The "Scrapbook" column in the June 5 edition of The Weekly Standard took note of a recent article I published on Regret. In this post, I made note of the media's all too frequent description of Dr. James Dobson as a reverend/pastor/minister. He's not. From the Standard:
Dr. Dobson, We Presume
A
tip of The Scrapbook's hat to regrettheerror.com, the always invaluable
blog devoted to media retractions, for its recent discovery of a
fascinating--and apparently quite longstanding and
entrenched--phenomenon involving Focus on the Family chairman James
Dobson. Here's a taste:
A May 14 article
about Sen. John McCain's speech at Liberty University incorrectly
referred to the chairman of Focus on the Family as the Rev. James
Dobson. Dobson is not an ordained minister.
--correction in the May 16 Washington Post
In
the May 10 edition of "Heard on the Hill," James Dobson of Focus on the
Family was misidentified as a reverend. He has a Ph.D. from the
University of Southern California in the field of child development.
--correction in the May 11 Roll Call
A
headline April 20 with a story about the 70th birthday of Dr. James
Dobson misidentified him as an evangelist. A child psychologist and
best-selling author, he is the founder and chairman of Focus on Family,
a nonprofit Christian ministry that helps families.
--correction in the April 27 San Diego Union-Tribune
Craig Silverman
of regrettheerror.com reports that at least 18 different American
newspapers and magazines have run one or another version of this same
mistake since 1989. Curiouser still, five of those publications--the
Washington Post, Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, the Kansas City
Star, and the Chicago Tribune--have done it twice apiece.