ONLY CORRECT

Joe Conason just emailed to ask me whether an item I wrote earlier this week about Robert Rubin had been changed without a formal correction. The answer is yes. Here’s my correction policy. If someone points out an error to me after an item has been posted for a while, and the error is a serious one, I post a formal correction. But when I post an item, I sometimes notice a typo or small error or mixed metaphor or dangling participle when I double-check the site to see if it’s updated. If I notice an error then, I just go back in and fix it straight away. Sometimes, I even get second thoughts when I see it in print and soften an item – or toughen it up. In the case of the Rubin item, I wrote Enron when I meant Citigroup, something I didn’t catch till I saw it on the site. I also wrote summer when I should have written fall of 1999 (I transposed the time Rubin left the administration with when he joined Citigroup.) Again, I saw this once I’d posted and within a few minutes, fixed it. The point of the item remains the same. With no fact-checker or copy-editor, I try and double and triple check myself. Sometimes this means I publish something and change it immediately after I publish. It seems silly to run formal correction after formal correction over matters like these. There’s nothing nefarious here – just an attempt to get things right and transparent in a medium that’s instant and personal.