Journalists who work for The San Diego Union-Tribune speak about 18 languages other than English and Spanish with varying degrees of proficiency. Although there are two staff members who know some Arabic, it was readers who caught the erroneous translation in a Nov. 24 caption with a photo of a boy in the West Bank.
The photo was taken by Union-Tribune photographer Peggy Peattie who last month spent more than three weeks in the Middle East with reporter Dean Calbreath. They interviewed and photographed people in Egypt, Jordan, the West Bank and Israel. Their assignment was to give Union-Tribune readers a glimpse of what it’s like to live in a region torn by conflict and to show how ordinary people deal with the constant threat of terrorism.
The photo in question showed a young boy sitting on a Bethlehem sidewalk near Nativity Square. Behind him was a sign in Arabic. The caption said it read: “We swear for every Palestinian killed, we will kill two Israelis.” The statement also was included in the front-page story, which was accompanied by a map and three other photographs.
Neither Peattie nor Calbreath knows Arabic, so when Peattie photographed the boy, she asked one of the many English-speakers in the vicinity to translate. It was a reasonable way to handle it. Journalists often rely on others for translations when they don’t know the language. Meanwhile, Calbreath, who was standing near her, was listening to someone else translate the many Arabic writings into English. Both heard the same translation from two different people, Peattie said. The problem was the photo was of a different slogan.
Readers who know Arabic or who know someone who does pointed out the incorrect translation in the caption. George Khoury of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee questioned whether the newspaper made an innocent error or intentionally meant to mislead. While none of those who complained translated the words precisely the same way, they all agreed on the gist of it. They read it as a pledge to take revenge for the death of a martyr. The message was signed by the dead man’s friends.
Wrote Michael A. Bernstein, a history professor at UCSD: “I consider myself very fortunate to have, among many good neighbors in University Heights, a number of Palestinian-American friends. Imagine my dismay to learn from them that the caption … was both inaccurate and inflammatory.
“Whatever hopes exist for a just peace in the Middle East conflict are clearly compromised by inaccuracies like these that provoke the worst instincts of all responsible parties — including the United States,” Bernstein wrote.
Editors were provided the translation by the photographer who apparently had no reason to doubt it. In an ideal world, someone who handled the photo would have had enough knowledge of Arabic to question the translation. Had any doubt been raised, editors would have sought to verify it.
Even with the wealth of knowledge of languages in the newsroom, the person most proficient in the language at issue is not always available for consultation when there is a question. That shouldn’t matter, however. Had editors reason to question the translation, they know they could have looked beyond the newsroom for verification.
Reporters don’t write headlines, but when there’s an error in one, they often hear about it first. Headlines are written by copy editors who do the final edit on a story. While they often save reporters from errors, it’s what they don’t catch — or the mistakes they introduce — that get the attention.
Howls of protest came from police officers when a Nov. 25 article on traffic citations identified the person issuing the tickets both as a “cop” and a “policeman” in headlines with the story.
The main headline said: “Scripps Ranch residents fight tickets from new cop on beat.” A secondary headline, known in newspaper jargon as a “deck,” said: “In 3 days, policeman writes 46 citations.”
The problem with those headlines is that a parking enforcement officer is not a police officer. In fact, he or she does not even work for the police department. A parking enforcement officer works for the parking management division of the city’s transportation department.
The story correctly referred to the “parking enforcement officer.” Nowhere in the story is there a reference to a police officer. There shouldn’t have been in the headline, either.
Gina Lubrano’s column commenting on the media appears Mondays. It is the policy of The San Diego Union-Tribune to correct all errors. To discuss accuracy or fairness in the news, please write to Gina Lubrano, readers representative, Box 120191, San Diego, CA 92112-0191, or telephone (619) 293-1525. Send e-mail to:
readers.rep@uniontrib.com.
Copyright 2001 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
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