A lengthy correction in the March 4 Las Vegas Sun has drawn both praise and suspicion from the media industry. On the one hand, it’s very brave of the Sun to so prominently publish the correction; on the other, it raises questions about how the numerous mistakes were missed in the first place. The correction apologizes for quoting anonymous web comments, incorrectly attributing a gang to a particular neighbourhood and using inaccurate statistics to prove a false pattern.

Craig Silverman of Regret The Error told J-Source that while the correction is unusual, it’s not the longest he’s seen. “A situation like this, where the correction is almost as long as the original story, seems to call for a corrective article. So many things were incorrect that it begs for a rewrite that explains how the original story went so wrong. Of course, the worst outcome would have been if the paper had sought to minimalize the errors by offering a short correction — or nothing at all.”