Wired staff writer Marcus Wohlsen is taking it pretty well.
He’s the author of a detailed, fascinating look at the team behind Dropbox, and their big ambitions for the company. Wohlsen is also the source/cause of what will undoubtedly be a contender for Correction of the Year. Appended to the article is this:
Correction appended [2:37 P.M. PST/9/17]: A previous version of this story incorrectly quoted Dropbox co-founder Drew Houston saying “anyone with nipples” instead of “anyone with a pulse.”
Go ahead and read it again. Yes, two very different meanings. You’d think that kind of misquote would be easy to avoid. But it seems Wohlsen had nipples on the brain:
Confirmation bias: I heard what I thought I heard – then I thought I heard it again … aaaaaand I was wrong. #facepalm
— Marcus Wohlsen (@MarcusWohlsen) September 17, 2013
Like I said, he’s being a good sport about it while the correction rockets around Twitter tonight. Joshua Benton of the Nieman Journalism Lab was one of the early folks to draw attention to it. In fact, he liked the correction so much, he made a diagram to illustrate the nipples-versus-pulse demographics:
For anyone not clear on the correction on that Wired article about Dropbox (http://t.co/3IfHD11PJG), I made a chart. pic.twitter.com/QVkGa1xu4U
— Joshua Benton (@jbenton) September 17, 2013
We all clear now?
Wohlsen is doing his part to engage, admitting in one thread on Twitter that he “legitimately blew it” with the misquote, and that he’s okay with being a cautionary tale:
@jbenton if I can serve as a cautionary example, then my first encounter with viral embarrassment shall not have been in vain.
— Marcus Wohlsen (@MarcusWohlsen) September 17, 2013
Meanwhile, enjoy some reactions:
My god this correction, THIS CORRECTION http://t.co/CKFrvj8mUG (via @FamousCeleb)
— John Herrman (@jwherrman) September 17, 2013
The correction at the bottom of this Wired story is unparalleled: http://t.co/GW73WwReon (H/T all of Twitter)
— Andrew Katz (@katz) September 17, 2013
Dept. of hilarious corrections: changing the incorrect quote “anyone with nipples” to “anyone with a pulse.” http://t.co/9jELAu8mhM
— Adam Mann (@adamspacemann) September 17, 2013
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