Reasons for picking up Writer’s Digest and Reader’s Digest
I didn't plan it this way, but I have work in the recent issues of both Writer's Digest and Reader's Digest (Canada). So October is all about the Digests, yo. The only hitch is that neither piece is online as of now. So you need to get the print editions. (Or buy the digital edition of WD!)
For Writer's Digest, I wrote an essay about my experience correcting errors in my book, Regret The Error. It's somewhat similar to the monologue I did for Definitely Not The Opera recently. One difference is that my WD piece offers advice to writers about preventing errors. And it includes an image of the accuracy checklist I produced earlier this year.
As for Reader's Digest, the current issue in Canada includes a lengthy excerpt from the Mafiaboy book. And Michael "Mafiaboy" Calce is on the cover. We're really thrilled about his.
My monologue about mistakes for Definitely Not The Opera
The most recent edition of the CBC Radio show Definitely Not The Opera focused on mistakes. They rang me up and asked me to come into a studio and talk about how I handled mistakes in my book Regret the Error. They recorded me and then cut my thoughts together into a little monlogue. I think it turned out pretty well and you can listen to it here. You can also download the full show on this page. Or use this link to grab the full audio file.
Ms. Julie and me
The Quebec Writers' Federation has come up with a wonderful campaign to help raise the profile of Quebec's English-language authors. It's called Love Ms. Julie and I was lucky enough to be included.
Ms. Julie is, according to a description of the program by Quill & Quire, a "saucy Quebec librarian with a thing for Quebec writers." The character is featured on a blog and inside a "scrapbook" that includes a listing of recent books by Quebec authors and pictures of Julie hangin' with authors. Here's the two of us (oh what Photoshop can do!):
The shot, taken by Liam Maloney, is also featured in the scrapbook, which was sent out to Canadian literary festivals and other publishing folk. Ms. Julie was also seen cavorting around Book Expo Canada. You can check out the details here.
If you want to take part, grab your copy of my book (you bought it, right?) and snap a fun picture of you reading it. Then send it to me and I'll get it added to the Love Ms. Julie blog.
UPDATED: A night at the Press Club, a grant from the Canada Council
I'm back from attending the National Press Club Awards Dinner in Washington on Monday. I spent the morning at the Newseum, and you can read my report about it here. I also had lunch with Slate's Jack Shafer.
That evening, I attended the awards dinner and was lucky enough to meet two other winners in the press criticism category: David Folkenflik, the NPR media reporter who won the Arthur Rowse Award in the broadcast category, and Rachel Smolkin, who picked up two awards. She won for her body of work at American Journalism Review and for her excellent AJR story about the Duke Lacrosse scandal. It was also a treat to meet Arthur Rowse, the namesake of the award.
I also had a chance to talk about corrections with USA Today editor Ken Paulson, and meet Alicia C. Shepard, the NPR Ombudsman.
UPDATE July 24: I just received word that the Canada Council for the Arts has awarded me a travel grant for my trip to Washington. This money, which is greatly appreciated, will cover my expenses for the trip. I'm pleased to acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $20.1 million in writing and publishing throughout Canada, and invested $37.8 million in the arts in Quebec. Thank you!
Here's a pic of my lovely award:
Regret the Error wins press criticism award; work for ROB mag earns gold medal
Well, it's been a rewarding few weeks for me. Allow me to take a moment and toot my own horn.
On June 6, I shared a gold medal at the Canadian National Magazine Awards for my work on the Corporate Survival Guide published in Report on Business magazine.The award is shared with Mark Schatzker, Sabitri Ghosh, and Lisa Fielding. Here's the full list of winners. Credit also goes to David Fielding, the editor who oversaw the package of stories.
A week or two before that, I received a call from the National Press Club in Washington. I was told that my book, Regret the Error: How Media Mistakes Pollute the Press and Imperil Free Speech, had won the 2008 Arthur Rowse Award for Press Criticism (book) in the Club's annual awards. I had to keep it under my hat until the news went public. That has finally happened, and the announcement is here (and here). It's a great honor. I'm looking forward to traveling to Washington to receive the award at a dinner on July 14.
As a result of these two lovely awards, I've added an awards page to this site. It includes a few other pieces of recognition I've received.
