OUR SLIPS ARE SHOWING

By: Greg Mitchell Slipup.com Catches Newspaper Goofs



OK, admit it, you are - or know someone who is - a
corrections junkie, picking up the paper every morning and turning with
almost sadistic glee to the 'We Goofed' box. Now there's a Web site to
satisfy anyone who takes joy in others' misery.


The aptly named Slipup.com posts a
screw-up of the day, provides extensive archives of past winners, and,
if that still doesn't satisfy your error lust, it posts dozens of
hyperlinks that will take you directly to the corrections pages of
dozens of newspaper Web sites. A few Slipup.com classics from recent
weeks:



? The Philadelphia Inquirer confirmed it had 'incorrectly
implied' that a local high-school baseball game was postponed because
three players were on trial for rape that day. In fact, 'the game was
postponed because heavy rain had left the field unplayable.'



? The Associated Press said it erred in stating that a boy shot at the
National Zoo had died and was still hooked up to medical machines only
so he could become an organ donor. In fact, doctors confirmed he 'is
not dead, but in critical condition and responding to treatment.'



? The Washington Post admitted that in a review of a local
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young concert it 'incorrectly characterized
Graham Nash's past drug use. He did not use heroin.' Not to be outdone
across the ocean, the London Guardian was forced to disclose
that the 'demons' it said had been released by the rock band Big Yoga
Muffin 'were actually demos.'



Slipup.com is the brainchild of Frank Sennett, editor of Newcity.com, an
alternative press
portal. As managing editor of the Chicago weekly Newcity, he won
two Chicago Headline Club awards. Sennett says he started the site
because he feels editors 'are falling behind in their efforts to come
clean with an increasingly fed-up public.'