How to Correct a Mistake: A Lesson in Journalism from The National Geographic Magazine

From the Editor: A Special Message

In the July 2004 issue of National Geographic, we published a story about elephant hunting in Tanzania by the Barabaig people.

To our profound disappointment, we have learned that we were misled by the photographer and that three of the published photographs do not accurately depict the situation described in the accompanying text.

On pages 78-9 (photograph above), the picture caption reads that hunters are carrying "tusks taken from an elephant found dead in the bush." Soon after the article was published, several readers pointed out that there are faint but unmistakable numbers on the tusk on page 78—which we failed to notice before publishing the story. We now know that the tusks belong to the Tanzania Department of Wildlife. When we asked photographer Gilles Nicolet to explain, he admitted that he himself had supplied the tusks to the hunters after borrowing them from local wildlife authorities.

{read the whole thing}

Bravo! Bravo! It's admissions like yours, and unfortunately non-admissions by others that causes us to question the credibility of our information sources. I'm heartened to see you'all are still to be among the shrinking group of trusted sources!

- PajamaGuy