How do you complainabout newspaper mistakes without sounding like an old person?

How do you complain about newspaper fails without sounding like an old person?

That’s sort of impossible because older people are much more likely to read a newspaper than younger adults.

Now, to the mistake. This recent New York Times’ headline on NATO drew ridicule and scorn. Because, as every journalist should know, NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Sasha Issenberg@sissenberg

Does the @nytimes know what NATO stands for?

2:44 PM · Apr 3, 2026 · 8.08M Views

2.56K Replies · 5.47K Reposts · 47.8K Likes

It was a stupid mistake, but then most errors in newspapers are stupid mistakes. Newspapers frequently misspell names, misidentify public figures and at times regurgitate false reports.

The Gray Lady issued a correction.

Having worked for three dailies, my default reaction is to blame low staffing levels. Overworked people, after all, are more likely to stumble — although even well-staffed outlets screw up, as the above photo illustrates.

Problem with my default reaction: The New York Times has doubled its newsroom staff over the last decade.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

So how do you complain about an egregious errors without sounding like a stuck-in-time oldsters?

A reporter friend who is South of 65 tells me that there’s a solution likely to prevent similar correctible mistakes: Artificial Intelligence. The latest AI, she tells me, should prevent this sort of spectacular blunder.

Oh joy.

Don’t forget to subscribe. That would be a really big mistake.

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