1.The Sun in England misreported on a Brexit poll. The Sun’s error omitted the respondents who said they had no opinion.
In an August 28 clarification, the Sun wrote:
“On 13 August we published an article headlined ‘LEAVE MEANS LEAVE Majority of Brits back Boris Johnson to suspend Parliament to get Brexit done, poll reveals”.
“The article incorrectly claimed a majority of those polled agreed with the idea of Boris Johnson delivering Brexit by any means necessary, including suspending Parliament. 44% of respondents agreed with the statement, 37% disagreed, and 19% said they did not know.
“The majority claim was reached by excluding the 19% who said they did not know from the calculation. We are happy to clarify.”
2. Marijuana crimes: The New York Times added a lengthy correction to a story on marijuana crimes and expungement. The article erred in reporting the number of those affected by a new law. The Aug. 30 correction:
“An article on Thursday about a new law that will expunge the records of those convicted of low-level marijuana crimes described incorrectly the number of people affected by the law. About 160,000 people with low-level marijuana convictions in New York will see those convictions cleared from their record. And of that number, 10,872 in New York City and 13,537 in the rest of the state, will have no criminal records after their marijuana convictions are cleared. The remaining approximately 136,000 people will still have criminal records because of other convictions. It is not the case that only the 10,872 people in New York City and 13,537 in the rest of the state will have their low-level marijuana convictions cleared from their records.”
3. Sept. 11 attacks:
An NPR article misreported on the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. The Aug. 31 correction reads:
“An earlier version of this article said the Sept. 11 attacks occurred in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. They occurred in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va.”
4. A common mistake iMediaEthics sees in the media is showing the photo of the wrong person. An Aug. 18 Los Angeles Times correction addresses that very mistake, reading:
“L.A. ethics fine: In the Aug. 17 California section, a photo with an article about former Los Angeles planning director Michael LoGrande agreeing to pay an ethics fine showed a different man named Michael LoGrande.”