Corrections: Singing in Mexican? Death Penalty for Las Vegas Shooter? Pimpin or Primpin?

by Sydney Smith November 16, 2017 05:00 AM EST

(Credit: Wikipedia)

iMediaEthics frequently rounds up amusing or noteworthy corrections. Check out our latest collection below.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported on a bike event and said a band was “singing in Mexican.” The story was fixed online, its reporter Jeremy Smith tweeted, but there was no correction appended by Nov. 2. Smith told iMediaEthics by phone he was “extremely sick that day, and I originally wrote a Mexican rock band.” When he re-wrote the sentence, it left the phrase “singing in Mexican,” and he didn’t fix it until after publication. After iMediaEthics contacted Smith, the following correction was appended to the article,

“Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the language that the rock band in Barrio Logan was singing in.”

Really??? How did this happen?!? @sdut @jemersmith https://t.co/n5e44ETjSu pic.twitter.com/nTO0ILxpPS

— Maya Rosas (@msmayarosas) October 30, 2017

2. GQ magazine wrongly said that President Donald Trump didn’t call for the death penalty in the case of the Las Vegas shooter. But, that isn’t correct, because the shooter is already dead so it wouldn’t have been possible. The headline reads now, “Why does Donald Trump want the death penalty for the New York Attack, But Not For Others? [Updated]”

GQ‘s correction reads,

“Edit: An earlier version of this article used a headline noting that Trump had publicly called for the death penalty in the New York attack, but not the Las Vegas shooting in particular. That discrepancy is probably related to the fact that the Las Vegas shooter is dead. We regret the error.”

3. The Los Angeles Times‘ Matt Pearce fessed up to his “first correction in a while.” His original story inaccurately said there are three time zones in the continental U.S. But, there are four. The correction reads:

“An earlier version of this story said the vote would give the continental U.S. four time zones instead of three. There are currently four time zones in the contiguous U.S. Also the story incorrectly said the farthest-east parts of Canada use Atlantic Time. Actually, the farthest-east parts of Canada use the Newfoundland time zone.”

Got my first correction in a while, and it's a doozy — I wrote that the "continental" U.S. had "three" time zones. https://t.co/j4B3BoSt7W

— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) November 1, 2017

4. Pimpin’ or primpin’? One letter makes all the difference. The New York Times had to correct a story on Snoop Dogg’s game show. The Oct. 25 correction reads,

“An entry on Tuesday in the ‘What’s on TV’ highlights misstated the name of a category on the game show ‘Snoop Dogg Presents Joker’s Wild.’ It is ‘Primpin’ Ain’t Easy,’ not ‘Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy.’ (Sorry, Big Daddy Kane.)”