Croker Sack

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." — Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956)

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Sun Spots: Error in correction of a correction

If a correction of a statement in an editorial opinion piece is itself incorrect, is it a "correction" or an "incorrection"?

Stepping into the Twilight Zone, apparently, The Kitsap Sun printed this statement on today's editorial page (A10):

FOR THE RECORD
Kindergartners: Thursday's [sic] editorial on early learning incorrectly reported the improvement rate of Bremerton kindergartners who scored well on a reading aptitude test. The percentage increased from less than 40 percent to nearly 60 percent.


Today is Thursday, January 12, 2006. The editorial referred to in the "incorrection" was published on Wednesday, January 11, 2006.

Yesterday's editorial was indeed about early learning programs, and it said this about Bremerton's program (also page A10):

And it's working. Between 2001 and 2004, the number of kindergartners doing well on a reading aptitude test increased from less than 40 percent to nearly 60 percent.

If the "incorrection" says the same thing as the original editorial, is one of them wrong?

Update, 4:20 p.m. -- The Wednesday editorial was posted online with this version of the percentages:

And it’s working. Between 2001 and 2004, the number of kindergartners doing well on a reading aptitude test increased from less than 40 percent to nearly 20 percent.

So, the "incorrection" was obviously meant as a correction of the error made in the online version, while the print version delivered to my home had already been corrected. The Tuesday news article on which the editorial writer relied stated: "Between 2001 and 2004, kindergartners who fared well on a reading aptitude test increased from less than 40 percent to nearly 60 percent."

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