Famous newspaper mistakes
November is historically not the best month for newspapers. Everyone makes mistakes, but there were two made by two different newspapers that were infamously embarrassing.
Most people think of the Gettysburg Address as one of the high points of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency. Nearly all Americans are at least familiar with the well-known phrase, “fourscore and seven years ago our fathers set forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” but there was a Pennsylvania newspaper at the time that was not so fond of the speech. The Harrisburg Patriot and Union published a withering article on Nov. 24, 1863 about “the silly remarks of the President.” The Patriot-News, the successor of The Harrisburg Patriot and Union, retracted the harsh statements about Lincoln’s address, but it took them a while to do so. The criticisms were not retracted until the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address.
That, however, was not nearly as bad as what was published on Nov. 3, 1948. The Chicago Tribune’s edition that day included the headline: “Dewey Defeats Truman.” As any history book would tell you, the exact opposite was true. Tim Jones of The Chicago Tribune referred to the headline as “every publisher’s nightmare on election night.” Though the particular headline has become famous after Truman held up a copy of the paper for a photograph, the newspaper was not the only one to make a mistake about the election. Life magazine published a picture of Dewey with the caption: “The next President of the United States.”
Everyone makes mistakes, though some may be significantly more embarrassing or infamous than others. It may not be as mortifying as criticizing one of the most famous addresses in American history or printing the wrong results of a presidential election, but people say and do embarrassing things all the time.
One newspaper printed the incredibly informative headline that bugs flying around with wings are flying bugs, while another newspaper had one that said, dead body found in cemetery. Another newspaper wrote that a woman was still alive hours before she died and another printed one saying weapons were found in a local gun shop. Some headlines, while accurate, are redundant, such as homicide victims rarely talk to police, and man accused of killing lawyer receives new attorney.
The next time you make a spelling mistake or forget a comma, just remember that it could be much worse. At least you weren’t the one criticizing Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address or writing an inaccurate headline about a presidential election. It could always be worse.
By Julia Felton
Junior, Canon-McMillan