Blogs

Across The Media Universe: Resurrection Via Typo Edition

By Hillary Profita

January 12, 2007 / 12:41 PM EST / CBS News

(CBS)

Screen Grab Flap: Ok, so why were all the still photos of President Bush giving his speech on Wednesday a bit grainy? The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Window On Washington blog shares the explanation: "Routinely, a pool photographer - who shares the photo with all news organizations - and wire service photographers are allowed to cover presidential events in quarters too small to handle the usual throng of photographers." But on Wednesday night, administration officials said that the White House Library was too small. "That left newspapers [and web sites] with three choices: No photo, a photo shot by a White House photographer or a screen grab from television coverage of the speech. The latter … generally provides a less-than-flattering image." The White House Correspondents Association is peeved: "This is the latest in an ever-growing series of events in which this White House is not allowing photographers," said WHCA President Steve Scully of C-SPAN. "Clearly it's unacceptable."

Second Coming?: Ah, the woes of copy editing. There was a typo on Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's Web site recently. Just a small one: it changed his name from Crist to Christ. Once identified, the typo was corrected in less than a minute. The governor's own web site wasn't the only one to make the error, however. According to the AP: "At least three Florida newspapers have referred to Crist as Christ in the past two weeks alone."

A Footnote To The HP Probe: Remember the Hewlett-Packard spying debacle? The one in which HP's hired investigators conducted "pre-trash inspections" at one reporter's home? One of those investigators, Brian Wagner, is pleading guilty to identity theft and conspiracy and will testify for the prosecution. Two HP execs were also charged, along with two more third-party investigators. Wagner is the only one to plead guilty.

AP reports that he is accused of "secretly obtaining a journalist's Social Security number, using that number to create an online account with the telephone company in the reporter's name and accessing the detailed phone logs. He also is accused of illegally obtaining and transmitting personal information on HP directors, journalists and employees in the course of HP's crusade to ferret out the source of boardroom leaks to the media." His lawyer, who said that Wagner was "assured 'numerous times by different people' higher in the HP probe's chain of command that his investigative methods were legal" – added this: "He's just the little guy who was used by these other people who had a lot more knowledge of the conduct he was performing. That's why they didn't do it. That's why they passed it off to someone who would do it. It's a classic case of pass the buck."