Mounting newspaper errors prompt action

Sat., April 15, 2006

Steven A, Smith Editor

T o our readers:

Spokesman-Review editors owe you an apology.

Last Thursday’s newspaper, with seven corrections in our daily Accuracy Watch column (eight in the Idaho edition), was the last, shameful sign of a sad decline in accuracy over the last several months.

In the first 15 weeks of this year, we have corrected 176 errors of fact on the Northwest cover page. At that pace, our corrections for 2006 would easily top the 2005 total, which was higher than 2004.

Over 85 percent of those mistakes are due to our own carelessness, inattention to detail or haste.

This is embarrassing. Trust me, Spokesman- Review staffers, but particularly the editors, are properly ashamed.

But a public mea culpa isn’t enough.

We know that accuracy must be Job 1 for any credible news organization. We can get the big stories right – and mostly we do that, at the least. But too many routine stories, news briefs, calendar items and other daily stories are tainted by mistakes. A bad phone number or date. A name misspelled. A title messed up. A headline that misleads.

Each mistake takes another little chunk out of our reputation, damaging our credibility and reducing reader faith and trust.

The buck stops at my desk and, as editor, I take ultimate responsibility. As much as I’ve emphasized accuracy, it hasn’t been enough. All of our accuracy plans, policies and procedures haven’t been enough. I obviously haven’t been serious enough.

On Thursday, I made it clear to this newspaper’s key editors that they – and I and the managing editor – are to be held responsible for our accuracy.

We’ve moved our accuracy initiative into hyperdrive, emphasizing again that our standard is 100 percent. Period.

We need your help with this effort.

If you see an error of fact, please call or e-mail the appropriate editor listed or call me or Gary Graham. If we’ve made a mistake, we’ll correct it. And we’ll follow up to resolve the problems that led to the error. And we’ll let you know what steps we’ve taken.

We can do better than this, and we damned well will.

Steven A. Smith

Editor

(509) 459-5423

steves@spokesman.com

Gary Graham

Managing Editor

(509) 459-5405

garyg@spokesman.com

Geoff Pinnock

Senior Editor/Presentation

(509) 459-5592