The speech that didn't happen

On Wednesday, Aug. 29, the Detroit Free Press led Page 1A with a story about Chrysler's new CEO Bob Nardelli under a headline that said Nardelli leaps into action at Chrysler. The story said Nardelli addressed more than 300 senior executives at an all-day meeting Tuesday in Dearborn. The problem: Nardelli was sick on Tuesday and postponed his meeting with Chrysler execs. The Freep reported as fact that the speech had happened - but it didn't. On Thursday, the newspaper ran a correction, which it also attached to its online version of the story. The Free Press' correction didn't explain how the mistake happened or what safeguards the newspaper might take to ensure it wouldn't happen again. The credibility gaffe was reported in the popular Romenesko column on the Poynter Institute site.

What do you think? What should the reporter and his editors have done to prevent the mistake? Did it hurt the newspaper's credibility? Should the paper have handled the follow-up any differently? Have similar situations hurt the credibility of newspapers before?

Here is how Detroit's other daily handled the story the next day.