Mea Culpa: The Red and the Black and the WCP’s Fall Arts Guide
Due to an error by Editorial Assistant Aaron Leitko, the music listings for the Red and the Black are listed incorrectly in this year's edition of the Washington City Paper's annual Fall Arts Guide.
The Red and the Black listings appearing in the Fall Arts Guide were pulled from the venue’s Web site. The site’s main calendar page lists this fall’s scheduled concerts up to mid-October. A link to a “full calendar” leads to a different calendar page with a pull-down menu; although the pull-down menu offers options to see the monthly schedules of upcoming shows for September, October, November, and December 2007, selecting those options actually leads to archives of performances that occurred in September, October, November, and December 2006. (The year “2006” is prominently displayed at the top of the archived performance schedules.) These schedules were mistakenly used as the primary sources for the Red and the Black's listings in this year’s Fall Arts Guide; as a result, the listings are inaccurate.
In the effort to bring our readers the most up-to-date and dependable listings information in each weekly edition of the paper, it is the policy of the City Paper’s Listings Department to obtain such information from only the most reliable of sources (paid advertisements submitted by the venue, direct correspondence with venue managers and event coordinators); when information is obtained from less-reliable sources (Web sites, out-of-house publicists), it is to be more highly scrutinized. That same policy applies to the annual Fall Arts Guide, but was not followed in this instance.
The correct listings information for upcoming shows at the Red and the Black can be found on the main calendar page of the venue's Web site, as well as in each weekly edition of the City Paper.
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3:44 pm
I've noticed this before and always wanted to comment on it, but might I just say that The City Paper has the worse corrections policy in the world...instead of just saying "Due to an editing error...." or something to that effect, the City Paper seems to relish pointing out who made the mistake, something that's never been the policy of any newspaper or publication I've worked for...
4:51 pm
I totally agree Adams Morgan. I highly doubt Leitko was the only one who edited the listings. I'm sure editors took a look at it and failed to catch the mistake. When there's an error in the paper, it starts with the reporter but in reality it's everyone's mistake. How the CP expects to ever retain quality staff with a policy like this is beyond me.
Newspapers like to bitch about how nobody reads them anymore, but maybe if publishers treated their employees provided their employees with a modicum of respect and support they'd become better reporter and writers and perhaps, GASP!, attract more readers.
5:14 pm
yeah, really classy
6:55 pm
I agree--calling out this guy as an individual is classless and vindictive. The buck stops with Leitko's editor, not with Leitko himself.
7:03 pm
Must have some nice turnover at this place...
7:06 pm
jesus borlik. that was tasteless.
10:27 pm
I agree with the above comments. This was a classless display by the editors.
At least Citypaper is free so I dont have to consider cancelling my subscription.
11:01 am
Too bad your ass got SaAAACCKKKKKeeeddd!
3:28 pm
The lack of professionalism and class involved in this post is unimaginable to me. In the real world when my assistant makes a mistake and I do not catch it, I do not point out that it was person X or Y. But I as the face of my firm just suck it up and apologize for the error because as has been pointed out. It is not the fault of an individual but a failure of the whole team. Mr. Borlick should check out the Wonder Pets and learn something about team work.
7:06 pm
Isn't it possible that Leitko consented to have his name published here? Perhaps he does feel that it's appropriate to have his name attached to a mistake he views as his own.
5:11 pm
Are you kidding me who would voluntarily consent to this?
10:31 am
Despite a full page ad for the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival in the special arts preview, the City Paper jazz listings did not include the outdoor concert near the Washington Monument.
10:36 am
I am talking about the regular listing in that week's issue of the paper and online. I think there al,so was an ad for the Bluebird Blues Festival at Prince George's Community College, but that Sunday event was not listed in the issue's blues listings.
11:15 am
The above comments constitute a common reaction to WCP's corrections policy, for which I take all blame and credit. The policy states, essentially, that corrections, just like stories, should have by-lines. It also states that the person ID'd in the correction be the person from whom the mistake originated. If you think it's a policy that dumps on the little guy, just look at the corrections box in the paper from last week: It's got my by-line on it. The point here is that the policy does just as much, if not more, to protect the little guy as it does to expose the little guy. The other point here is that a correction is not a felony indictment; it doesn't mean you're a bad, shameful person; it's an admission that you're human and that you made a mistake. Every newspaper makes them, some more frequently than others. Here, we don't treat corrections as a disciplinary matter, unless you, like, rack up tons of them in a very short time. We view them as a chance to learn. I feel that the by-lined corrections give the reader accountability, smoke out editors who screw up, and help us to carry on a conversation internally on how to avoid mistakes in the future. Thanks to everyone here who contributed to this discussion.
2:12 pm
Your explanation doesn't wash, Erik. The only purpose of naming the error-maker in this instance is to harness the power of public shaming.
With news articles written by full-fledged reporters it makes sense to reference the original article and its author. If the corrections pile up, readers may notice a pattern of bias or who knows what on the part of the reporter. But when the problem is with a simple listing / calendar taken from a buggy website, naming the perp just comes off as petty.
If you're serious about not dumping on the little guy, next time name the offending employee's supervisor, and his/her supervisor, right up the chain of command, so everyone concerned can enjoy the experience of "admitting that you're human."
Jerks.