It’s still not clear why Dakota, described as a “sweet dog” by owners Adam and Donna Roberge, suddenly turned aggressive in the early morning hours of Oct. 30, 2023. But the incident has triggered calls to find ways to fund a dog-control officer in Wallowa County.

In last week’s email, I made an offhand remark about accuracy and corrections, and said I might get back to that topic in a future edition. Well, as I write this on Sunday afternoon, I have a fresh memory of a mistake I made earlier this morning with a story that I quickly corrected online.

And I have another example in mind, that of an editing error I made that created a typo that, in my judgment, called for a printed correction that you’ll see in Wednesday’s edition.

So maybe the time has come to write about mistakes and corrections, and my policy on those, which largely mirrors the policies of the Chieftain’s parent company, the EO Media Group, with an addition or two on my part.

First, as I wrote last week, I take accuracy very seriously, and accuracy in my mind includes spelling words correctly and fixing typos whenever possible.

But because of the nature of the business, and because the Chieftain still is produced by human beings, errors happen. We catch many of those in the editing and proofing process, but as the Chieftain’s 2 p.m. Tuesday deadline draws closer each week, some of them slip through, to our regret.

I always have believed that newspapers should correct every factual error that appears in print and online, and have invited readers to call those errors to my attention. Like any newspaper editor, I’m not thrilled when we run a correction — but I firmly believe that newspapers do more to boost their credibility over the long run when they make a habit of good-naturedly correcting mistakes. (Not to mention the importance of setting the record straight.)

Since we typically post stories to our website at wallowa.com before they appear in print, we sometimes are able to correct a mistake in the online version of a story before it appears in print. My policy in these cases is to correct the story online — and then add a sidebar to the online version that briefly describes the correction. If we fix the error before the story sees print, there’s no need to run a correction in print.

So, for example, earlier on Sunday morning, I posted a story saying that the Enterprise girls basketball team had won the Old Oregon League tournament. I noticed my mistake minutes later and went back into the story and fixed it — the Enterprise team, of course, competes in the Blue Mountain Conference. So if you look at the story online, you’ll see a correction attached to it. But the version of the story that appears in print on Wednesday will have the correct information, so no correction is necessary in print.

In last week’s email, I wrote that typos — embarrassing as they are — typically do not rise to the level that requires a correction.

But last week, while I was making minor editing changes to the “Other Voices” essay by Michael Eng, I somehow managed to include an extra letter that changed a word into another word. In a list of steps people could take to fight bullying tactics from corporations, Eng wrote this sentence:

“Know your rights — hire a principled attorney who believes lawyering’s goal is to help ensure justice for both plaintiffs and defendants, not to make a fortune assisting corporations avoid accountability.”

The problem was that, somehow (and I’m still not sure how this happened), I managed to place an extra letter (“C”) in front of the word “ensure,” which resulted in this head-scratcher of a sentence:

“Know your rights — hire a principled attorney who believes lawyering’s goal is to help censure justice for both plaintiffs and defendants, not to make a fortune assisting corporations avoid accountability.”

Normally, a typo just results in a misspelled word. In this case, the typo turned “ensure” into “censure,” which is an actual word — but which makes no sense in the context of the sentence. So I believe both a printed and online correction are in order. The online version of the column has been corrected, and a printed correction will appear in Wednesday’s paper. 

One last note about factual errors: If you spot one in the Chieftain, let me know about it. Send me an email at editor@wallowa.com or mmcinally@wallowa.com or call me at 541-905-4282. I won’t be happy about the error. But I will be happy that you brought it to my attention.

In the meantime, I’m pleased to note that Ann Bloom’s story last week about how an incident involving a family dog triggered a community discussion about the need for a dog-control officer in Wallowa County has been a hit with readers: The story thus far has drawn more than 5,000 page views on our website. It’s the biggest reaction to a Chieftain story in the 18 months or so I’ve been with the paper. If you missed it last week, you can read it by clicking here.

This Wednesday’s edition of the Chieftain will have a story about Joseph Charter School graduate Mary Thiel, who recently returned from an Australian adventure. That story will be on our website before we print it on Wednesday. And we’ll also have the latest about the county’s girls basketball teams, all three of which have qualified for state tournament competition.

All of this is part of the Chieftain’s efforts to cover Wallowa County news to the best of our ability. As always, if you have a comment or question about the Chieftain, or want to suggest a story idea, email me at editor@wallowa.com or mmcinally@wallowa.com. 

Meanwhile, if you haven’t already, take a moment to register your subscription for digital access of the Chieftain. Call 541-963-3161 to talk to a member of our customer service staff, who will be happy to walk you through the process. It’s easy, takes just a few moments to set up and allows you to take advantage of our e-edition, app and website delivery along with your print subscription.

Finally, let me take this opportunity to once again thank the Chieftain’s subscribers: It would be impossible for us to do this vital work without your support.

Mike McInally is the editor of the Wallowa County Chieftain. You can email him at editor@wallowa.com or mmcinally@wallowa.com.