Best of Regret the Error 2008

Craig Silverman’s Regret the Error has put together a round-up of the best media blunders in 2008.

Here are a few selections:

Correction of the Year:

“One of the year’s most coveted awards goes to none other than Dave Barry. Here’s how the famous humor writer chose to correct a misspelling he made in a column published by the Miami Herald:

          In yesterday’s column about badminton, I misspelled
          the name of Guatemalan player Kevin Cordon. I apologize.
          In my defense, I want to note that in the same column I
          correctly spelled Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarak,
          Poompat Sapkulchananart and Porntip Buranapraseatsuk.
          So by the time I got to Kevin Cordon, my fingers were
          exhausted.”

Typo of the Year:

“The Valley News, a newspaper distributed in Vermont and New Hampshire**, committed what many journalists and editors would agree is just about the most embarrassing typo possible: it misspelled its own name on the front page. Behold:

Here’s the resulting editor’s note:

Trend of the Year:

“Epic Organizational Failure
It’s rare to look back over a year of corrections and errors and see so many examples of organizational failure. Years past have seen plenty of malfeasance by individuals, but 2008 is remarkable for news organizations that pursued completely outrageous behavior.”