Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Cincinnati Enquirer blog runs photo of protester's sign of Dan Savage's "santorum" neologism; UPDATES: Enquirer disappears the photo after I notified 'em and also swaps out "douchebag" pic

Here's a screen shot from an item published last night on the Cincinnati Enquirer's Politics Extra blog:


UPDATE I, 11:30AM: 

Shortly after posting the above item at 10AM, I sent an e-mail with a link to my item to Enquirer editor Carl Weiser (who runs the Politics Extra blog) and reporter Paul Kostyu (who wrote the Santorum item and took the photo of the protester with the sign:
Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2012 10:20:05 -0500 
From: "Peter M. Heimlich" <pmh@medfraud.info>
To: cweiser@enquirer.com, pkostyu@enquirer.com 
Subject: The Sidebar: Cincinnati Enquirer blog runs photo of protester's sign of Dan Savage's "santorum" neologism
http://www.the-sidebar.com/2012/03/cincinnati-enquirer-politics-blog-runs.html
Since then, per the screen shot below, the photo's been deleted with no notification to readers that the story's been modified or updated:


UPDATE II:
Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:55:32 -0500
From: "Peter M. Heimlich" <pmh@medfraud.info>
To: cweiser@enquirer.com
CC: cwashburn@enquirer.com, craig@craigsilverman.ca
Subject: media inquiry 

Carl Weiser
Assistant editor
Government/public affairs

Dear Mr. Weiser,

I'd doing an update to this blog item I reported this morning. I'd 
appreciate your answer to a quick question: 
http://www.the-sidebar.com/2012/03/cincinnati-enquirer-politics-blog-runs.html

Per the 11:30AM update on my item, there's no indication on Mr. Kostyu's 
item that it's been altered or what constitutes the nature of the 
alternation. Does this conform to the Enquirer's corrections policy?

Thanks for your attention and I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Peter M. Heimlich
Atlanta
ph: (208)474-7283
website: Medfraud 
blog: The Sidebar

cc:

Carolyn Washburn, Editor and Vice President of News
Craig Silverman, Editor of Regret the Error, Poynter Adjunct Faculty
UPDATE III, 3:40PM:

The Political Daily Download blog caught another edit that I missed. When the Enquirer revised it's story, a photo was substituted:

That was then...
...and this is now.

I'm still waiting to hear from the Enquirer's Carl Weiser as to whether the alterations were in compliance with the paper's corrections policy.

4:15PM From Gannett Newspaper Division issues guidelines on ethical news-gathering conduct for newsrooms:
Errors should be corrected with sufficient prominence that readers who saw the original error are likely to see the correction. This is a matter of the editor's judgment.

...Newsroom staffers should be receptive to complaints about inaccuracies and follow up on them.
UPDATE IV, MARCH 9, 3:35PM:

Today, reporter Ben Kaufman, who writes the media column for Cincinnati CityBeat blogged about all this and included the photo of the protester's sign with a transcription of the definition of "santorum." Kaufman's a retired Enquirer reporter turned journalism professor.
at