How many mistakes should we be allowed to make???

The prep sports editor at the state's largest newspaper has been making several mistakes with names this football season. I'm at a paper in the local area with his paper and we have shared information, including rosters (typed out so they should be easy to read). However, in the past two weeks, he has basically made up last names for some kids in the area. These are on teams which I also cover so I know. For example, a kid with the last name Hudson was referred to as Henderson in a preview story last week. Same story had a wrong name for another player, which should have been Johns, but the story listed the kids last name as Johnson. A third mistake, also in a preview story, listed a kid as Blakely, when his last name is Blakenship. I've e-mailed the SE at the this paper and they've run one correction and may run the other two soon. The guy making the mistakes is somewhat of a legend in this state. I guess my question is, how long will this be allowed to go on? How many times can you screw up kids names? One more thing to ponder, the guy is in his 60s, I wonder if he's getting were he can't read very well anymore. Maybe this is the problem. Has anyone ever had to tell someone on their staff, they needed to have their eyes checked?

 

First of all, 60s ain't that old these days, man. And the mistakes you describe aren't simple transposition of names, they're completely different.

That said, unless I misunderstood, what are you, as somebody at another paper, doing pointing out the errors of another staffer at a rival newspaper to the sports ed?

Not sure what I think about that.

 

Dude, let it go. It's their problem, not yours.

 

I'm at a local paper in the area, but the mistakes were brought to my attention by a coach at the first school. I used to work at the other paper and everyone in my coverage area knows I used to work there. I have only six teams to cover and these three mistakes are concerning my six schools, after the first one I started reading the preview page of the other paper to see if my schools were listed again. When they were, the other mistakes were made. I only reason I pointed them out, I don't want to see a great paper embarrassed in my area. It's my old paper. I don't want it to be known for screw ups.

 

I understand where you're coming from with that, ronalong, but point one finger and there are going to be 10 pointed back at you on your next mistake.

 

Did you e-mail the prep guy or go straight to the SE?

 

The prep guy didn't answer any of my e-mail attempts to him. I also called him and told him what about the first one and he hung up on me with responding.

 

The mistakes are his and his boss' problem, not yours.

 

You should absolutely stay out of it. If a coach has a problem with their newspaper and brings it to you, you can give him a contact there, but that should be it. Would you want a coach running to a rival newspaper with complaints about you?

 

Sorry, man, your heart is kind of in the right place, but there's also a certain than holier-than-thou-ness about. You've made it known that mistakes have been made. Let the SE worry about it from here on.

 

Sorry, didn't mean to sound like a butt.

 

It's a rival paper. Be glad he's messing up. Readers will turn to your paper for realiable information. And when that guy is gone, you can then be hired by the rival paper.