Reuters Blogs

Good, Bad, and Ugly

Reader reaction to Reuters news

May 5th, 2008

Gross Domestic Product

Posted by: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Editor

Exxon profit disappoints despite high oil prices  

exxon-180.jpgExxon posted record earnings of $40.6 billion in 2007, with revenue higher than the gross domestic profit of Turkey, the world’s 17th-largest economy.

What is “gross domestic profit”? Is that something that only a Turkey has?

Hunter

We meant gross domestic product. We corrected: GBU Editor

REUTERS photo by Larry Downing

May 2nd, 2008

The wrong time frame

Posted by: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Editor

Medtronic unit agrees to consent decree with FDA

In September, Medtronic announced plans to eliminate about 200 jobs in the Physio-Control unit.

This statement is not correct, and has our employees concerned. Is it possible to print a correction? It refers to actions taken in the past, not planned for the future.

Anne

Yes. We subsequently issued a correction making clear that the layoffs took place in March 2007, and were not announced in September 2007. GBU Editor

April 21st, 2008

Who acquired whom?

Posted by: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Editor

AT&T to axe about 4,600 jobs, take charge

AT&T, which posted a 2007 fourth-quarter profit of $3.1 billion, has made several acquisitions in recent years, including SBC Communications and BellSouth.

You’ve got it wrong. AT&T did not acquire SBC (Southwestern Bell Corp.). Quite the opposite. SBC acquired what remained of AT&T. A baby bell ate its parent.

B.M.

We did indeed get it wrong. We corrected our story to make clear that SBC bought AT&T and took its name: GBU Editor

March 25th, 2008

Plowing ahead…

Posted by: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Editor

Schering, Merck Cholesterol Prescriptions Slide

schering-200.gifNEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. prescriptions of Schering-Plow Corp’s cholesterol drugs fell 13 percent in February from a month earlier, following results of a controversial study, the drug maker said on Tuesday.

The drugs, Zetia and Vytorin, fell to 2.77 million total prescriptions in February from 3.19 million in January, Schering-Plow said in a filing. Schering-Plow sells the drugs with Merck & Co in a joint venture.

“Although the prescription data have shown some early signs of stabilization, there are limitations to this prescription data and it is too early to discern any trends,” Schering-Plow said.

It’s amazing that your news agency releases this story with the name Schering-Plough MISSPELLED throughout the article as Schering-Plow. THREE journalists let this error go undetected!  

John Y.

This was not human error - not even sloppy use of a spell-check. The spelling was correct for most of our services, but a renegade program changing British spellings to American spellings kicked in on one news feed. And yes, it was a bit ironic that it happened the week Arthur C. Clarke died: GBU Editor