Our contract with readers
The Star is committed to accuracy in print, online and with the new Star Touch
A correction is a contract of credibility between a news organization and its audiences, an essential statement of setting the record straight when it veers off the course of accuracy.
Every day the Star reports hundreds of thousands of facts, with the understanding that they represent the truth of what we have learned in reporting the news — that is why they are called facts. If we later determine that these “facts” are inaccurate, our credibility contract decrees that we have an obligation to tell you we erred and report what is actual fact.
This is the underlying principle of the Star’s accuracy and corrections policy, which states, “Accuracy is our most basic contract with readers.”
The policy makes clear that this commitment to accuracy and corrections applies to all of the platforms the Star publishes on, be that the newspaper, the web, social media or our brand-new Star Touch, the innovative and interactive news app that launched this week.
Star Touch is a revolutionary new way for readers to get their news. As Star Publisher John Cruickshank told readers on Tuesday, “Star Touch is the most dramatic change to how the Star presents news in more than a century.”
So how do the Toronto Star’s traditional values of accountability and transparency play out in this news revolution? How do corrections work in this dazzling new medium that includes articles, fact boxes, interactive maps, photo galleries, video clips, audio clips and more? How does the Star build on its contract of credibility to ensure that you can trust what you read, view, listen to and touch on Star Touch?
While we have spent considerable time here in recent months thinking about these questions, the simple answer is that this revolution does not alter the Star’s accuracy commitment. Corrections will be published on Star Touch when necessary, in line with long-held values of owning up to errors and setting the record straight.
But, I am delighted to tell you that Star Touch corrections have a fresh look and feel. To me, they are a cool coming together of the Star’s traditional values and the innovation and interactivity of a revolutionary medium.
The best way to understand tablet corrections is to go look and touch for yourself.
The nuts and bolts are this: Corrections are published in the Opinion section of the tablet. This reflects the tradition of publishing corrections in a regular, consistent place every day.
The Opinion section’s Letters page includes a button to “Report an Error.” Touch this and a screen pops up to tell readers of the Star’s accuracy commitment. A further touch of a “Contact the public editor” button sends email requests for corrections to the public editor’s office for investigation. This is in line with the value of making it easy for readers to report errors.
On days when corrections are required, you’ll see a red “Corrections: Setting the record straight” button. Touch that and necessary corrections pop-up. Corrections for all sections of Star Touch will be published here.
It would be lovely to think that no corrections will ever be required in Star Touch because no mistakes will ever be made. Alas, this revolution will not include perfection because the perfect human being has yet to be created and those who produce Star Touch and all of the Star’s journalists are fallible humans.
Mistakes happen. Indeed, we published three corrections this week on Star Touch, all for relatively minor mistakes, but still, clear factual errors that demanded to be made right to fulfil our credibility contract with readers and sources.
Corrections are a serious business at the Star. But, there is always room to laugh at some sillier gaffes. Certainly some of us had a good chuckle at a Star Touch correction published Thursday that made clear what a Toronto artist told a reporter about his memories of the polar bear sculpture at Forest Hill Library.
The story reported that he said he had fond memories of the “creepy polar bears.” As it turned out, even though the reporter had recorded the interview, she misheard what the artist had told her — certainly a wholly human mistake. In fact, he fondly remembered the “sleepy polar bears.”
Then there’s the New York Times online correction this week that circulated widely through social media, much to the amusement of many. It stated that an earlier version of the article had misstated the name of a cartoon character. “He is Porky Pig, not Porky the Pig,” the correction stated.
While that is indeed a silly and largely insignificant error that some may think does not call for correction, making the correction in such a transparent way seems to me to be in line with the credibility contract between a trusted news organization and its readers.
That contract is simple. Whenever — and wherever — the Star reports wrong information, it owns up and sets the record straight.
And, as that Looney Tunes character, Porky Pig, always said, “Th-th-th-that’s all folks!” publiced@thestar.ca