First Ledes: That Didn't Take Long

I'm sorry to say that we've already had three fatal fact errors, in which we offered inaccurate facts as defined by the syllabus.

And, in the interest of learning from each other this term, we will review each and every fatal so (hopefully) we can learn from the mistakes of others -- and avoid such mistakes ourselves, going forward.

The first one was pretty typical: instead of saying something was $1.7 million, we said it was $1.7, with the million part missing. $1.7 on its own means one dollar and seventy cents, which is not $1.7 million, but it is a fatal.

Yes, that's a fatal. And yes, the vast majority of fatals are something simple and basic that was overlooked.

The second was pretty much the same: we said $1.5, when we meant $1.5 million.

For the third, we referred to the embezzler as a city treasurer. In fact, he was a county treasurer.

We get this idea that fatals are a HUGE error, but the reality is overwhelmingly fatals are simple mistakes. Like forgetting a word. That's why we urge such stringent fact-checking.

So please, be vigilant. After you finish writing be sure to double-check every name and age and title and date and, yes, dollar amounts.

Now, with this assignment you were dinged 1.0 for any one component of the assignment with a fatal. But in future assignments, one fatal means a 1.0 on the entire assignment, period.

Seriously, it's that serious. Like I've said, journalism isn't about writing; it's about getting it right. Let's make sure we build good fact-checking habits so this is a rare circumstance.