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Bloopers sometimes can be pretty funny 

By Cindy Allen, Enid News & Eagle

There’s nothing we hate more in the newspaper business than to make a mistake in a story and have to run a correction. However, because we preach transparency and accuracy, it’s imperative that we quickly run a correction and apologize for the mistake. 
Most of the mistakes we make are pretty benign. There might be a misspelling of a name, or an incorrect title of a source. Sometimes we make a mistake on an address or a phone number. The worst mistakes are when we get a fact or a quote wrong. 
As seriously as we take mistakes in the newspaper, sometimes the mistakes end up being pretty funny. Every year when newspaper executives across the state meet for the annual Oklahoma Press Association conference, part of our program is the annual “Bloopers” presentation. 
We are all treated to the hilarious boo-boos that get printed in our newspapers, and the winner gets the “toilet seat” award for the best blooper. If you were a fan of Jay Leno’s regular bloopers segment when he was on “The Tonight Show,” you know what I’m talking about. 
Of course, we all hold our breath and hope our mistakes don’t get picked up for the blooper show. I can honestly tell you no newspaper on the planet has been immune to having unfortunate mistakes printed. Because no matter how hard we strive for accuracy, pressing deadlines sometimes contribute to mistakes slipping through. 
We published a pretty funny one last week in an editorial about the cannabis industry in Oklahoma. I had written the editorial and had misspelled the word “cannabis” a couple of times, which spellcheck picked up. However what I didn’t notice was that on those errors, I accidentally selected the wrong word to replace the misspelling. So in a couple of places in the editorial, “cannabis” was turned into “cannibals.” 
As mad as I was that neither I nor the page editor caught the error, I can’t help but laugh a little. No, we don’t have a cannibal growing issue in Oklahoma, but we do have a cannabis growing issue here in the state. The good thing is I could correct that error online. However it will live in print forever, and I imagine will be featured in next year’s OPA blooper show. 
Since there’s no Jay Leno blooper segment anymore, I thought I’d also share with you some other funny corrections (at least the clean ones) that have appeared in newspapers over the last several years. Here goes: 
• From The Citizen: The earth orbits the sun, not the moon. Incorrect information appeared in a story on Page A1. 
• In a recipe for salsa published recently, one of the ingredients was misstated due to an error. The correct ingredient is 2 tsp of cilantro instead of 2 tsp of cement. 
• Due to a typing error, Saturday’s story on local artist Jon Henninger mistakenly reported that Henninger’s band mate (name redacted) was on drugs. The story should have read that he was on drums. 
• Karol Wojtyla was referred to in Saturday’s Credo column as “the first non-Catholic pope in 450 years. This should, of course, have read “non-Italian.” 
• An entry on Tuesday in the “What’s on TV” highlights misstated the name of a category on the game show “Snoop Dogg Presents Joker’s Wild.” It is “Primpin’ Ain’t Easy,” not “Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy. (Sorry Big Daddy Kane) 
• And, from the Wall Street Journal: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Benjamin Netanyahu said Moses brought water from Iraq. He said the water was brought from a rock. 
One of my favorites that appeared in a newspaper I worked for was in the classified section. Several years ago, The Daily Ardmoreite ran a help-wanted ad for “German Electricians.” 
I was puzzled, so I went up to the classified department and asked about the ad. “Yeah, the clerk said, I was wondering when he called why he wanted specifically German electricians.” 
“Do you suppose he wants Journeymen Electricians?” I asked. Her face fell, and she immediately got back on the phone with the customer to apologize. 
We appreciate our readers for keeping us on our toes. If you see an error in the newspaper or think we need to make a correction on a story, please feel free to call us or email me at callen@enidnews.com.