In 2004 faceook wasn’t that big of a deal. If people found errors in newspapers they highlighted them, clipped them out, and sent them to us. Then, my editor at the time would call them and offer them to come in and edit if they wanted.
Fast forward 11 years… Facebook and the news have a symbiotic relationship and feedback is immediate.
Reporters make errors, we hate them, editors hate to miss them, but sometimes, especially in breaking news situations, they happen.
But, when posted to facebook, readers can immediately point them out and they can be immediately fixed. This happened Monday when I used “A” instead of “An.” Yes, an error that you would think we would catch, but we were on a breaking news story where someone is threatening to “kill everyone.”
It was overlooked.
I thank our readers for being confident and trusting enough to reach out to us. I can almost guarantee that mistake will most likely not be made in the immediate future.
