Mwalimu-G
Elder Lister
Two days later...
OUR VIEW: We made a mistake. We are sorry.
- Tyler Morning Telegraph Editorial
- Jan 10, 2021
If you have not heard it yet, we made a mistake. It was a big one. It was not the first time we have made a mistake and unfortunately it will probably not be the last time either.
We printed five extra words in a caption of a photo in Friday’s Tyler Morning Telegraph. The photo was of supporters of President Donald Trump climbing the west wall of the U.S. Capitol. We inserted the words “Members of antifa dressed as” at the beginning of the caption, which completely changed the caption’s meaning.
I can assure you that there is no one more concerned about this error than us. We have already started investigating how this happened and we will review our processes to ensure that it does not happen again.
Our current process clearly failed, and it needs to be changed.
The main point about the process that we want you to know is that this was not a reviewed and approved caption. It was a breakdown in our process. We will strive to do better because this is not acceptable.
One thing that we already knew, but which was brought home to us even more, is that a lie can travel faster than the truth. This has been the case for a long time; however, in the age of social media, it happens at warp speed and can live on even after errors have been corrected.
As soon as we realized our mistake, we corrected it on our website and in the digital replicas of the printed product. However, we could not change the printed paper. Photos of this error continue to circulate as you read this.
We have been called part of the problem for this error. We have been told that we are part of the fake news media. I would submit that we are exactly the opposite. Fake news media outlets do not admit to mistakes or make corrections; instead, they usually double down on the lie.
We have corrected this error in every way we know how, and we are highlighting the error with this article because we do not want anyone to believe we would knowingly try to spread misinformation.
This experience also has taught us more about the importance of local media. This error spread so far and wide that we received calls from California to New York and everywhere in between. The calls that came from outside Tyler or from people who had never been to Tyler were quite vitriolic.
The calls from people in Tyler, our friends and neighbors, were much more meaningful. They were angry, as they should have been, and could not believe what they read. Once they realized it was an unintentional error, they were appreciative of our efforts to correct our mistake and wished us well in getting through this mess.
One of the calls that our President, Stephen McHaney, returned Saturday to a Tylerite was emblematic of many other responses. This person had already seen the corrections and knew what we had done, and simply said, “You guys are handling this right. Thank you and keep it up.”
We hope you will accept our apology for this mistake. We are going to work hard to ensure it does not happen again.
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