SOMEBODY IN THE COMMENTS over at Ed Cone’s blog asked how I do corrections:
When Glenn gets something wrong, how does he handle the situation: Leave the post as is? Silently rewrite/delete it? Rewrite/delete, marking it as Updated? explaining why it was updated?
How does his approach to error handling compare to rowback and other means by which mainstream media sets the record straight?
Minor errors on spelling, phrasing, etc., will just be fixed. (I often correct typos, etc., in reader email, too, as they bug the hell out of me.) For more substantive errors, my basic rule is that I always put in an update correcting the post where the original error was, so that anyone who follows a link to it (or finds it on Google) will see the correction. If the item has scrolled down, and the correction seems significant, I’ll note it again in a separate post so that the correction’s at the top of the page. And I’ll link the new post to the old one so that people can see clearly what was being corrected. I’ll even do that when I’m not certain that the original item was in error, but think the issue has been made significant enough to make sure people hear both versions. (A recent example implicating most of these considerations is here.) On the other hand, your belief that a particular set of facts supports a different conclusion than the conclusion that I draw from those facts doesn’t constitute a factual error on my part, but rather a difference in interpretation. I might indicate it, if I think it’s interesting or possibly persuasive, but I don’t generally treat that as a correction.
Other bloggers are, of course, free to do it their way. But once or twice I’ve been fooled when they posted a later correction but didn’t update the original post. Also, posting corrections in comments rather than as an update to the post itself is probably a bad idea, as lots of people don’t read comments. Those are my thoughts, anyway. Others may feel differently. As to how this compares with Big Media, well, I leave that comparison to the reader.
UPDATE: Here are some thoughts from Rebecca Blood that are worth reading.