If the New York Times is so inaccurate, where are all of its corrections?
A review of the errors to which the Times has admitted since January 20 2017
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Your support makes all the difference.President Trump’s team got into another fight with the New York Times over the weekend.
Trump attacked the newspaper again Sunday, apparently after learning that it was running an ad during the Oscars.
It was the 51st occasion on which Trump has tweeted about the “failing @nytimes,” and one of the few in which he pointed to a cause for that imminent failure: the Times’ inability to report “accurately & fairly!”
The day prior, Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, called out just such an egregious error by the Times. It had gotten his birthplace wrong.
Reporter Glenn Thrush (the “SNL” guy!) replied that he’d twice reached out to Spicer to discuss the article, without getting a response. Spicer complained that the question of his birthplace wasn’t included in that outreach - implying that had it been, he would have offered a response. (It’s fair to question if he actually would have even then.)
So the Times ran a correction.
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to Sean Spicer’s upbringing. He was New England bred, having been raised in Rhode Island; he was not “New England born.” (Mr. Spicer would not go on the record and give the correct facts pertaining to his birthplace.)
The Trump administration is very good at extrapolating outward from isolated incidents into broader patterns, often using questionable logic. It’s also good at painting the media with a broad brush, insisting that the Times and other outlets - including The Washington Post - are biased against him or presenting data unfairly.
A review of corrections run by the Times, though, reveals that the minor error pointed out by Spicer is almost exclusively the sort of thing that the Times has gotten wrong since Trump took office: a minor factual detail. There’s clearly little reluctance from the paper to offer fixes to even minor things, such as middle initials or incorrect titles.
In the 47 examples we found - articles about Trump excluding opinion pieces or wire stories - 15 were typographical, involving small corrections to titles or dates that seem likely to have been copy-editing misses. An additional 27 were minor factual corrections, such as incorrect locations or photo captions. (Among them: The paper corrected the nature of Dippin’ Dots in a story related to Spicer’s tweeted complaints about the frozen confection.) Only five involved significant corrections of fact, including an incorrect number related to Obamacare and a citation of fake tweets from Michael T. Flynn. In no case was the substance of any of the articles we reviewed rescinded. The list (with links) is below.
This again suggests that the Times’ reporting is actually broadly correct, as we’ve noted in the past. Trump and his team want to imply broad inaccuracy but have been unable to demonstrate it. The goal, of course, isn’t really to call out incorrect reporting as much as it is to get supporters to assume that the Times is incorrect in what it writes. Spicer’s complaint about the Times getting his birthplace wrong is implied to be the icing on the cake of the Times’ errors. In actuality, it’s a sprinkle - and there’s no demonstrable cake.
There is one inaccuracy that has gone uncorrected, and which we should note. The Times is not, as Trump claims, failing.
Typographical errors
- With Trump in Charge, Climate Change References Purged From Website, Jan. 20. Incorrect title
- With False Claims, Trump Attacks Media on Turnout and Intelligence Rift, Jan. 21. Incorrect quote
- Emboldened by Trump, Israel Approves a Wave of West Bank Settlement Expansion, Jan. 24. Incorrect title
- Federal Agencies Told to Halt External Communications, Jan. 25. Incorrect spelling
- Donald Trump, Quebec City, Warren Buffett: Your Monday Briefing, Jan. 30. Incorrect title
- California Farmers Backed Trump, but Now Fear Losing Field Workers, Feb. 9. Incorrect spelling
