Setting the Record Straight in the Most Certain of Terms
Typographical errors, the misspelled name, the error of fact--these are the bugbears of newspapers. No newspaper is above them. Today, when the Linotype is gone, the proofreader is gone, and the omniscient computer rules, they seem to be more abundant than ever.
When errors escape copy editors and end up in print, it is the obligation of every responsible newspaper to point them out and correct them in its next edition.
Thus, The Times has its “For the Record” in which it painfully notes that a name, a fact, a date, or whatever, was in error. But of course For the Record does not attempt to correct every error--only those that might subject someone to embarrassment or humiliation, or grossly mislead the public.
Surely the most thorough mea culpa of this sort that I have ever seen appears in a recent issue of the Independent Forum, a student newspaper for Harvard-Westlake, Marlborough and Brentwood--Westside private schools.
It is in a long box at the top of the page under the headline (perhaps mocking The Times) For the Record. A byline gives credit to Steven Heyman and Zach Litvak, proof editors.
It reads as follows:
“The Independent Forum would like to apologize for the following errors in the December 11, 1990 issue:
“The unrightful use of Max Zarou’s, Seth Rodsky’s and Taylor Ball’s names.
“The misspelling of Azzie Mackenzie’s name.
“On page four, the caption under the picture should read: ‘Inset: John Sculley, CEO of Apple Computer, Inc.’ and not ‘Steven Jobs.’
“On Page four, the correct capitalization of ‘NExt’ is ‘NeXT.’
“On page four, here are the correct names of games and their publishers: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles--Ultra Games; Ultima VI: The False Prophet--Origin; Sim City Supreme--Maxis.
“On page seven, the photo along with ‘Bo and the Raiders,’ was of Marcus Allen, not Bo Jackson.
“On page 13, here are the correct spellings for all the artists’s names used in the article ‘The Armand Hammer Museum’: Leonardo Da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Henry Toulouse-Lautrec, Mary Cassatt.
“We think there are more errors, but we hope we caught the major offenders.”
Writing for print is a hazardous business; and while I allow myself only two errors a year, like the Independent Forum I have sometimes more than used up my quota in one day.
I only hope that in copying the Forum’s errors I didn’t make more errors, or that in correcting their errors they didn’t make more. It’s easy.
Over the years I have probably made more errors than Pete Rose has hits, but I think the most grievous of all was one I made in a column based on a letter from Elizabeth Dobbs of Vista. Though a feminist, Dobbs was explaining how she had enjoyed being treated as a woman when she was in Paris. She was, in fact, buoyed up and pleased by the traditional male overtures and attentions.
Halfway through the column I wrote Boggs for Dobbs , and, having made the switch, continued to call her that thereafter. When I read the column in print, and saw my error, I was horrified. I telephoned Dobbs and apologized.
“I have no idea how it happened,” I told her. “I believe it’s the worst mistake I’ve ever made.”
She was extraordinarily gracious. She said it was nothing to worry about. She had enjoyed the column.
Strangely I received only one letter of complaint. It was from a woman friend of Dobbs who not only excoriated me for getting her name wrong but for misinterpreting her feminism.
I have heard from Dobbs a few times since. She writes with touching sensitivity about the anxieties and satisfactions of going back to college (UC San Diego). It isn’t easy. She is married with children (two boys). She wants to be a writer. She doesn’t know it, but she is a writer.
I phoned Dobbs again before writing this column. I explained, as I hadn’t before, that at the time I wrote the earlier column the sports pages were full of the extramarital adventures of Wayne Boggs, the four-time American League batting champion, and somehow his name stuck in my mind. There is, after all, some similarity in Dobbs and Boggs.
‘Have you ever herd of MEGO?” Dobbs asked.
I said I hadn’t.
“It means ‘My eyes glaze over,’ ” she said. “My eyes glaze over when anyone mentions sports.”
Several months after I called Dobbs Boggs, I referred to John Elway, the great Denver Broncos quarterback, as John Elroy.
Now that got some attention. “You’ll get a million letters,” someone wrote. I only got about half that many.
Just as a test, I asked my wife, “Have you ever heard of John Elway?”
“I don’t remember,” she said. “Who’s he?”
I said. “You saw him play in the 1987 Super Bowl.”
Talk about MEGO.
Come to think about it, isn’t it Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, not Henry?
(Editor: It is.)
