Photos of blaze mansion released

LONDON (Reuters) - The emergency services released pictures on Thursday of the blaze they faced at the home of millionaire businessman Christopher Foster who set the mansion alight after killing himself, his wife and daughter.

Quite a feat, you’d have to agree.

A.T.B.

Er, yes. We corrected: GBU Editor

REUTERS/Shropshire Fire and Rescue/Handout

Palin defends qualifications, slaps Obama

ST. PAUL, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Sarah Palin defended her small-town roots and swiped at Democrat Barack Obama during a highly anticipated speech to the Republican convention on Wednesday, ridiculing her critics as “the Washington elite” who did not understand everyday life in America.

In her public debut in the spotlight, John McCain’s choice for vice president came out swinging against Obama and members of the news media who have raised questions about her qualifications.

Why in the hell are you carrying an article of Sarah Palin’s speech a full HOUR before she has said a single word?! Do you people have a time machine or something? Why not call the election, NOW?!

J.J.

She hasn’t given the speech yet. Your reporter must be psychic.

R.W.

This seemed to confuse a number of readers. We are not psychic. Our story said in the third paragraph that the quotes came from remarks prepared for delivery at the convention. Perhaps it could have gone a bit higher in the story: GBU Editor

REUTERS photo by Robert Galbraith

Do you believe that your Sarah Palin story really was fair and balanced and told both sides? Or just trash?

I have ordered my companies to remove and not replace your magazine in any of our offices.

F.S.

I believe you’re mistaking us for somebody who publishes a news magazine: GBU Editor

REUTERS photo by Brian Snyder

Your “Factbox” for John McCain lists his age as 70 when in fact he turned 72 on Friday.

G.L.

Right. We corrected: GBU Editor

Tech fair makes room for refrigerators and washers

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - More than 60 years after its debut, one of the world’s oldest consumer electronics fairs is venturing into new territory this week by making room to showcase washers, dryers, stoves and other household appliances.

At the IFA fair in Berlin — where former German Chancellor Willy Brandt turned on the world’s first color TV in 1967 — television sets remain a major attraction but they may come built into a refrigerator.

The article on the german tech fair states that it was where Willy Brandt “turned on the worlds first color television” in 1967. I wonder then what it was I was watching in 1959 here in the U.S. A color TV that had been available since 1954.

P.G.

We should have said GERMANY’S first color television. We corrected: GBU Editor

 REUTERS photo by Fabrizio Bensch

Three years after Katrina, Gulf ports at risk

By Kathy Finn

PORT FOURCHON, Louisiana (Reuters) - The drive south from New Orleans toward the Gulf of Mexico is a study in coastal vulnerability.

As the road winds through marshes and skirts bayous, dry land grows sparser by the mile.

I think the article by Kathy Finn is very important. It is the type of work that helps readers be ahead of the story rather than driven by it.

Well done.

J.S.P.

Thank you: GBU Editor

 REUTER photo by Sean Gardner

U.S. juggernaut sets up Spain in basketball final

Thanks so much for printing the outcome of the basketball game I was going to watch tonight. No point in watching it now, is there? Guess I’d better avoid your website in the future.

Fred A.

We’ve received several e-mails similar to this one in the course of the Beijing Olympics.

I hear what you’re saying, but we offer our readers timely coverage of the Olympics as a news event, and that includes putting major news in our headlines.

As I write this reply, the AP’s lead online sports headline is US beats Argentina, shoots for gold Sunday. Likewise, the New York Times online headline says U.S. Men’s Basketball Advances to Final, and the Washington Post tells us U.S. Beats Argentina, Reaches Gold Medal Game. MSNBC carried it live. So clearly it’s very difficult to avoid learning this news, whether you come to reuters.com or not: GBU Editor

REUTERS photo by Lucy Nicholson

Key West weathers tropical storm with nonchalance

KEY WEST, Fla., Aug 18 (Reuters) - As Tropical Storm Fay buffeted Key West on Monday, islanders displayed the nonchalance that has earned the southernmost U.S. city its laid-back reputation.

Key West is NOT the southernmost U.S. city. It is the southernmost CONTINENTAL U.S. city - check the map for Hawaii. This is a freshman geography mistake - shame on the author and the fact checkers….

J.F.

A number of readers noticed this one. We corrected: GBU Editor

REUTERS James E. Brooks/U.S. Navy photo/Handout

Study says most corporations pay no U.S. income taxes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Most U.S. and foreign corporations doing business in the United States avoid paying any federal income taxes, despite trillions of dollars worth of sales, a government study released on Tuesday said.

The Government Accountability Office said 72 percent of all foreign corporations and about 57 percent of U.S. companies doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes for at least one year between 1998 and 2005.

Poor reporting and choice of headlines. If you read the article it is obvious your headline is not true, as the article says “paid no federal income taxes for AT LEAST ONE YEAR BETWEEN 1998 and 2005.”

D.D. .

The headline uses present tense, as if right now this is the case. But within just two lines it becomes clear that the actual story is that most corporations have had one or more years from ‘99-’05 for which they reported zero or negative income, meaning they paid no U.S. income tax that year. And for about half those companies, this happened two or more years during that period.

Using present tense (”pay” not “paid”) unambiguously implies that it’s currently happening. But the stats show this no-income situation applies to between 25% and 30% of corporations in any given year. That’s a VERY FAR cry from “most corporations”.

Ezekiel

Several readers felt this headline did not fairly represent the results of the study: GBU Editor 

 REUTERS photo by Kevin Lamarque

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(R-L) Tom James, Steve Williams, Pete Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge of Britain prepare to compete before the men’s four semifinal rowing competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in Shunyi Rowing-Canoeing Park August 13, 2008. REUTERS/Aly Song

The photograph published is of the French coxless four and not the British as stated.

J.M.Q.

Yes, the blades of the oars should have been a tip-off. We corrected: GBU Editor

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