It often takes me a few days to catch up to the weekend papers, so today, on glancing at the New York Times of Saturday, April 21, I was glad to see they’d featured Bob Dylan’s eulogy for Levon Helm that I also cited on this blog in Reflecting on The Band’s Break-up and Levon’s Death. Oddly, with the benefit of time passing, I often discover mistakes in the paper days after publication, as happened some months ago with Times coverage of the Romneys’ horses. Sure enough, as I began to read last Saturday’s story I was surprised to see that the photograph of Dylan and The Band they used with their item didn’t actually include Levon in it. Clearly, others had noticed the error before me, because on the Times website I’ve found this correction accompanying the article where the erroneous photo has been removed.
Because of an editing error, a report in the “Arts, Briefly” column on Saturday about Bob Dylan’s recollections of collaborating with Levon Helm, the drummer and singer who died last week at 71, erroneously included Mr. Helm among the musicians pictured at a 1974 performance. Another drummer, who was not identified, was shown with the group; Mr. Helm was not pictured.

Richard Manuel (l.), Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Bob Dylan--Levon Helm, Garth Hudson not pictured
As corrections too often do, this one piles error on top of error, with the reference to “another drummer” an additional mistake. First, the bearded person seated in a hat, who the Times wanted readers at first to incorrectly assume was Levon, is not some anonymous walk-on, but actually Richard Manuel, member of The Band going back to their earliest days when they were called The Hawks. Manuel ordinarily played piano (the instrument he is actually seated at in the Times photo), but would slide over to drums when Levon played mandolin or guitar. Unfortunately, as can be seen in my photos of the item, it had no caption at all, and the Times didn’t ID any of the musicians, apparently content to let readers infer that Levon Helm was in the shot. Had the brief carried a caption this error-riddled series of cascading confusions might’ve never been set in motion, or maybe it would have anyway, since it’s obvious that whoever was editing this section of the paper knew little about The Band. To sum it up, the person vaguely implied in the Times brief to be Levon was not him, and the person described in the correction was not at the drums in the photo, but at the piano. Presumably, Levon was on stage, seated at his drum kit, out of the frame of Times photographer Larry Morris’s lens, or was cropped out of the image at some point.
As journalist and author Craig Silverman points out in his fine book, Regret the Error, which I edited and published with him in 2008, media errors are often quite avoidable, and the Times‘ multiple failures here surely fall into that category. As shown in the extensive coverage of Levon’s terminal illness and death, it is clear that there are scores of photos of Bob Dylan and The Band that include him, such as the one shown below from the Los Angeles Times. It’s a pity they couldn’t have found one like it that included Levon, either in the print edition, or at worst, even later, online where no photo now appears. An error in an obituary or a eulogy is one of the most serious mistakes a media outfit can make, and the Times royally messed up here. They owe their readers better, both in print, and online.

Bob Dylan (counter-clockwise from bottom left), Levon Helm (at drums), Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, Robbie Robertson. (Garth Hudson
Browse by Month:
Browse by Category:
- Art, Film, Photography & Design
- Bicycling
- Books & Writing
- Canada
- Food & Spirits
- Media, Blogging, Internet
- Music, Bands & Radio
- News, Politics & History
- Personal History, Family, Friends, Education, Travels
- Philip Turner's Books & Writing
- Publishing & Bookselling
- Sports
- Technology, Science & Computers
- Urban Life & New York City
Browse by Tag:
"Tuesdays at Mona's"
#caponebowl
#fridayreads
#IdleNoMore
#obama2012
#OWS
#R3NYNJ
#RNC
#SmallBizSat
#WorldRadioDay
'the dirty war'
9/11
11th Street Bar
2012 election
2012 Presidential Campaign
@GoogleLocaLNYC
A.B. Guthrie
ABC News
Abe Reles
Abigail Tucker
abolition
Abraham Lincoln
Abrams Books
abstract expressionism
Abu Ghraib
accountability
ACLU
Acoustic Research
Active Space
Adele Stan
A Diary of the Century
Adorno Prize
Adrian Glynn
adventure fiction
Adventures in Solitude
A Face in the Crowd
Affordable Care Act
Afro-Jersey
Ahead of Time
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
Alana Wilcox
Alan Bisbort
Alan Lomax
Alaska
Albert Eisenstaedt
albinism
album cover art
Alexander Gardner
Alexander Moulton
Alexandra Styron
Alex Shoumatoff
Al Jaffe
Allah-Las
Al Pacino
Alternative education
AlterNet
Amazon
amazon.com
Ambassador Joseph Wilson
American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression
American Copy Editors Society
American history
Amerind
Ami Greko
