Reuters To Change How It Handles Retractions After Killing David Cay Johnston’s News Corp. Column

Posted Monday, August 1, 2011 1:06 pm

By: Steve Myers | Poynter.org

Reuters is planning to change how it deals with retractions on its website after killing a column written by David Cay Johnston which incorrectly stated that News Corp. had received billions in tax refunds.

When Reuters staff learned the day after it had been published that the column was wrong, they posted an advisory on Reuters.com saying the column had been “withdrawn.” The column itself, however, went untouched for another couple of hours, when it was removed. Links to the story resulted in 404 errors, and still do. That evening, Reuters posted a followup column by Johnston in which he acknowledged his error and described how it happened.

Here’s how Reuters will respond in the future, according to James Ledbetter, Op-Ed editor: A notice will be posted atop the offending article at the same time that the advisory goes out, and an editor will strike through the incorrect portion of the article. If another article is pending, as in this case, the notice will say so.

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Reuters To Change How It Handles Retractions After Killing David Cay Johnston’s News Corp. Column

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