Damage Control

One mistake can haunt a news organization for months, years and even longer.

Perfection is the goal of every editor and every newspaper. Error-free, thorough, complete coverage of the news is the ideal.

However, I'd be hard-pressed to ever agree there has been a completely error-free edition of a newspaper. It's just the nature of the business - producing a paper involves so many people and so much information that errors (to lesser and greater degrees) are inevitable.

Unfortunately, one error can sometimes define a news organization far more than all the accurate, well-organized, well-informed information that is distributed. One simple mitsake can tear down all the positives in the stroke of a key.

I'm not complaining about this phenomenon or even trying to change it. Only pointing out the nature of news consumers. Of which I am one.