It’s true that we all make mistakes from time to time. Even us — the perfectionists that make up the staff of The Sampson Independent.
Never was this truer than over the weekend, when we titled our article on Sampson Regional Medical Center’s 75th anniversary ‘A quarter-century of care.’ (insert facepalm emoji here) The mathematicians among us will recognize that 75 years is not a quarter of a century, but three-quarters of a century. Most writers never claim to be very good at math, and we’ll take that excuse.
It’s not really an excuse, however. While it’s true that readers, when looking over a document, will sometimes see what’s supposed to be there rather than what’s actually there, we’re not sure that was the case this time, since it wasn’t simply a misspelling, but the completely wrong term. (again, facepalm)
We could blame the fact that we were in a rush to finish the story because it happened on Friday afternoon and needed to be written before 6 p.m. Friday night to make it into Saturday’s paper. But such is the work of a journalist. We’re used to deadlines and working under pressure.
The simple truth is, we goofed. We took steps to rectify the error as quickly as we discovered it, but the newspaper files had already been loaded onto our press in Lumberton for print. We updated the online version of the story, owned up to the mistake on Facebook and are rerunning the article in this issue so the folks at the hospital can have a corrected print version for their records (and, if people still do those sorts of things, scrapbooks).
The point is, we all make mistakes sometimes. We strive to give our readers the facts, and report everything as accurately as possible. This paper has done so for more than 100 years, and we won’t stop now. Or ever.
When we mess up, we accept it, admit it, do what we can to fix it and move on about our jobs. No one is perfect, however much we may strive for perfection.
We humbly and wholeheartedly apologize for the error, and hope that it did not sully Sampson Regional’s milestone celebration in any way. Remaining an independent hospital for 75 years — three-quarters of a century — is truly something to be proud of. The celebration event covered in the article was undoubtedly a special occasion, with plenty of well-deserved accolades for hospital staff, physicians, administrators and supporters in the community. We did our best to convey that to those who could not attend the event on Friday afternoon. We sincerely hope that we did that, and that SRMC knows how much they are appreciated.
We also would like to thank those of you who responded to the mistake with grace, reminding us that these things happen, instead of ridiculing us like we half-expected from some social media users. Even the person who first pointed out the error was gracious, and said he appreciated the sentiment implied from the headline.
If we don’t say it often enough, thank you, readers — for your understanding that there are fallible human beings beyond the words on a pa; for reading our paper and keeping us in business with your subscriptions, advertising and support; and for engaging with your community and helping us do our jobs every day.
We are here for you and because of you.
The next time something like this happens — and unfortunately, there probably will be a next time — we hope that our readers will be as kind as they were in this instance. In fact, we kind of think you will be.