the disastrous effects of the prolonged winter on sheep farmers and their livestock but said “resilient mutton are coping well”. A farmer points out that it is the sheep that are resilient; mutton is the meat that comes from them.

— The Guardian

A Lost in Showbiz article about the actor Steven Seagal was removed from our website because it...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A Lost in Showbiz article about the actor Steven Seagal was removed from our website because it was based on a magazine article which was intended as fantasy.

— The Guardian

Near homophone corner: “The Plain English Campaign led the criticism. ‘It’s...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Near homophone corner: “The Plain English Campaign led the criticism. ‘It’s nonsense,’ said Steve Jenner, spokesperson and radio presenter. ‘Where’s it going to stop. Are we going to declare war on comas, outlaw full stops?’”

— The Guardian

An interview with Carrie Underwood asked the country music singer if she decided to become a...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

An interview with Carrie Underwood asked the country music singer if she decided to become a vegetarian after seeing her parents castrate a cow. Unlikely. Only bulls can be castrated.

— The Guardian

Criminalise squatting in commercial premises, say Tory MPs was corrected because it said the...

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Criminalise squatting in commercial premises, say Tory MPs was corrected because it said the occupation of residential properties with permission had been made a criminal offence; without permission, it should have said.

— The Guardian

A report about the publication of records containing the identities of MPs’ landlords said...

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

A report about the publication of records containing the identities of MPs’ landlords said they showed that the Conservative MP Mark Garnier was renting from a “Paul Smith Esq” although it was uncertain if he was the fashion designer of the same name. The designer Paul Smith has asked us to make clear that he is not Mark Garnier’s landlord.

— The Guardian

Ukip surfs wave of disillusionment with EU to hit new poll high was corrected because the original...

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Ukip surfs wave of disillusionment with EU to hit new poll high was corrected because the original said 56% of voters would probably or definitely vote to leave the UK if a referendum were held. That should have been the EU, not the UK.

— The Guardian

A Shortcuts item about the enduring – and, for many, irritating – popularity of Gangnam Style, the...

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

A Shortcuts item about the enduring – and, for many, irritating – popularity of Gangnam Style, the pop song and video by the South Korean rapper Psy, said it was “like a virus that is immune to antibiotics”. A doctor writes to point out that all viruses are immune to antibiotics, which are used to treat bacterial infections.

— The Guardian

Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Flight Behaviour describes a team of entomologists arriving in an...

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Flight Behaviour describes a team of entomologists arriving in an Appalachian town to study a vast flock of butterflies. They were not etymologists as we had it in a review of the novel.

— The Guardian

A Diary item said the Labour MP Denis MacShane was famously sacked from the BBC after he accused...

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

A Diary item said the Labour MP Denis MacShane was famously sacked from the BBC after he accused the Conservative politician Reginald Maudling of being a cook. Crook was the word he used.

— The Guardian

A television listing for the BBC programme Wartime Farm described it as recalling “the acute...

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0100

A television listing for the BBC programme Wartime Farm described it as recalling “the acute foot shortage of 1943”. That might have made an interesting programme, but this one was looking at a wartime food shortage.

— The Guardian

Following the publication of [“Just 100 cod left in North Sea”], the Department for...

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Following the publication of [“Just 100 cod left in North Sea”], the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has stated that there are “around 21 million mature cod in the north sea”. It says “there are a small number of cod over the age of 12 years old which has always been the case in the North Sea even when fished at lower levels in the 1950s and 1960s”.

— The Telegraph

C.W. Nevius’ column about Most Holy Redeemer banning drag queen performers incorrectly stated...

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0100

C.W. Nevius’ column about Most Holy Redeemer banning drag queen performers incorrectly stated that entertainer Peaches Christ appeared at an event at the church’s hall with a dildo shaped like a crucifix. He did not appear at the event, nor does he use the prop.

— San Francisco Chronicle

Doreen Lawrence: ‘I got quite emotional. I thought: hold it together’ was corrected...

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Doreen Lawrence: ‘I got quite emotional. I thought: hold it together’ was corrected because a section of the taped interview with Doreen Lawrence was misheard and then wrongly transcribed, which led to a reference to Haile Gebrselassie’s dog. It should have been a reference to his daughter.

— The Guardian