CNN’s Reliable Sources
Publishers Weekly
…a winding journey through the most glaring, damaging and humorous typos, misprints, misidentifications, fuzzy numbers and obiticides in the history of journalism, from the accidental to the malicious. These chapters are chock-full of amusing historical anecdotes, including the story behind the incorrect headline Dewey Defeats Truman, the case of mistaken identity that galvanized Nobel to create his prestigious awards, and the oft-presumed dead but still living Abe Vigoda. Silverman injects plenty of humor, but mostly he is deeply concerned about the science of journalism, and at the heart of this romp is an argument for increased public participation in the news cycle. Read the full review here.
NPR: Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me!
The Sunday, October 21 edition of this wonderful news quiz show used content from the book to quiz Stephen Colbert for the “Not My Job” segment. As one might imagine, the combination of Colbert, host Peter Sagal, and a selection of the amusing examples of press errors contained in the book was hilarious and thoroughly enjoyable. Listen to the segment here. (Click on the “Not My Job: Stephen Colbert” link.)
Editor & Publisher
After three years of compiling and noting such news-related apologies, Silverman has produced a book on the subject. “Regret The Error: How Media Mistakes Pollute The Press And Imperil Free Speech” (Union Square Press) offers 300 of his top finds over the years, along with a serious look at how the industry’s lack of accuracy and failure to address mistakes has hurt the business. It includes a foreword by journalism critic Jeff Jarvis… But the book is not all doom and gloom; Silverman praises the art of correction writing and makes clear that the best ones offer a mix of humor, writing style, and clarity. He has a whole section on “obitocide” — false reports of untimely deaths. And he does not ignore the venerable typo, citing The Dallas Morning News for referring to a local woman as a ’socialist’ instead of a ’socialite’ and the Ottawa Citizen describing a ‘a little seedy store’ which was in reality a ‘little CD store.’ Read the full article here. (sub req’d)
Toronto Star
The extensively researched work delves into the history of accuracy and errors in journalism, seeking answers to why errors occur, their impact on the credibility of journalism, and what can be done to both minimize mistakes and learn from them. The book connects the dots between newspaper accuracy, errors and corrections, and media credibility – and ultimately the survival of newspapers in a media-saturated world where trust and credibility are our most important assets. Read the full article here.
American Journalism Review
“Regret the Error” is a compendium of published media corrections, many of them hilarious. But Craig Silverman, a journalist who founded the Web site RegretTheError.com, turns what could have been a sudsy little stocking stuffer into a serious study of why journalists fail so often. He also lays out a sensible, brain-driven plan for reform, starting with a “systems approach” to accuracy. Read the full article here.
The Gazette (Montreal)
…Regret the Error [is] a compendium of more than 300 media corrections as well as a treatise on the subject. The corrections are often hysterically funny, though on occasion rather tragic and/or just plain baffling. The treatise is a historical overview filled with fascinating factoids. The book is a must, not only for zealous copy editors but for everyone obsessed with the business of news gathering and delivery. Read the full article here.
Slate
Craig Silverman’s devotion to the correction as a literary form dates to 2004, when the Montreal-based writer launched his Web site Regret the Error, which traps and displays journalism’s best (and funniest) corrections, retractions, apologies, and clarifications. Silverman’s essential site spawned an equally essential book last fall titled Regret the Error: How Media Mistakes Pollute the Press and Imperil Free Speech, which tells you everything you need to know about the history of journalistic fallibility and the culture of corrections. Read the full article here.
The Walrus
The book is in effect a paean to fact checking and sound journalism, and it deserves to join [Evelyn Waugh’s] seminal work [Scoop] atop every journalism school syllabus — and on the desk of every reporter and editor. By examining the history of media errors and corrections, the book paints a picture of a fallible mass information machine… Regret the Error is a much-needed call for careful journalism and accountability. Read the full article here.
Variety
Mixing humorous corrections taken from large and small newspapers alike, Silverman gives historical context to the current problems (he laments the demise of newspaper proofreaders) and then proposes solutions for busy newsrooms (such as random post publication fact checking). Read the full article here.
