Thursday, June 30, 2005

How mistakes are perpetuated

Back on the subject of getting things right.
I know the change of Jon's Pharmacy in Neosho to John's Pharmacy, which was made in The Joplin Globe's story yesterday on the allegedly drunk driver who ran into the funeral procession was a minor thing, but that minor mistake was compounded when the article was picked up by Associated Press.
This morning's Springfield News-Leader carried the story, complete with the John's Pharmacy reference. There is no telling how many other newspapers picked up on it. Most of them did not use the pharmacy name, but the story, because of the novelty of a drunk driver plowing into the funeral procession of someone who was killed by a drunk driver, was picked up by newspapers and broadcast affiliates throughout the United States.
Today, the misinformation might just be one letter in the name of a business. Tomorrow, it might be something that materially affects the meaning of a story.
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And yes, to answer the response I am expecting before it arrives, I make plenty of mistakes. I work as hard as I can to try to cut down on them, but I am sure I will make more. But part of the role of this blog is to critique local media and that is what I am doing.
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And now on to my mistakes. Earlier, in my first mention of the John's/Jon's situation, I said Jon's is owned by Jon Genisio of Neosho. That was a mistake on my part. Though the pharmacy still carries his name, a reader informs me that Jon's was sold a few years back to Gary Massey. I will remove that reference from my earlier post, but I will leave it on this one because when you make mistakes you need to own up to them.

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