New York Times Corrections

The guys over at Powerline like to tweak the New York Times every once in a while for their corrections. Today's is a lot of fun.

A chart on Dec. 6 showing Wal-Mart's worldwide reach, with an article about the company's expansion into Mexico, referred imprecisely to its holdings. Some stores operate under other names, including Sam's Club; not all are called Wal-Mart. (A correction in this space on Saturday attributed the error incorrectly to the article also.)

Don't these people ever shop? I mean, outside the broom closets that pass for grocery stores in Manhattan. It may come as a surprise to them, in fact, it obviously does come as a surprise to them, that most of the country actually allows stores to get as big as they can afford to. Brought to you by the same folks who gave you rent control.

Because of an editing error, the article also referred imprecisely to the size of the crowd that attended the bicentennial celebration outside the presidential palace. While the government estimated it in the hundreds of thousands, and outside journalists' estimates ranged as low as 15,000, the crowd was not small.

Depends on what you mean by "small." Haiti's kind of a small place, so maybe 15,000 is a lot. I mean, they doubled the average crowd for an Expos game. On the other hand, by 2008 they'll reach last night's Sugar Bowl attendance. "Small's" a relative term, and they probably shouldn't be so quick to correct themselves. I was on the Mall in Washington for our Bicentennial, and 15K would have been an embarassment. Then again, ISM would kill for that kind of turnout. They'd do they're killing over in Israel, but you get my drift.

An article on Saturday about the decision of Representative Ralph M. Hall, a longtime Texas Democrat, to switch to the Republican Party gave an incorrect figure in some copies for Democrats remaining in the House. It is 204, not 205. (The rest of the seats are held by 229 Republicans and one independent, with one seat vacant.)

They couldn't look this up? I know, 435 - 229 - 1 = 205. Still, Janklow was all over the paper, what, 5 minutes ago? Not an auspicious start to the year.