Free talk at the Atwater Library Jan. 30
Any Montrealers who are curious about press errors, corrections and accuracy can come hear me give a free lunchtime talk at the Atwater Library (1200 Atwater) on January 30 at 12:30 p.m. Here are the details:
Regretting Errors: The History And Current State of Media Accuracy, Errors, and Corrections
Craig Silverman, author of the new book Regret the Error: How Media Mistakes Pollute the Press and Imperil Free Speech (Penguin Canada/Union Square Press), will deliver a tour of history and today's most outrageous and entertaining media mistakes and corrections, while also highlighting what over 70 years of scholarly research tells us about the level of accuracy in newspapers and television news. Learn how "Dewey Defeats Truman" happened and discuss the challenges and opportunities for press accuracy in the Internet age.Silverman is a Montreal author, journalist and the editor of RegretTheError.com, an award winning website that reports on media errors and corrections. His writing has appeared in publications including The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Montreal Gazette, Editor & Publisher, and Report On Business magazine, amoung others. He writes The Office, a weekly workplace culture column and blog for The Globe And Mail, and The Explainer, a weekly news column for Hour.
Seriously, please come by. Please!
UPDATE: My peeps at Hour were kind enough to put this event on the Hit List. Awesome.
MTL Gazette on Regret the Error book
Earlier this week I picked up the phone to hear Bill Brownstein, a columnist for The Gazette (Montreal), on the other line. Bill and I have never met, but we share a few friends in common and I've long been a reader of his columns. It was great to speak with him, and especially nice that he called looking to write something about my book. I sent a copy to his house, did a subsequent phone interview, and his column appeared in today's paper. The man works -- and reads -- fast. In true Brownstein fashion, it's an enjoyable read. Check it online here. Excerpt below.
In the world of quirky media corrections, this sharp-eyed author is king
Regret the error, by Craig Silverman
| BILL BROWNSTEIN |
| The Gazette |
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Some kids collect coins. Craig Silverman collected corrections. Newspaper corrections from around the planet, that is. Winters were long for Silverman growing up in Nova Scotia. He had plenty of time on his hands.
Winters proved to be even longer for Silverman when he moved to Montreal 12 years ago to pursue journalism studies at Concordia University. He had less time on his hands, but his interest in collecting corrections remained unabated. So much so he started and became editor of the RegretTheError.com website.
Silverman, though only 30, is now considered to be among the world's foremost authorities on corrections - admittedly, not exactly an overpopulated field. His expertise has been sought by media giants like CNN, the New York Times and the Guardian.
And there's no stopping him now, thanks to the recent publication of Silverman's Regret the Error (Viking, $30), a compendium of more than 300 media corrections as well as a treatise on the subject. The corrections are often hysterically funny, though on occasion rather tragic and/or just plain baffling. The treatise is a historical overview filled with fascinating factoids. The book is a must, not only for zealous copy editors but for everyone obsessed with the business of news gathering and delivery.
In his foreword, Jeff Jarvis makes this stunning observation: "Nobody's perfect - not even journalists ... especially not journalists." Who knew? Kidding aside, Jarvis, who is a journalist, follows with this all-too-sobering point: "The public's trust in news organizations is falling about as fast as their revenues are (and, yes, these facts may be related.)" All by way of saying the faster news organizations admit their mistakes and correct them, the faster the public's trust might be restored.
Silverman reports in a survey conducted in 1985, 84 per cent of Americans believed most of what they had read in newspapers. But by 2004, that number had dipped to 54 per cent. He also cites a 2007 Canadian poll in which only 26 per cent of respondents trusted journalists, just slightly better than those with faith in lawyers, car salesmen, mechanics, CEOs and politicos.
Silverman insists both the book and the website were inspired by a clarification printed on the front page of Kentucky's Lexington Herald-Leader on
July 4, 2004: "It has come to the editor's attention that the Herald-Leader neglected to cover the civil rights movement. We regret the omission."
Alrighty then.
"I began to realize that no one was paying serious attention to corrections and that the issue of accuracy wasn't really being addressed," Silverman explains from his Plateau digs. "I also realized there would be tons of untapped content for a book."
