Oops, ouch, mea culpa.
Mistakes happen. As hard as we try, there are times when our publication doesn’t catch a date-error, typo or misspelling. Sometimes an item simply needs more explanation to make sense to readers. And much to our chagrin, there have been times when we published bad information.
Regardless of the error’s scope, our policy is to set the record straight. We do this a few different ways:
• Fix the error online as quickly as possible.
• Publish a print correction or clarification in the next print edition.
• When necessary, publish a revised story.
Reporting is a complex business. Distilling hours-long meetings into 600-word stories takes skill. As does winnowing down a lengthy in-person or telephone interview. Sometimes information is misunderstood, vague or not provided.
Feature stories and people profiles have their own challenges with the spelling of names, ages of individuals and dates of events. In short, there are plenty of places to err.
So, to hold our readers’ trust, The Coastal Star spends an inordinate amount of production time on catching anything that doesn’t look or read right.
All of our stories are locally produced, so we check phone numbers and website addresses, double-check the spelling on names, check that today’s story accurately reflects the past. It’s a time-consuming process, but journalistic excellence is always our goal.
Still, on occasion we miss something that should be obvious, or a deadline keeps us from following up on questions, or we simply interpret information incorrectly. Mistakes happen.
And whether an error requires a quick tweak online, a simple clarification or a formal correction, we understand the importance of not perpetuating misinformation, so we fix it.
And we let our readers know.
— Mary Kate Leming, Executive Editor
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