A quite spectacular picture mix up is still going strong on the Mirror website this morning, despite having been outed late last night.
Here’s a screengrab, because the page is surely going to change back into its proper civilian clothes any minute now.
Elsewhere on the site there appears to be a story about the superhero with no image, which just might give us a clue as to what’s happened here.
(hat tip: the Media Blog, via Gareth Winchester and Dick Mandrake).
Making light of others’ mistakes is fraught with danger, and will often come back to haunt you when you make your own.
But that doesn’t stop us or anybody else, it seems. Schadenfreude is all the rage. So, here are just a few of our favourite own goals and gaffes from 2010, in no particular order. We would include some of our own but we don’t make any, obviously… Please feel free to add any you remember in comments or on Twitter to @journalismnews.
1. Telegraph cocks-up Hadron headline
One of those errors in which the sub concentrates so hard on not making one particular mistake that they make exactly that mistake. Either that, or it’s Friday afternoon and they think a good laugh is worth the grief sure to follow.
Screenshot by Skepchick on Flickr
2. Times Online caught up in awkward byline scandal
Not really a scandal this, I suppose, or an outright error, but we think it qualifies as gaffe to put Roger Boyes on your Catholic Church-boys choir-sex abuse story. Dear the Times, he may be your Vienna correspondent, but perhaps he shouldn’t be.
3. Brighton Argus’ new out-of-town subs fall at the first hurdle
Following weeks of protest over Newsquest laying off local subs at the Brighton Argus and centralising news subbing 60 miles away in Southampton, the out-of-towners made a slight mistake on their first day.
Rumour has it that the following day – and I kid you not – the paper almost went to print calling itself “the Argos”. Although not on the masthead, we understand. Unfortunately for this list, it got caught just in time. Allegedly.
The story that has it all.
5. Sun runs explosive advert with Moscow terrorist bombings story
Advert placement has been a rich source of gaffery in the past, but back in March the Sun used all the technological wizardry available to it to launch this advertising cock-up into a league of its own
6. Headline mishaps continue at Johnston Press and Newsquest titles
Speaking of rich sources of gaffery, to the notorious content management system from Atex. This tremendous CMS, dear to the hearts of regional journalists up and down the country, has caused so many headline and image mishaps that we would be remiss not to include a sample. Don’t miss an insightful standfirst and pull quote either.
7. Wanky Balls festival: Wikipedia-reading journalists welcome
Much fun was had back in August when someone at the Indy was caught red-handed pilfering from Wikipedia. Many, many journalists must have done it, but this unlucky one happened to plagiarise some, well, total wanky balls.
Image courtesy of Political Scrapbook.
Hannah Waldram has kindly pointed out that in our haste we missed a rather recent, rather spectacular double gaffe from Jim Naughtie and Andrew Marr. Although we undoubtedly missed many on our short list, we feel that Messrs Naughtie and Marr definitely deserve a place.
Here is Naughtie introducing the culture secretary with flawless anunication….
…and Andrew Marr trying to beat him at his own game: