A front-page article in this morning's New York Times about President Clinton's search for office space reports, "Gerald Ford pays $99,000 a year for space in Mirage, Calif." The Ford office is in fact in Rancho Mirage, Calif., not "Mirage."
Wrong Spelling: An article in the national section of today's New York Times runs under the headline "Los Angeles Cardinal Regrets Role in Pardon." The Times article refers to "Cardinal Roger Mahoney," and repeatedly to "Cardinal Mahoney." In fact the cardinal's last name is spelled "Mahony." The same article makes reference to a federal judge issuing a sentence on the low end "of Minnesota state law requirements." It would be helpful to readers if there were some explanation of why a federal judge would be bound by state sentencing guidelines.
Wrong Spelling: A dispatch from Houston in the national section of today's New York Times refers to "Representative Tom Delay, the Republican House whip." Mr. DeLay capitalizes the "L" in his name.
Keeping Travelers Informed: A graphic that accompanies an article in today's New York Times about air traffic delays has a label that says, "Keeping travelers informed." Then it lists "percentage of time passengers were notified of delays, cancellations and diversions." The percentages ranged from 75 to 38. It's unclear what criteria the Times or the Department of Transportation is using to measure whether passengers are "notified." Presumably, 100 percent of passengers are notified always if a flight is cancelled -- their flight doesn't leave, and eventually they notice that they aren't in the air. Same with a diversion; the plane lands somewhere other than where the passenger expected to be, and the pilot, or the terrain outside, notify passengers that the plane has been diverted. A passenger can notify himself that a flight has been delayed simply by looking at his watch. The label "Keeping travelers informed" seems to suggest the graphic refers to some notification issue rather than the actual incidence of delays, cancellations and diversions. The newsworthy question is how much advance notice, if any, the passengers get.
Weird Headline: This runs atop the continuation of an article in the metro section of today's New York Times: "Hospitals in the City Are Faulted for Not Reporting Many Errors." The hospitals can't win: If they reported many errors, you can bet they would be faulted for that, too. A clearer headline would say something like, "Hospitals in the City Are Faulted for Covering Up Errors" or "Hospitals in the City Are Faulted for Concealing Errors" or "Hospitals in the City Are Faulted for Letting Errors Go Unrecorded."