On a Cronkite-related note, TV-beat reporter Alessandra Stanley added to her already [1]voluminous correction file [1]with her Cronkite tribute on the front of Saturday's Arts section, "Cronkite's Signature Mix of Authority and Approachability [2]." Of the three errors outlined by the Times, the first sounds forgivable, but the last two...come on, guys:
An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to a news organization for which Walter Cronkite worked. At the time, it was called United Press, not United Press International. The earlier version also misstated the date of the first moon landing; it was July 20, 1969, not July 26. And it misspelled Telstar.
Am I imagining things, or is that last sentence the copy-editor equivalent of an exasperated sigh?
And the NYT Picker [3]blog found three more errors in Stanley's appreciation, even before the Times' listed itsthree separate corrections, for six in all. Even given the fact that a death of a public figure sets a demanding deadline, it was no secret Cronkite was in declining health - there was time to nail these things down.