Getting The Meatball Recipe Right

Imagine being the newspaper journalist assigned to write these mea culpas for publication in the daily corrections column:

“The Nazi laws prohibiting Jews marrying aliens, mentioned in the Writ large column, page 13, June 12, banned marriages with Aryans, not aliens.” The Guardian. “A film review on Wednesday about ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ referred incorrectly to contestants in the fictional children’s beauty pageant of the title. The critic intended to compare the contestants to underage prostitutes, not to ‘underage fleshpots.’” New York Times. “In the original version of this report, Newsweek misquoted Falwell as referring to ‘assault ministry.’ In fact, Falwell was referring to ‘a salt ministry’—a reference to Matthew 5:13 where Jesus says ‘Ye are the salt of the earth.’ We regret the error.” Newsweek

We regret the errors, indeed. As public editor of the Toronto Star, with responsibility for...