Mistakes and regrets

Editor Steve Smith minced no words this morning is expressing his displeasure at this morning’s extensive list of corrections : “Three of them appall me and the others just piss me off.”

The errors, he said, were fundamental reporting issues, and could not be explained away by time constraints or other demands.

“This ought to embarrass everyone at this table,” he said.

Of particular concern, Smith said, was erroneously stating that Gonzaga University was the defendent in a sexual misconduct lawsuit. In delicate stories like this, he said, we need to ensure that every word is 100% accurate.

“Every time we screw up (on a sex abuse story), we open the door to people who think we have an agenda.”

Smith said that he and managing editor Gary Graham would “go back to the drawing board” to get to the bottom of the problem. Our error rate is higher than it was a year before, he said, and steps taken in recent months to reduce the number of corrections don’t appear to be working.

On a related note, there was almost universal acknowledgement that the map accompanying today’s update on the county assessor race was almost impossible to read in black and white. Look for a color version online later today.

Update: The map can be viewed here . We’ll get these online a little quicker next time.