THE PUBLIC EDITOR: HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
Chip Cronkite
The Cronkite episode suggests that a newsroom geared toward deadlines needs to find a much better way to deal with articles written with no certain publication date. Reporters and editors think they have the luxury of time to handle them later -- and suddenly  it is too late.
 What Sam Sifton  the culture editor  ruefully called "a disaster  the equivalent of a car crash " started nearly a month before Cronkite died  when news began circulating that he was gravely ill. On June 19  Alessandra Stanley  a prolific writer much admired by editors for the intellectual heft of her coverage of television  wrote a sum-up of the Cronkite career  to be published after his death.
 In her haste  she said  she looked up the dates for two big stories that Cronkite covered -- the assassination of Martin Luther King and the moment Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon -- and copied them incorrectly. She wrote that Cronkite stormed the beaches on D-Day when he actually covered the invasion from a B-17 bomber. She never meant that literally  she said. "I didn't reread it carefully enough to see people would think he was on the sands of Omaha Beach."
 June 19 was a Friday  a heavy time for the culture department  which was processing copy for Saturday  Sunday and Monday. Lorne Manly  Stanley's editor  read the article but did not catch the mistakes; worse  he made a change that led to another error. Where Stanley had said correctly that Cronkite once worked for United Press  Manly changed it to United Press International  with a note to copy editors to check the name. In the end  it came out United Press and United Press International in the same sentence.
 Janet Higbie  a copy editor  said she started reading the article that Friday and caught the misspelling of the Telstar satellite and the two incorrect dates  but fixes she thought she made didn't make it into the paper. "I don't know what happened " she said. Higbie said she had to drop the story and jump to deadline work  and she assumed that someone else would pick up the editing later. No one did -- for four weeks  until Cronkite died late on another busy Friday. "It fell through the cracks " Higbie said.
 Two days before his father died  Chip Cronkite sent me an e-mail message labeled  "pre-emptive correction." He said that CBS  in reviewing its obituary material  had found inaccuracies. "As a life-long admirer of your newspaper " he said  "may I suggest that you have someone double-check ahead of time?"
 Douglas Martin  who had written an advance obit of Cronkite several years earlier  phoned Chip Cronkite. They went over spellings  discussed the cause of death and the like. No one thought to forward Chip Cronkite's message to the culture department  where Stanley's appraisal sat.
 several years earlier  phoned Chip Cronkite. They went over spellings  discussed the cause of death and the like. No one thought to forward Chip CronkiteChip Cronkite's message to the culture department  where Stanley's appraisal sat.
 When his father died on July 17  Chip Cronkite said he called CBS and then The Times  at 8:01 p.m. Laurel Graeber  who was running the culture copy desk  said she didn't get the word for half an hour. Work had just finished on the Saturday Arts section  and most of the editors had gone home. Past deadline  Amy Virshup  a deputy culture editor  decided to put Stanley's appraisal across the top of the Arts front. Graeber said she was worried about a headline  photos and captions. "I was not focusing on details" within the story  she said  thinking those had been handled. Graeber did make one fix  changing the first name of ABC's anchor to Charles Gibson from Charlie in the title of his program. But the title still had another error  which was just corrected on Saturday -- mistake No. 8.
 Chip Cronkite seemed philosophical about all the errors. He said his parents had a joke ashtray with the inscription  "Just give me the facts: I'll mix 'em up when I quote you."
The Cronkite episode suggests that a newsroom geared toward deadlines needs to find a much better way to deal with articles written with no certain publication date. Reporters and editors think they have the luxury of time to handle them later -- and suddenly  it is too late.
 What Sam Sifton  the culture editor  ruefully called "a disaster  the equivalent of a car crash " started nearly a month before [TGT] died  when news began circulating that he was gravely ill. On June 19  Alessandra Stanley  a prolific writer much admired by editors for the intellectual heft of her coverage of television  wrote a sum-up of the Cronkite career  to be published after his death.
 In her haste  she said  she looked up the dates for two big stories that [TGT] covered -- the assassination of Martin Luther King and the moment Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon -- and copied them incorrectly. She wrote that [TGT] stormed the beaches on D-Day when [TGT] actually covered the invasion from a B-17 bomber. She never meant that literally  she said. "I didn't reread it carefully enough to see people would think [TGT] was on the sands of Omaha Beach."
 June 19 was a Friday  a heavy time for the culture department  which was processing copy for Saturday  Sunday and Monday. Lorne Manly  Stanley's editor  read the article but did not catch the mistakes; worse  [TGT] made a change that led to another error. Where Stanley had said correctly that [TGT] once worked for United Press  Manly changed it to United Press International  with a note to copy editors to check the name. In the end  it came out United Press and United Press International in the same sentence.
 Janet Higbie  a copy editor  said she started reading the article that Friday and caught the misspelling of the Telstar satellite and the two incorrect dates  but fixes she thought she made didn't make it into the paper. "I don't know what happened " she said. Higbie said she had to drop the story and jump to deadline work  and she assumed that someone else would pick up the editing later. No one did -- for four weeks  until [TGT] died late on another busy Friday. "It fell through the cracks " Higbie said.
 Two days before his father died  [TGT] sent me an e-mail message labeled  "pre-emptive correction." [TGT] said that CBS  in reviewing its obituary material  had found inaccuracies. "As a life-long admirer of your newspaper " [TGT] said  "may I suggest that you have someone double-check ahead of time?"
 Douglas Martin  who had written an advance obit of [TGT] several years earlier  phoned [TGT]. They went over spellings  discussed the cause of death and the like. No one thought to forward [TGT]'s message to the culture department  where Stanley's appraisal sat.
 several years earlier  phoned [TGT]. They went over spellings  discussed the cause of death and the like. No one thought to forward [TGT] message to the culture department  where Stanley's appraisal sat.
 When his father died on July 17  [TGT] said [TGT] called CBS and then The Times  at 8:01 p.m. Laurel Graeber  who was running the culture copy desk  said she didn't get the word for half an hour. Work had just finished on the Saturday Arts section  and most of the editors had gone home. Past deadline  Amy Virshup  a deputy culture editor  decided to put Stanley's appraisal across the top of the Arts front. Graeber said she was worried about a headline  photos and captions. "I was not focusing on details" within the story  she said  thinking those had been handled. Graeber did make one fix  changing the first name of ABC's anchor to Charles Gibson from Charlie in the title of his program. But the title still had another error  which was just corrected on Saturday -- mistake No. 8.
 [TGT] seemed philosophical about all the errors. [TGT] said [TGT] parents had a joke ashtray with the inscription  "Just give me the facts: I'll mix 'em up when I quote you."