Ian Mayes, President of the Organization of Ombudsmen, tells of an email he received from a consultant at the Hindu, an Indian newspaper with a daily circulation of 1 million.  Mayes feels that the West has some wisdom to glean from this missive, which reported a system by which the Hindu keeps its journalists in check.  It appears that there are two internal newsletters.  The first, the “One Minute Journalist,” is a daily 14-line memo with writing and editing tips. 

The second (more interesting to copy editors and ombudsman worldwide) is a weekly compilation of all errata in the paper.  Mayes believes that this is a great idea for papers that wish to be more accountable for their accuracy. 

Newspaper accountability is also on Jack Shafer’s mind.  In a recent Slate article Shafer criticized American newspapers’ tendency to change their tune on news stories without explaining previous inaccuracies to readers.  When papers realize that they have taken the wrong tack, they have a bad habit of correcting the more recent stories without admitting past errors in judgement.

Shafer cites the Washington Post’s front-page piece on misconceptions about anthrax.  The Post neglected to add that it was partly responsible for these misconceptions.

Shafer suggests a widespread adoption of an internal control whereby journalists can backtrack to admit their mistakes: "What newspapers need is a tool larger than a correction but smaller than a voluminous editors' note. Ideally, it would fit inside the body of a news story—preferably close to the top—and economically and transparently signal that a paper's previous coverage of a story was flawed."

One may say that Mayes and Shafer are uselessly pedantic purveyors of old journalism.  But as we move speedily toward online journalism, it becomes even more important to keep journalistic integrity in check. As Mayes writes: “The struggle is universal; the overall message is the same: must try harder.”

Sources: Guardian, Slate