Most Embarrassing Correction Ever?
The New York Times has been forced to issue a correction in the wake of a review of a new show on Amazon after it was discovered that their reviewer had, apparently accidentally, watched the shows out of order:
In an amusing correction,The New York Times noted that its television writer had criticized a show for being confusing, when in reality he had actually just watched episodes in the wrong order.
In his review of Amazon’s Goliath, The Times‘ Mike Hale critiqued the “needlessly complicated structure of the initial episodes,” especially Billy Bob Thornton’s character’s investigation of a suspicious suicide.
“The nature of the case McBride has taken on… is revealed slowly and cryptically, a bit of writerly delayed gratification that keeps your attention but isn’t particularly rewarding,” he wrote. “Then, presumably because the first episode leaves so much unanswered, the next jumps back in time to fill in the history of the case — and when the second episode ends, the story hasn’t even caught up to where it started.”
“The narrative juggling has the feel of stretching — of starting with a story suited for an episode of traditional TV or maybe a feature film and extending it to more than nine hours. Final judgment on that will have to wait until all 10 episodes are available,” Hale concluded.
Several days later, The Times issued a correction:
A television review on Friday about the new Amazon series “Goliath” included an inaccurate discussion of the show’s plot structure. The critic mistakenly watched the first two episodes out of order.
Oops.
I picture this guy watching ‘Empire Strikes Back’ before Star Wars and then wondering why Luke’s father wanted to kill Obi-Wan Kenobi.
.
.
..Flix produces Finnegans Wake this will be the guy to review it when Net…
(apologies to James Joyce)
I used to write a newspaper review column (restaurants and occasionally TV). On the other hand about 10,000 people have written reviews of my stuff.
I have conflicting sympathies.
nyt- what do you expect?!
This one’s a real facepalm, but probably still not as embarrassing as “Oops, sorry UVA — I guess your frat boys did not rape our source after all.”
I think the double correction the Times had to issue about cities in Syria was more embarrassing.
For a really amusing, entertaining, and educational few hours, Doug, I highly recommend Plinkett’s Star Wars reviews, if you haven’t already seen them.
The Judith Miller claims about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction led to a more embarrassing retraction. A limited broadcast television program is much less important than a situation leading to an international war.
@bill: I expect them to own up to mistakes when they make them, unlike Fox News and other conservative media.
“Ever”? No doubt the ’embarrassing correction’ bar is set pretty low.
I’m with @Slugger: on this: