AMERIQUE:


A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: It is the unspoken statistic, but it is as real as anything to do with the lingering U.S. war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the military, 1,800 American servicemen have killed themselves since the initial invasion of Baghdad. That is in addition to the more than 4,000 who died in battle. This week, families of the soldiers who committed suicide asked President Barack Obama to change the government policy of not forwarding letters of appreciation to mothers and fathers of these servicemen. By week's end, the White House had reversed the policy and agreed that such letters are needed, as well... - Eduardo Paz-Martinez, Editor of The Tribune

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

At The Times, Corrections Are Stories in Their Own Right...

By PATRICK ALCATRAZ
Editor-In-Chief

NEW YORK, N.Y. - It is the world's newspaper-of-record, so maybe that's why editors at The New York Times believe mistakes in its pages must be corrected - no matter how small. This morning, there on page A-2 was this tidbit: "An article on Saturday about a mixed-income condominium in Harlem misstated the name of one resident. He is Raymond Daniel Medina, not Ray Medina Hernandez."

Well, that must have pleased Mssr. Medina. And it set the record straight, of course.

You can read The Times daily and always know you're getting your money's worth. It is a jewel of a newspaper, its sections as interesting and well-written as you'll find on the planet. Sports is there at the back-end of the Business Day Front. Arts has its own section. The National News goes inside the A-Section, as does the New York page. International stuff is mixed in there, as well. In all, it is a book being published daily, so, yes, mistakes do crop-in from time to time.

Like this one: "An article on June 18 about programs to teach families to sail misidentified the function of the steel railings on a boat used by a family taking lessons offered by the Offshore Sailing School at Liberty State Park. They are intended to protect passengers from falling overboard, not to keep the boat from tipping over."

And from the Saturday, June 26 edition: "A report in the In Transit column on Page 2 this weekend about Pierre Koffmann's new eponymous restaurant at the Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge, London, includes an erroneous date from a hotel publicist for the restaurant's opening. After the section had gone to press, the date was moved back to mid-July; the restaurant will not open Monday."

I know. It's hardly earth-shattering stuff. The world kept spinning, yes. Still, I get a kick out how meticulous, almost annoying, The Times can be with these corrections. It says something. It says not all Journalism is dead, or cheap, or smalltown...

- 30 -

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

(South Texas Spared...)

If I was in New York, I too would feel that it was "spared". Ha,Ha,Ha!

ruben

Chano Maracas said...

Wow, The Tribune is alredy so glamorous and sophisticated for the Rancho Grande Valley... No wonder only a few reply comments are hitting you Guys !!!

.>Excellent job, though !

Patrick Alcatraz said...

Ruben & ANON:...What, you're not being spared! Great Scott, Jimmy!!! Alert the media. Our work in the RGV is about to get rougher. (2.) No, we're no more glamorous or sophisticated than we were before, although we feel the difference in the oxygen and the manner in which people here carry themselves. Defeatism ends, it appears, at the Texas border. By the way, the reason our comments are down is because we are wildly selective, and we do not allow for stupidities or profanity. Those we summarily reject with prejudice... - Editor

Mary Lou said...

So the New York Times make errors and correct the errors as well.
Good to hear that.
AS for Chano Marracas, when articles are well research and well written, it is difficult to offer opinions.
It is bombastic comments that cause silly responses. I really believe that people sometimes respond during emotional times rather than when they thinking rational.
I have always said it, The Tribune and El Rrun Rrun writing skills are above other (local) blogs.

Rosario said...

Great points. I am finally maturing.

Patrick Alcatraz said...

Mary Lou:...we like to think we're apart from the Blogging main. Not to douse the spark you bring about another blog, but that one has a history of being, well, what's the diplomatic word...soiled, maybe? Besides, what does that Blog's name mean? We're not up on our Aztec terminology. Is it an Aztec or Mayan word? Or is it simply Southmost street lingo? Again, we're at a loss to explain the pedestrian Brownsville brain...- Editor

Mary Lou said...

It is Tex-Mex, rumors, gossip, seriously, all the other local blogs shoot stones at everyone, and critize just about anything, instead of offering solutions.
Thanks, I still say your articles are pretty interesting and very well written. (Chano Maraccas, you can't be from Harlingen, everyone from hgn, write on the T.C. blog down here.)

Anonymous said...

(Besides, what does that Blog's name mean? We're not up on our Aztec)

El Rocinante is the name of Don Quixote's horse. Nothing whatever to do with mexican indians. But then, what would somebody getting drunk in New York know about something like that.

Ralph

Patrick Alcatraz said...

RALPH:...We know about El Rocinante's place in literature and of Jerry McHale seeing menacing windmills in everything Brownsville. We meant that other Blog, the one with the tapeworm of grammar errors that goes by the name of El Zzoom Zzoom, or something like that. What does Rrun Rrun mean? Anything? Does it come from the Cuento de la Llorona, or is it the hometown of the border bandit Juan Cortina?... - Editor

Anonymous said...

(El Zzoom Zzoom, or)

Somebody said it had something to do with a case of diarrhea or words to that effect. Made sense to me.

Ralph

Maclovio O' Mary said...

Chale Batos, can We all get along with a couple of beers, some chicks and some Fajita paltes.?