The Vancouver Sun's managing editor, Kirk LaPointe, wasn't thrilled with the May 24 edition, according to an e-mail that he sent to staff. “Today's paper is littered with typographical, factual and grammatical errors,” LaPointe wrote. “There are too many to count. It's time to deal with this.”

The Georgia Straight obtained a copy of LaPointe's e-mail, which claimed that editor Patricia Graham's “primary goal” this year for the paper was to improve accuracy. LaPointe mentioned that studies have demonstrated that inaccuracy is the number- one factor undermining trust in a newspaper. He noted that one reader sent an e-mail highlighting three errors in photo captions in the May 24 edition: the word it's instead of its appeared in one cutline; in another, a female wolf was referred to as “he”; and underneath a third picture, an Israeli settler was incorrectly described as a Palestinian.

“If this letter were a rarity, I might be able to respond with a sense of shock and chalk it up to a really bad day,” LaPointe wrote. “But I get letters like this almost every day from readers who believe they care more than we do about the quality of the paper. We insult them with our sloppy mistakes and we lose their hard-earned loyalties when we don't address their concerns.”

He described the Vancouver Sun's editors as “conscientious, hard-working professionals” but suggested that some are “losing focus and diverting attention from the content” at times during the production cycle.

“We all make mistakes in a busy newsroom, but many of our errors are preventable,” LaPointe claimed. “For instance, we are not taking adequate steps to spell-check and proofread before we send pages to Output. We are not comparing spellings of difficult words in cutlines, headlines and text. We are not proofreading pages adequately when there is time before our early deadlines or between editions. And to date there have been no consequences of these preventable mistakes, so a climate has been created that doesn't hold people accountable. We haven't made this a priority.”

LaPointe also warned staff that if a “pattern of preventable mistakes persists”, this will be addressed in “the appropriate way under the collective agreement”.

“For some people, this note will feel uncomfortable,” Lapointe concluded. “For some, this note will be dismissed as another empty gesture. For some, this will be an opportunity again to project blame on others. For others, there might be antipathy involving the mere notion of making people accountable for their actions. But we cannot afford to be held back by those who do not commit to high-quality newspapering. We will not remain complacent about sloppiness any longer.”

In early May, LaPointe e-mailed a message to the Canadian Association of Journalists seeking a “dialogue” with anyone with an “aptitude in copy editing”. He listed his e-mail address as klapointe@png.canwest.com.

SUN'S MIXED CRIME MESSAGES

Regular readers of the Vancouver Sun can't be faulted for feeling confused over the issue of mandatory sentencing. On May 6 in the “Observer” section, writer Peter McKnight cited research in a long article that trashed the Harper government's mandatory minimum sentences for drug traffickers. The headline read: “The sham of mandatory sentences”.

Three weeks later in the “Weekend Review” section, reporter Chad Skelton cited research in a lengthy article to claim that mandatory sentences in the U.S. brought down the crime rate faster than it fell in Canada. The headline read: “Prison does bring down the crime rate”.

Perhaps columnists Barbara Yaffe or Daphne Bramham can weigh in with the tiebreaker in a future Saturday edition of the Sun.

CORUS FIRES MORE STAFF

Corus Entertainment, controlled by the Shaw family, has announced the “reduction” of 14 full-time staff in Vancouver, including the Straight's sports columnist, Jeff Paterson. Corus owns CKNW, 99.3 The Fox, Classic Rock 101, and what was previously known as MOJO Sports Radio 730.

Corus issued a news release announcing that the sports station is being converted into “Continuous Drive Time Traffic and the Best of Talk”. This came less than two months after CKNW fired 12 people, including talk-show host David Berner and veteran news reporters Jason Howe and Leanne Yuzwa. Prior to those layoffs, CKNW lost the contract to broadcast the Vancouver Canucks to Team Sports Radio 1040.

None of Corus's nine directors lives in B.C. The corporation's Toronto-based CEO, John Cassaday, collected more than $1 million in salary, bonus, and other compensation last year. In addition, Cassaday picked up $1,935,000 in “performance-share units”, according to company documents. In the first six months of the fiscal year 2006, Corus Entertainment lost $34.3 million, compared with a profit of $42 million over the same period in 2005.