Entertainment Weekly got the name of Jay-Z and Beyonce’s new baby, Blue Ivy Carter, backwards in a Jan. 8 blogpost on the birth. While certainly this was a breaking entertainment news event, the error isn’t what grabbed our attention at iMediaEthics as much as the cover-up.
While scouring entertainment news stories on Jan. 8, we came across Entertainment Weekly’s blogpost, “Beyonce and Jay-Z name baby girl Ivy Blue Carter Reports,” and took a screen capture. Many other stories by that time had reported the new baby’s name as Blue Ivy Carter — not Ivy Blue Carter, as Entertainment Weekly reported.
What makes the error worse is that the blog post centered on the way the name sounds. A quote from the original post:
“Ivy Blue may sound like a detergent, trendy liqueur, or curious shade of denim (and surely within a few months all of these products will exist)….Ivy Blue. The more I type it, the more I LIKE it…What name could possibly be better than Ivy Blue?”
Later in the day though, Entertainment Weekly fixed the boo-boo and switched Ivy Blue to Blue Ivy throughout. Case in point, the above text now reads:
“Blue Ivy may sound like a detergent, trendy liqueur, or curious shade of denim (and surely within a few months all of these products will exist)…Blue Ivy. The more I type it, the more I LIKE it….what name could possibly be better than that?”
However, Entertainment Weekly failed to give any notice to readers that they made the error. The only evidence of Entertainment Weekly’s original mis-name is in the hyperlink: http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/01/08/beyonce-gives-birth-ivy-blue-carter/
In fact, the magazine buries its own error by noting “when the news first broke this morning, people, confused by the genius they were beholding, passed along the baby’s name as Ivy Blue.” Too bad Entertainment Weekly didn’t disclose they also “passed along” the wrong name.
We have written to Entertainment Weekly asking why there isn’t an update or correction and will update with any response.