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# Name and shame
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/name-and-shame/
- Published: 2007-10-22T15:10:26.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:37:55.000Z
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:31

**David Hayes (London,** [**openDemocracy**](http://www.opendemocracy.net/)**):** No one ever went bankrupt making a bet on the likelihood of finding obvious errors every day in the British print media. By the same token, everyone who works at a fast pace in the area of global current-affairs analysis and commentary knows that perfect accuracy is a professional commitment that in practice cannot always be met.

A publication's engine-room thus deserves from the outside a modicum of generous understanding to match the discipline within. But with this qualification, it is striking to see the sheer number of routine mistakes that get into print each day - and here, the standards seem if anything looser in the "serious" press than the tabloids.

This past weekend alone, even a cursory reading found Ayaan "Hirshi" Ali (three times) in Charles Moore's diary in the [Spectator](http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/the-week/269986/the-spectators-notes.thtml?ref=opendemocracy.net); Bertie "Aherne" in Paul Bew's [review](http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/books/268821/not-the-place-it-used-to-be.thtml?ref=opendemocracy.net) of Roy Foster's new book in the same magazine; Jonathan "Freeland" in the [Independent](http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this%5Fbritain/article3078904.ece?ref=opendemocracy.net); the Northumbrian village of "Banburgh" in this sad, beautiful, memoir in the [Guardian](http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/the-week/269986/the-spectators-notes.thtml?ref=opendemocracy.net); and John "Erlichman" in John Pilger's encomium to Michael Moore in the [New Statesman](http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/the-week/269986/the-spectators-notes.thtml?ref=opendemocracy.net).

All remain uncorrected in the website versions at the time of writing.

Now, in the spirit of "there but for the grace of God", back to the engine-room...