Ship hired by US military fires warning shots in Gulf  

In March, another U.S. military-chartered ship preparing to cross the Suez Canal fired warning shots at a small boat, killing an Egyptian on board.  

Warning shots? You do not get killed by warning shots. Why do you allow your writers to merely repeat what the military’s public relations officers say? It’s no wonder the Bush administration was able to drag us into war in Iraq as easily as they did. 

Alex

It does seem that when someone is killed, the distinction between warning shots and just plain shooting at the boat is pretty difficult to spot: GBU Editor

U.S. forces free AP photographer in Iraq after 2 yrs

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer working for the Associated Press in Iraq was freed from U.S. military custody on Wednesday after being held without charge for two years, the news agency said.

Your headline should have read, “U.S. forces release AP photographer in Iraq after 2 years.” Funny how this small change makes what really happen so much clearer. Was this “Spin” to obscure the real facts, or an oversight?

Bill S. An oversight, and you make a fair point. Our original headline was ambiguous, and readers could have concluded that someone else was holding the photographer until U.S. forces rescued him. We subsequently issued the story with the headline you suggested: GBU Editor

REUTERS photo by Andrea Comas

Young Pennsylvania voters take a shine to Obama

I think a news headline about taking a “shine” to a man of color is considered in poor taste, at best.

Mark S.

Please reseach Black folklore and historical use of the term “Shine” that your use in the same sentence with Sen Obama. I think you will find it, if not inappropriate, at least a pretty odd choice of words.

Tony R. Several readers pointed this out to us. There are vast numbers of people who do not know the slang meaning of the word: “Disparaging and offensive. A black person.”

When our editors became aware of it, the headline was changed: GBU Editor

REUTERS photo by Tim Shaffer

Bush climate plan said too little, too late  

On Wednesday, President George W. Bush unveiled a plan to halt the growth of U.S. emissions by 2025, toughening a previous goal of braking the growth of emissions by 2012. The United States and China are the top emitters. 

I don’t understand how allowing oneself an extra 13 years to achieve what appears to be the same goal is “toughening” it. Is this a typo, or am I misreading it?

Curt H.

Several readers were confused by this. The intended distinction was between HALTING and BRAKING - that is, between stopping and merely slowing - but it doesn’t seem to have been clear enough: GBU Editor

Regarding your video report on the NYC court case, Rowling is pronounced like ‘rolling’, or ‘bowling’, not ‘rao-ling’.

S.Y.S.

Yes, we did this in two separate video reports this week. We’re trying to see that it doesn’t happen again; GBU Editor

Pope Ground Zero prayer seeks terrorists’ redemption

“Turn to your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred.”

I read with interest your article on the heartfelt words of the Pope at 911’s ground zero. I found nothing in the article to substantiate your headline, which implies the Pope was seeking absolution for the 911 terrorists.

1. The Pope makes no reference to the 911 terrorists.

2. There is nothing in the article regarding forgiveness or salvation for those involved.The picture you paint in your headline is skewed given the Pope’s actual words as quoted. Headlines shout the essential meaning of your articles and you appeared to have played fast and easy with the factual content of this particular article.

John E. 

Several readers objected to our leap of faith, so to speak, in interpreting this section of the prayer. Our religion writers stand behind their decision. There is a very interesting ongoing discussion of this very question on getreligion.com. It’s worth reading if you’re interested, but that blog’s editor concludes: ”At first I thought that was a bad headline, but now I think that it does capture the essence of the text.” GBU Editor

REUTERS photo by Max Rossi

Absolut vodka pulls ad showing California in Mexico

Absolut’s blog cite has received more than a thousand comments since the ad campaign was launched a few weeks ago, with many calling for boycotts of the Swedish company.

Correction: “Cite” should be “site.” And, in fact, should not be present at all. Blogs only exist as websites, therefore including the word “site” after the word “blog” is redundant.Nathan

An editing error. We fixed it: GBU Editor

Diamond thong shown to the throng 

Danielle Luminita, a brunette model from Romania, was carried down the runway on the shoulders of two male models wearing only the diamond thong.

Your writer  needs to look at the wording in her article. Two male models were “wearing only the diamond thong”?

Don K.

As several readers noticed, that sentence really needed editing. 

Some readers also noticed the model was called a brunette in the story but seemed to be a blond in the photo. She was indeed a brunette, but she wore a long blond wig to cover her parts that needed to be covered, so we probably shouldn’t have mentioned hair color at all: GBU Editor

REUTERS photo by Vivek Prakash

Schering, Merck Cholesterol Prescriptions Slide

NEW 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

Indonesia left deep imprint on Obama family

“She could enjoy a G&T and a good argument,” said McGlynn.

In this article about Barak Obama and his mother during their time in Indonesia, the writer quotes John McGlynn as saying “She could enjoy a G&T and a good argument.” I think it would have been appropriate to explain what is meant by G&T. Is it “give and take” as in a discussion or,  perhaps, “gin and tonic”?

A good general rule is “Always DYA (define your acronyms)”.

J.F.W.

Yes, we meant gin and tonic, and we should have made that clear: GBU Editor

REUTERS/Obama For America/Handout