THE CHRONICLE was forced to issue a lengthy correction to both a news story and staff editorial today:
An Oct. 24 story about a settlement reached in a federal lawsuit against former Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt quoted Harris County Democratic Chair Garry Birnberg using an incorrect figure regarding the number of voter registration applications rejected in 2008. That figure was repeated in a subsequent editorial. According to the county attorney’s office, during 2007 and 2008 the voter registrar’s office rejected 3,518 persons who applied for voter registration cards. During the same period, the tax office also sent 64,036 notices to voters who had submitted incomplete applications; of those, 29,386 registered, according to county records.
Does the newspaper employ any fact-checkers these days? At least they issued a correction, which is not always the case when errors are pointed out.
