I have learned a thing or two in my 15 years as a journalist. No one is truly unbiased, although there is a difference between trying to be unbiased and not caring.
If you cover a topic that is controversial and in the end both sides are mad at you, most likely you did something right. And no matter how perfect you want the paper to be or how hard you try, there will always be some mistakes from time-to-time.
When I got my first journalism job I remember my editor telling me: “You will make mistakes. The difference is that with this job everyone in the city sees them. But if you don’t get some phone calls that is even worse because that means no one is reading.”
That conversation never rang more true than with last week’s paper.
As many, many readers noticed we had a mistake on the front page of the paper. Well, technically more than one.
My story written about author and cartoonist Marc Tyler Nobleman visiting Thoreau Elementary on Finn Hill was front and center. But Thoreau was spelled: Thorough. Not once in the text, but every time it appeared on the front page. It was in the headline, photo cutline and once in the body of the story.
When we realized this had happened it was too late. Somehow the Thoreau got changed to Thorough in our pagination program’s spell check and no one caught it until it was posted online.
But for me this was not the normal “oops” mistake, as my son attends Thoreau Elementary. A parent of one of my son’s classmates and friend of mine was the second person to notice the error and fired off an email to let me know so I could fix it. His was the second of many, many emails we received on the subject.
One of those emails came from a very nice former English teacher and “steady reader” of our paper. She, as others had, notified me of the mistake in a very kind way. I emailed her back to let her know what had happened. I quipped: “I guess we get an ‘F’ on this assignment. Not trying to make light of the mistake but it is better than crying.”
After I sent the email, I realized my fingers were a little too fast and I had spelled Thoreau, Throeau. It was not a good week.
We also received several phone calls pertaining to the mistake in the paper.
Carrie Wood, the paper’s editor, received a phone call from a man who, after she said, “hello”, simply asked “How do you spell Thoreau?” She tried not to laugh and said, “T-H-O-R-E-A-U.” He only replied, “Thank you very much,” and hung up. The call was so abrupt she didn’t even get the man’s name or give an apology.
As the only two people on the Kirkland Reporter editorial staff, we know we are not perfect and we always strive to be THOROUGH. But we try to own up to our mistakes and make things right.
This is not the type of mistake that costs taxpayers money. It is not the type of mistake that demands a correction for reasons of trust. But it is a mistake that we own and try not to let happen.
More egregious errors have run in the paper. We print corrections when they are warranted. We correct stories online when needed.
We also appreciate the high standards that this community holds us. We appreciate your readership. And this mistake has reemphasized the fact that newspapers are not dead and people still read every word – misspelled or not.
But as Henry David Thoreau once said: “One cannot too soon forget his errors and misdemeanors. To dwell long upon them is to add to the offense.”
Matt Phelps is the staff writer for the Kirkland Reporter. Contact him at mphelps@kirklandreporter.com
