A managing-editing FrontBurnervian over at the daily out West has a clarification of an earlier item:
Yep. In December of 2002, we published a lighthearted holiday feature that made reference deep in the piece to one of the false tales. (Not the Grazinski tale.) It was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a hard-hitting investigative piece on civil justice.
The writer spotted the tale on several Web sites from multiple sources. The writer was not digging deep on his way to whimsy, so he failed to confirm.
Now for the rest of the story, which the LAT piece didn’t note: When we discovered the error the following June, we published a correction.
This is the version appended to the article in our archives:
“This report that a woman successfully sued a nightclub after she injured herself trying to sneak in has not been substantiated. The case was cited in this article that refers to holiday risks, including frivolous lawsuits. The incident has been mentioned on many Web sites and in several publications, but according to Web sites StellaAwards.com and Snopes.com, no public records documenting the case have been found. The error was only recently brought to the Star-Telegram’s attention.(06/30/03)”
So, yes, we made an error. We hate that. But to pick up on the baseball metaphor, no runs scored despite the error, and I would suggest it didn’t change the outcome of the game.
It doesn’t it make us feel any better. But we’re still in the game.
Extra points to him for candor, promptness, and a clever extended metaphor. B+/A-.