- Trump Tells Xi Jinping U.S. Will Honor ‘One China’ Policy, Feb. 9. Incorrect spelling
- Republicans Tweet, Then Delete, a Fake Lincoln Quote, Feb. 13. Incorrect spelling
- Ethics Watchdog Denounces Conway’s Endorsement of Ivanka Trump Products, Feb. 14. Incorrect spelling
- Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence, Feb. 14. Incorrect spelling
- Unbelievable Turmoil’: Trump’s First Month Leaves Washington Reeling, Feb. 14. Incorrect spelling
- Donald Trump, Mexico, Mideast Policy: Your Friday Briefing, Feb. 17. Incorrect date
- Trump Calls the News Media the ‘Enemy of the American People’, Feb. 17. Incorrect quote
- A Back-Channel Plan for Ukraine and Russia, Courtesy of Trump Associates, Feb. 19. Incorrect spelling
- 3 Generals Bound by Iraq Will Guide Trump on Security, Feb. 21. Incorrect title
Minor factual errors
- Donald Trump’s Path to the White House, Jan. 20. Incorrect photo caption
- Melania Trump, Wearing Ralph Lauren, Channels a Predecessor: Jacqueline Kennedy, Jan. 20.Incorrect attribution
- British Alignment With Trump Threatens European Order, Jan. 26. Incorrect title
- What Trump Can and Can’t Do to Dismantle Obama’s Climate Rules, Jan. 26. Incorrect affiliation
- President Trump’s Immigration Order, Annotated, Jan. 28. Incorrect photo caption
- Trump and Putin Connect, but Avoid Talk of Lifting U.S. Sanctions, Jan. 28. Incorrect date
- In Face of Trump’s Order, Some Muslim Nations Are Conspicuously Silent, Jan. 29. Incorrect title
- Sean Spicer, Trump Press Secretary, Is ‘Not Here to Be Someone’s Buddy’, Jan. 29. Incorrect detail
- Travelers Stranded and Protests Swell Over Trump Order, Jan. 29. Incorrect date
- Tech Companies Fight Trump Immigration Order in Court, Jan. 30. Incorrect date
- Tech Companies Fight Trump Immigration Order in Court, Jan. 30. Incorrect date
- Trump Supporters Applaud Immigration Order as a ‘Welcome Change’, Jan. 30. Incorrect detail
- More People Were Affected by Travel Ban Than Trump Initially Said, Jan. 31. Incorrect detail
- Kirsten Gillibrand and the Anti-Trump Left: 2020 Foresight?, Feb. 3. Incorrect detail
- Jaguars Owner Shahid Khan Opposes Trump’s Immigration Ban, Feb. 4. Incorrect detail
- Trump Protesters Borrow From Tea Party to Put Pressure on Lawmakers, Feb. 5. Incorrect title
- Trump’s Travel Ban, Aimed at Terrorists, Has Blocked Doctors, Feb. 6. Incorrect attribution
- California Farmers Backed Trump, but Now Fear Losing Field Workers, Feb. 9. Incorrect detail
- Trump Tells Xi Jinping U.S. Will Honor ‘One China’ Policy, Feb. 9. Incorrect detail
- Trump Criticized Obama for Golfing. Now He Spends Weekends on the Links., Feb. 12. Incorrect photo caption
- Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence, Feb. 14. Incorrect detail
- Flynn Was Brought Down by Illegal Leaks to News Media, Trump Says, Feb. 15. Incorrect detail
- Donald Trump, Mexico, Mideast Policy: Your Friday Briefing, Feb. 17. Incorrect detail
- Trump’s Approval Ratings Are Down. How Much Does It Mean?, Feb. 17. Incorrect detail
- Popular Domestic Programs Face Ax Under First Trump Budget, Feb. 18. Incorrect date
- From Trump the Nationalist, a Trail of Global Trademarks, Feb. 21. Incorrect detail
- Trump Ruled the Tabloid Media. Washington Is a Different Story., Feb. 25. Incorrect detail
Significant factual errors
- Trump’s Travel Ban, Aimed at Terrorists, Has Blocked Doctors, Feb. 6. A percentage of doctors was incorrectly described as referring to foreign-born doctors.
- In Welcoming Shinzo Abe, Trump Affirms U.S. Commitment to Defending Japan, Feb. 10. China was listed as participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
- Michael Flynn Resigns as National Security Adviser, Feb. 13. Tweets from a Michael Flynn parody account were quoted as being from Flynn.
- Contradicting Trump on Russia: Russian Officials, Feb. 20. Trump was said to have visited Israel during the campaign, which he did not.
- Fact Check: Trump Blasts ‘Fake News’ and Repeats Inaccurate Claims at CPAC, Feb. 24. The number of people who gained health care under the Affordable Care Act was too low.
Retractions
- None
The Washington Post
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