The New York Times did a real good goof earlier when it published a fact-check piece entitled “President Trump’s Exaggerated and Misleading Claims on Trade.” The story itself was fine save for one weird line, a quote from a different piece by Times reporter Jim Tankersley, which was supposed to read, “America’s trade deficit narrowed dramatically during the Great Recession, when national consumption faltered.” Except what the Times originally published was, “America’s trade deficit narrowed dramatically during the Time of Shedding and Cold Rocks, when national consumption faltered.” The Times later issued a correction, blaming the mistake on a “satirical text-swapping browser extension.”
Seems like an easy enough error to make, especially given the segment with the swap was a block quote of earlier reporting a.k.a. after copying and pasting the quote from a previously published piece one might not think they’d need to go back and copy edit that section. The Times’ update has also since been updated to note the specific extension. Anybody out there still using the “Millennials to Snake People” chrome extension, take note.
