Help Us Help You: Ways to Head Off Reporter Mistakes

This may come as a surprise.

But, reporters are only human. And...we make mistakes.

Shocking, I know. However, it's true and it's possible that mistakes may wind up in your story.

I have printed some inaccurate information in my time -- in some instances, it was my fault and in others, I was given bad information.

At any rate, I believe most of the subjects of my stories were very gracious in pointing out errors and didn't make me feel too badly about the mistakes. If there were any real rabble-rousers, I think I have blocked them from memory.

Still, there are some things that you, as the subject of a story, can do to help a reporter out. Being proactive with giving facts and background information may go a long way in ensuring the accuracy of your story.

• Give a fact sheet. Have a story with lots of numbers or details? Perhaps a budget? Here's a tip: give the reporter something written with those details on it. We love figures and trends and we love quoting them. You can leave it to the reporter to figure out the percentage increase of your revenues or you can issue a fact sheet with the numbers already there. 
• Be available for follow-up. You had the interview and it went well, but the reporter wants to clarify something and can't reach you. You want to make sure the reporter has all the contact information he or she needs to ask you that question that inevitably pops up as we are going over our notes or putting together the story.
• Make sure they understand. Don't be condescending about it, but if you know your organization has had three names changes in the past five years, plus five elections (with one that didn't count because of that whole missing ballot thing) don't hesitate to go over every thing step by step with the reporter. You can say things like, "Now, just so you know, I want to clarify that Sally Bee was the president when we changed our mascot for the eighth time, not Sally Zee." You can do this for confusing information or just basic background.
• Spell out names, give titles and/or rank when applicable. Nine times out of ten, reporters will ask you how to spell your name and your title, but if they don't, gently say, "That's John Smythe, S-M-Y-T-H-E, first lieutenant of XYZ organization."
• Be sure your own information is accurate. Don't blame the reporter if you accidentally told them you raised $55 when you actually raised $5,500. Make sure all of your own information is in order before you present it.

If a reporter makes a mistake in your story, please be civil. Call them up, point out the mistake and ask for a retraction or correction. The news outlet may handle this in different ways: If it's an Internet publication, the easiest thing to do is to just change the story online, perhaps with an editor's note. Newspapers typically print corrections in the next edition while radio and television outlets may now post corrections online -- or with egregious errors, rebroadcast the story.

Worst-case error scenario, you may just get your story run twice.

Bridgette Outten is a journalist and media consultant with The Write Vision Group, Inc.  With a background in print media, she has written hundreds of articles for newspapers and online publications. At The Write Vision Group, Bridgette consults with nonprofits and small businesses about how they can get media attention for their programs and efforts. Meanwhile, she blogs on all things journalism.