elsa

Headlines

It was almost wonderful. Instead of a dry headline about the Democratic presidential candidates debating at The Citadel, The Post and Courier's 1A headline said, "Democrats.com." It identified the party that was debating. It suggested the new format which involved using questions submitted through Youtube.com. It was one word -- catchy but informative.

Unfortunately, it is also a real website. And while many readers would understand what the paper intended, some are sure to go to their computers and check out Democrats.com. What they will find is a site that does not represent mainstream Democrats. It is described as "aggressively progressive."

Accuracy

It seems like a no-brainer. If a newspaper wants its readers' confidence, it has to deliver the news accurately. And if (when) a newspaper makes mistakes, it should 'fess up and correct them immediately.

It seems very simple, but sometimes it's a little cloudy. For example, earlier this week, The Post and Courier published a story about the Isle of Palms grappling with rules regarding short-term rentals and the size of new homes. The story appeared with a photograph of a large house. In the photo's caption, former mayor Clay Cable estimates the house's size as at least 10,000 square feet.

It turns out that Mr. Cable was off by about 5,700 square feet. The caption reported accurately what he said, but what he said was far from accurate.

I recommended to the news editors that the paper publish a clarification on 2A, and they agreed -- but there was some understandable frustration among the staff. It's frustrating enough to make mistakes. It's really frustrating to be accountable for other people's mistakes.

Having said that, it is the responsibility of the newspaper to ascertain, as much as is possible, the accuracy of information that it is provided. Readers don't really care who made the mistake. They just want the paper to be accurate.

What about humor?

Bryce Donovan, who is known to Preview readers as a humorist, moved to 1B Friday, and I'm not sure it worked. He was asked to ride CARTA's new express bus along with other members of the media and to write about his experience. That's what he did -- and he did it with the irreverent humor for which he is known.

The question is whether it worked on 1B. One reader said it didn't. That it was surrounded by serious news stories, and it simply didn't belong there.

I don't have a problem with humor on news pages from time to time. But I do think there were problems with the way this one was presented. While it did use Bryce's column photo and name, it was presented like a news story. The headline was straight news: CARTA gets ready to enter express mode. If the paper is going to inject humor on a news page, it is important that readers know that's what's happening.

Sorry

 It's not always just what you say, it's how you say it.

The Post and Courier's policy has been to publish corrections to set the record straight for readers and to let them know a bit about how the error was made. For example, "Due to a reporter's error, the date for the parade was published incorrectly..."

The reason for doing it this way was to be as transparent as possible with readers and to encourage staffers to  redouble their efforts to be accurate.

That isn't how all readers interpreted the statement, however. Some  considered the attribution a way for the paper to pass along responsibility from the institution to an individual.

The policy is changing. The paper will continue to let readers know when a mistake occurred because of incorrect information provided by an organization or its public relations representative. It will not specify when errors were "due to an editor's mistake" or "due to a clerk's mistake."

 The correction will also say that The Post and Courier regrets the error.