Plain Dealer journalistic integrity update: No new corrections, another error

In the wake of having been notified by Buckeye Firearms Association that three news stories in the past week have contained significant errors, the Cleveland Plain Dealer has thus far refused to answer to the Indictment of Cleveland Plain Dealer - Violation of Journalist Code of Ethics.

A href="http://www.cleveland.com/corrections/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/other/1177057847243560.xml&coll=2" target="_blank">correction has only been issued for one out of the four errors previously detailed on this website. Further, the online edition of that story (as well as the three others containing errors) remains incorrect, apparently in perpetuity.

Meanwhile, the Plain Dealer has published another story on Ohio gun laws, and made yet another error!

Click 'Read More' for details.

From a story by John Caniglia, entitled href="http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/117757668374050.xml&coll=2" target="_blank">"Who's carrying a gun? Almost anyone may be":

"In March, state lawmakers changed gun laws to allow license holders to carry guns concealed in their cars in locked containers or holsters. Previously, license holders had to have the weapons in plain sight."

In fact, it has been legal for Ohio CHL-holders to carry their firearm in a locked container since the law first passed in 2004. The change this year
amended the wording to "closed" container (which does not have to be locked if kept in "plain sight"), allowing, for instance, women to keep their firearms in their purses while traveling.

Volunteers at Buckeye Firearms
Association have repeatedly offered to act as fact-checkers for Plain Dealer reporters preparing news stories that include information on gun laws, but thus far, no one has even
bothered to reply.

Meanwhile, four stories in the past week have contained a total of five blatant errors that could have been easily
fact-checked and corrected before going to print. One of the stories
credited FIVE people in the Plain Dealer news department as working on it, and it
still contained a significant error, which could have been avoided had even one of the five bothered to research the paper's own archived stories.

And so to recap the performance of the Plain Dealer's coverage of gun-related news - 8 days, 4 stories, 5 errors... and 1 partial correction.

Readers deserve far better.

Related Stories:
Plain Dealer Abandons Journalistic Ideals in Coverage of Self-Defense News

Ohio CHL-holder protects self with gun; lazy media buys lie that it's a "first"