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August 7, 2008
What do you mean it wasn't 26 degrees in Bridgeport?
Wednesday's Connecticut Post was filled with entertaining, meaty stories. Among them:
The anthrax probe that centered on the death of an Oxford woman.
The end of 25 years of Bridgeport police department oversight by a special master.
A local take on the opening of the second "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," much of which was filmed in the area.
A deadly dog virus on the rise.
The U.S. Olympic basketball team defeating Australia.
But the only thing readers wanted to talk to me about Wednesday, and continuing into today, is our weather faux pas on the bottom of page A1. Seems the predicted high temperature for that day was 42, with an overnight low of 26. I thought it seemed a little cooler than normal, but...boy, temperatures like that in August would have been a real page one story.
Most of the callers I spoke with or received messages from thought it was funny. Some wanted to rub our noses in the mistake. Others were extremely upset with us. "If you can't get the temperature right, what can I believe in your paper," was how one reader put it.
Here's how the mistake happened: The daily elements of page A1 are kept in a computer file and pulled out onto A1 each night. Those temperatures were built into the template as spaceholders until the real numbers are plugged in during the copy desk's evening shift. Sometimes, in all the confusion of editing stories, building news pages and tackling all the other behind-the-scenes work the copy desk does, something gets missed. Nobody feels worse about it than the person responsible, believe me. I know. As a former copy editor, on more than one occasion I've had one of those slap-your-head moments in the car on the way home after a shift. "Did I remember to...?" Of course, at that point, it's 1 o'clock in the morning, the presses running and it's too late to fix. You just have to regroup and move on to the next day, hoping that newspaper will be the perfect one you've been striving for all your newspaper life.
We know you count on us, and we appreciate that. But sometimes, despite the best of intentions, mistakes find their way into the newspaper.
Posted by Ted Tompkins on August 7, 2008 2:11 PM
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