Nobody likes to have to do a correction, which is partly why they’re done so rarely and often so obscurely. But if you’ve got to do one, do it right.
That’s what AP seems to have done with a recent school funding story (Correction: Education Dollars story) by putting the correction and the substance of the error up at the top of the story:
“In a story Jan. 21 about state education finance reform, The Associated Press reported erroneously that local school levies were billed per $100,000 in assessed property value. The taxes range from less than a dollar per $1,000 in assessed property values to $5 or more per $1,000 in value, not per $100,000 in value.”
Kudos to the team at AP for making a correction that has a decent chance of working for readers. Tsk, tsk to others for avoiding them at all costs and making them so obscure.
