From Star public editor Kathy English's column of Dec. 27:

... Errors are no joke at the Star. We've taken serious steps this year to gain greater understanding of how and why such errors occur, with the launch in April of an online database to track corrections and determine reasons for errors. The Star published 425 corrections in 2008, down somewhat from 497 in 2007. In 2006, we published 512 corrections.

According to the newsroom's assessments of the 301 errors tracked since the launch of the accuracy database, nearly 40 per cent of errors resulted from journalists making assumptions or not double-checking facts. Surprisingly, only 20 errors were attributed to the pressures of deadline.

Since April, the Star published 58 corrections of incorrect names, 24 corrections for wrong numbers and another 22 for incorrect dates, times and locations. I think that a good many of these errors are preventable and that more double-checking by both reporters and editors of all names, numbers and similar basic facts would be time and effort well spent.

One might wish to see this blog posting to understand why I think skeptical thoughts about declining numbers of published corrections.

Does English's statistics mean there are fewer errors in the Star, or fewer errors receiving published corrections?

Craig Silverman of Regret The Error fame wrote the following in a Dec. 20 commentary published in the Star:

Errors are, unfortunately, a fact of journalism. Newspaper accuracy studies conducted over the last 72 years reveal that between 40 and 60 per cent of news stories in U.S. newspapers have some type of mistake, be it a misspelled name or a quote taken out of context. (To my knowledge, there has never been an accuracy study of Canadian newspapers.)

Corrections are the means by which journalists acknowledge their mistakes. While some corrections are amusing and interesting, the real problem is that there aren't enough of them. A study published last year found that only 2 per cent of verified factual errors contained in a range of U.S. newspapers were ever corrected.

In a Dec. 23 blog posting, he set out his corrections and accuracy wishes for the new year.