Following up from last week’s post on the same topic, I was very interested to read this…
Earlier this month, a spokesperson for Premier Ed Stelmach was insistent that the newspaper is the Toronto Globe and Mail — a clear jab at a publication that’s often criticized for being Toronto-centric. Ironically, the government used the incorrect name on a new website aimed at correcting inaccurate media reports about the province. Says the For the Record site: “All media outlets make mistakes, on occasion. Unfortunately, not all media outlets have a policy or forum to correct their mistakes.”
The government was considerably less worried about its own glaring error. “It’s the Toronto Globe and Mail. Don’t kid yourself,” said Stelmach spokesperson Tom Olsen in an interview after the mistake was pointed out. “We don’t see that as an error. We see The Globe and Mail as the Toronto Globe and Mail.”
Olsen, a former columnist for the Calgary Herald, didn’t say whether or not “we don’t see that as an error” is a good corrections policy for media outlets to emulate.
But presto! As soon as Fast Forward ran a story about the obvious mistake on the anti-mistake website, the error quietly disappeared. The word “Toronto” is now gone, and the newspaper’s correct title remains. Absent from the page is any mention of the error.
