This Is One of the Worst Retractions a Newspaper Has Ever Had to Publish


The News-Enterprise in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, had a story on its front page today that paraphrased a local police official as saying that most cops typically go into law enforcement “because they have a desire to shoot minorities.” Spicy stuff! Only problem: It never happened.

The paper quickly issued a retraction on its home page and updated the online version of the story—ironically headlined “Law enforcement to be honored for service”—to include a formal apology from editor Ben Sheroan. The corrected story now reads: “Hardin County Sheriff John Ward said those who go into the law enforcement profession typically do it because they have a desire to serve the community.”

So what happened? The paper initially called it a “typographical mistake” but that obviously didn’t make any sense. Jim Romenesko reports that it was actually a joke mistake. “One [copy desk staffer] wrote the ‘shoot minorities’ line on the page proof as a joke and the second—in charge of the front page—put it in the story.”

Never joke on the page proofs.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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