Regret the Error: How Media Mistakes Pollute the Press and Imperil Free Speech

Craig Silverman

Language: English

Published: Dec 14, 2009

Description:

Winner of the National Press Club's Arthur Rowse Award for Press Criticism! From Craig Silverman, proprietor of www.

RegretTheError.com, comes a lively journey through the history of media mistakes via a chronicle of funny, shocking, and often disturbing journalistic slip-ups. The errors—running the gamut from hilarious to tragic—include “Fuzzy Numbers” (when numbers and math undermine reporting) “Obiticide” (printing the obituary of a living person), and “Unintended Consequences” (typos and misidentifications that create a new, incorrect reality). While some of the errors are laugh-out-loud funny, the book also offers a serious investigation of contemporary journalism's lack of accountability to the public, and a rousing call to arms for all news organizations to mend their ways and reclaim the role of the press as honest voice of the people.