The National Conference of Editorial Writers created a task force to examine how to handle corrections to syndicated content. Here’s the note NCEW President Kay Semion sent out to members (hat tip: RegretTheError):
I am pleased to announce that NCEW has set up a task force on syndicates to seek answers to our questions of ethics and corrections.
Heading up the panel is Jerry Ausband, retired editorial page editor of Myrtle Beach.
The task force will contact all of the syndicates to go over questions that have been raised on this groupserv and elsewhere. This will allow us to compare how syndicates are set up to deal with issues like those that have come to the forefront this year and also ascertain how we can be effective in correcting factual errors.
Among the questions:
How do you screen columnists and editorial cartoonists?
Do you have an ethics policy?
What policy do you follow if contracted columnists/cartoonists violate standard journalism ethics (regardless of where you have an individual ethics policy)?
Do you have a fact-checking process for columnists? How does it work?
When editorial writers or editors find a factual error in a column or cartoon, what effective means can be used to communicate that error and have a correction made?
