BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow describes the differences between correcting a mistake on Wikipedia and correcting a mistake in a news article opinion piece (The Register) with real world examples.

Wikipedia failed in September 2004, when a troll changed my entry to say untruthful things about me. I corrected the record five minutes after I noticed the change, and subsequently spent a couple hours over the following weeks coming to a consensus with the various parties in the dispute, ending up with an entry that is fair and factual.

The Register failed in December 2005, when a reporter with a quizzical history of personal attacks on people who share his political views published a factually incorrect account of my deeds. But when I noticed that the record had been muddied, I wasn't able to fix it in a few minutes. Instead, more than a week ticked by, and it wasn't until I'd sent four emails and placed a phone-call that it was set straight.

There are a lot of assumptions here that the reader is going to return to the article to notice any corrections...

Before the internet if something was going to be published (read printed) it was usually fact checked and proof read a few times because a misprinting would be expensive. Corrections would be expensive. The mistake is permanant.

These days publishing costs nothing. Corrections cost nothing. Mistakes can be erased.

The closest thing I can think of to the instant publishing of the internet would be live TV? How forgiving are viewers of live news broadcasts potential mistakes?

Watching a current affairs program is like reading first draft Wikipedia entries as they are typed.

Imagine watching and rewatching a current affairs program over and over, watching the mistakes corrected as the edits were made? The point is that you can't... Do they broadcast the editing sessions of current affairs programs? Should they? Would anyone watch? Would anyone notice corrections unless highlighted?

If someone sits and reads yesterday's paper, do they think "anything written here might have been corrected in today's paper, so I cannot believe anything I read"? If someone reads today's paper do they think "anything written here might be corrected in tomorrow's paper, so I cannot believe anything I read"?

Would anyone read yesterday's paper reprinted with corrections highlighted in yellow? Not tomorrow, but maybe in ten years time.

An infinite part series cataloging the crazy questions asked at work, and their answers.

Previous to today:

Q: Is this a bear? (hand written note on a photo of a Panda)
A: Yes

Q: Where was the first traffic light?
A: London (America had the first electric traffic light)

Q: Where do radish come from?
A: Inconclusive