Amity Beach
Amy Helm
Ana Egge
Andrew Rasiej
Andrew Solomon
Andrew Sullivan
Andy Cobb
Andy Griffith
Andy MacMillan
Anne Trubek
Ann Romney
Antarctica
anthropology
antiques
Antonin Scalia
AP
Arcade Fire
archaeology
Archer Mayor
Argentina
Ari Fleischer
Arkells
Arlene's Grocery
Arthur Sulzberger
Art Modell
Artur Davis
Ascent of the A-Word
As It Happens
Associated Press
Associate Press
Association of American Publishers
Attawapiskat
Audubon
Aung San Suu Kyi
author discoverability
Auto bailout
Auto industry rescue
Avalon Publishing Group
B. Traven
Babe Ruth
Bain and Company
Bain Capital
bait & switch
Band of Horses
Bank of America
bankruptcy
Banned Books Week
Barack Obama
Bard Graduate Center
Barnes & Noble
Barney Rosset
Barry Feinstein
baseball
baseball books
Baseball Project
BEA
Beate Sirota Gordon
Beinecke Library
Bellevue Literary Press
Bell House
Ben Fountain
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin Wheeler
Ben Katchor
Ben Wheeler
Bernie Gunther series
Berrett-Koehler Publishers
bicycling
Bilbo Baggins
Bill& Melinda Gates Foundation
Bill Bryon
Bill Clinton
Billy Wilder
Bird on a Wire
birth control
Blackie and the Rodeo Kings
Blackwell's Bookshop
Bloomberg Businessweek
Blue Rider Press
BMF Media Group
BN Review
Bob Delaney
Bob Dylan
Bob Murray
Bodleian Library
BOMB
Boni & Liveright
book bloggers
Book Camp
book collecting
Book Court
Book Expo America
Book proposals
books
bookselling
Books into Browsers
bookstores
book writing
Bowery Ballroom
Bowery Electric
boxing
Boy Kings of Texas
bpNichol
Brad Blog
Bretton Woods
Brian Beutler
Brian Donlevy
Brian Lamb
Brian O'Leary
bridges
Bridge School
British Library
Brooklyn
Brooklyn Folk Festival
Bruce Bartlett
Bryant Park
Budd Schulberg
bullying
Burma
Bushwick Open Studios
Buzzfeed.com
byliner.com
C-Span
Cadence Weapon
Calvin Reid
Canada
Canada Day
Canada Reads
Canadian Blast
Canadian indie music
Canadian literature
Cape Fear
Capital One Bowl
Capitol Records
Cara Posey
Carl Franzen
Carl Lennertz
Carlton Reid
Carmen Aguirre
Carol Anshaw
Carroll & Graf
Carroll&Graf
Carroll & Graf Publishers
Casey Sherman
catholic bishops
Catl
CBC
CBC Q
CBC Radio 3
CBC Radio One
CBC TV
CBS News
censorship
Center for Responsive Politics
Chad Childers
Chaka Khan
Change the Ratio
Charles Darwin
Charles M. Blow
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Charles Sheeler
Chaw Ei Theirn
Chester Brown
Chic Gamine
Chief Theresa Spence
child pornography
child soldiers
China
Chinua Achebe
Chris Bohjalian
Chris Christie
Chris Claremont
Chris Fischbach
Chris Kubicka
Christopher Frizzelle
Christopher Hitchens
Chuck Hagel
Chuck Palahniuk
CIA
Circle Line
circus
Circus art
Citizens United
City and Colour
City Museum of New York
Civil War
CJL0 1690 AM
Claire McCaskill
Cleveland
Cleveland Browns
Cleveland Cavaliers
Cleveland Indians
Cleveland music scene
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Clifton Hicks Jerrod Paxton
climate change
Clint Eastwood
Clovis theory
CMJ Music Marathon
CNBC
CNN
co-opetition
Coach House Books
coexistence
Coffee House Press
Colin Linden
Colin Powell
Collinson Owen
Colm Meaney
ColorLines: News for Action
Columbia
Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
Comic NY
comics
Comics Weekly
communion
Confessions of an Economic Hitman
Confessions of Nat Turner
Congregation B'Nai Jeshurun
Connie Schultz
context.
Cornbread Mafia
Craig Silverman
Crazy Horse
Critical Mass blog
Cross-country travels
CT
Cuff the Duke
CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
curation
Cursor
customer activism
D.A. Powell
Daily Beast
Dakota Tavern
Dalia Lithwick
Dallas Good
Dan Fesperman
Dan Froomkin
Dan Gillmor
Daniel Lanois
Daniel Menaker
Daniel Pearl
Danny Glover
Danny Palumbo
Danny Whitten
Dave Carroll
Dave Cullen
David Barton
David Bernstein
David Blomquist
David Corn
David Dunlap
David Gergen
David Irving
David Petraeus
David Plouffe
David Roche
David Wheeler
David Wilk
DC Comics
Dead Run
Deadspin
Dean Haspiel
Dean Heller
death penalty
Death Takes a Holiday
Deep-sea thermal vents
Deep Dark Woods
Degrassi Jr. High
Democratic National Committee
Democratic Underground
Denise Campbell
Department of Justice
depression
Derek McCormack
Derf Backderf
design
Desiline Victor
Des Moines Register
Desmond Morris
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Dick Cheney
Digital Book World
discoverability
disemployment
DNAinfo.comNewYork
DNC
Dodge Fiasco
Dog Day Afternoon
dogs
DOJ
Domingo Martinez
Donald E. Westlake
Donald Trump
Donald Westlake
Douglas & McIntyre
Douglas&McIntyre
Downtown Abbey
Dr. Joseph Greenberg
Dr. Paul Epstein
Drawn & Quarterly
Dreams From My Father
Dream Syndicate
dressage
Drudge Report
Duke Ellington
Dumpstaphunk
Dutton
E.B. White
Earl I. Turner
Earl Turner
Earth Institute
easing eye strain
ebooks
economic sanctions
Ed Caesar
Edith Wharton
editors
Ed Kennedy
Ed Kilgore
Edmund Elmaleh
education
Edward Hoagland
Edward Robb Ellis
Edward Steichen
Edward Thorp Gallery
Edwin Black
Elaine Dewar
Elderhostel
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Elephant Stone