Apology, Clarification, Correction...

If one considers the Internet to be the world's biggest library, then it's sometimes worthwhile going over to the 'newspaper' section.

Perhaps, more specifically, the newspaper corrections section.

We've all made mistakes, journalists included and those errors can stem from a unseen typo (and now, spellcheckers won't always pick them up), to more serious errors of fact stemming from a misheard quote in an interview or simply plain ignorance.

Most journalists just cross their fingers and hope the error either go unnoticed or unremarked on.

If it doesn't, they also hope that the angry person at the other end of the phone can be placated (who knew there were so many ways of spelling Smith, um Smyth, er Smithe, oops sorry, Smythe)?

The most serious types of errors require an apology, sometimes referred to as 'clarifications' (we personally believe newspapers don't use word 'apology' to avoid legal admissions).

But thanks to the wonders of the Internet, those apologies, corrections, clarifications are forever archived for us to view. Here's our favourite 11 from from web site 11 Points:

The Ottawa Citizen and Southam News wish to apologize for our apology to Mark Steyn, published Oct. 22. In correcting the incorrect statements about Mr. Steyn published Oct. 15, we incorrectly published the incorrect correction. We accept and regret that our original regrets were unacceptable and we apologize to Mr. Steyn for any distress caused by our previous apology.

Oops...