And he knew where to dig it up. "I lead a very exciting life whereby I read between 100 and 200 corrections a day," says the author, also a columnist for the Globe and Mail and Hour. "I find them online and I scan the corrections pages of newspapers and other news organizations to find the content for the book as well as my site. I'm pretty sure there is no one else in the world who has read more corrections than me. I think I've surpassed the 100,000 mark by now. But I have to be honest and admit I'm a poor speller who has made more than my share of errors. Like using 'pubic' instead of 'public.' I guess I do this work with a sense of sympathy for others who make mistakes."
...
Regret the Book
Oh boy have I been derelict in making updates to this site. So what's been going on?
My book is out, has received some very nice reviews and media coverage, and led to me appearing on the December 23 edition of CNN's Reliable Sources program. Watch the segment below and marvel at how pale I am. Hey, it's winter in Montreal.
I've also pasted some excerpts of reviews and coverage for the book below. You can also read my latest round-up of the year in media errors and corrections on the Regret the Error website.
Selected reviews and comments:
...a winding journey through the most glaring, damaging and humorous typos, misprints, misidentifications, fuzzy numbers and obiticides in the history of journalism, from the accidental to the malicious. These chapters are chock-full of amusing historical anecdotes, including the story behind the incorrect headline Dewey Defeats Truman, the case of mistaken identity that galvanized Nobel to create his prestigious awards, and the oft-presumed dead but still living Abe Vigoda. Silverman injects plenty of humor, but mostly he is deeply concerned about the science of journalism, and at the heart of this romp is an argument for increased public participation in the news cycle. -- Publishers Weekly
The extensively researched work delves into the history of accuracy and errors in journalism, seeking answers to why errors occur, their impact on the credibility of journalism, and what can be done to both minimize mistakes and learn from them. The book connects the dots between newspaper accuracy, errors and corrections, and media credibility – and ultimately the survival of newspapers in a media-saturated world where trust and credibility are our most important assets. -- Toronto Star
“Regret the Error” is a compendium of published media corrections, many of them hilarious. But Craig Silverman, a journalist who founded the Web site RegretTheError.com, turns what could have been a sudsy little stocking stuffer into a serious study of why journalists fail so often. He also lays out a sensible, brain-driven plan for reform, starting with a “systems approach” to accuracy. -- American Journalism Review
In his new book "Regret the Error," Craig Silverman, a young Montreal journalist, explores this world of press errors and corrections big and small. He laments changes in newspaper finances and production methods that have stretched reporters and editors, and reduced the scrutiny of the printed word. -- The Oregonian
Other comments/reviews:
-"Regret the Error works because of Silverman's incisive but good-natured voice as an advocate for old-fashioned verities like accuracy and honesty (add transparency to the stew as well)...Regret the Error is not an indictment of the media, or an apologia, but a reminder that -- in this age of instantaneous news, citizen publishing and online scoops -- getting it right still counts for something."
-"Silverman’s book also offers a series of recommendations to improve accuracy. Among his useful ideas are better training in interviewing and note-taking; accuracy checklists and a 10-minute fact-checking period before reporters turn in copy; greater use of anti-plagiarism software; increased post-publication surveys of sources to monitor accuracy; and random fact-checking of one story from each section of every issue. These are not only good ideas, they can actually be implemented in any newsroom at little or no cost."
Welcome
Hey there. Thanks for stopping by. I'm a freelance journalist and author in Montreal, Canada. I serve as an associate editor for PBS MediaShift, a website that reports on trends in new media and journalism. I edit RegretTheError.com and wrote a book of the same name. I'm also the co-author, with Michael Calce, of Mafiaboy: How I Cracked The Internet and Why It's Still Broken. Both books are listed to the right.
I write weekly columns for Hour and Columbia Journalism Review online, and am a former columnist and blogger for The Globe And Mail. Read my bio by clicking on the "About Me" link above, or check out the "Writing Samples" page to read some of my work. If you're interested in speaking with me about an assignment or project, email me at the address listed below.
Recent Writing/Work- Dumb Blonde Story : CJR
- Error Prevention Made Easy : CJR
- Standard of Living
- Mission: Quality Control : CJR
- CBC.ca Video
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- All the news you can produce: 'Citizen journalism' goes (semi) pro - The Globe and Mail
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