Great Moments in fact checking: The New Yorker

The New Yorker -- a fine damn magazine even if I ended up reading more cartoons (“it’s a Ziggy!”) than articles when I had a subscription a few years back -- makes a minor error in a story about the Red Sox buying Liverpool FC:

Major League Baseball is a collusive oligopoly in which the team’s owners, with the help of a salary cap, restricted entry, and an exemption from the anti-trust laws, conspire against the players and the fans to enrich themselves.

They had me until “salary cap.” Maybe they had best stick to, I dunno, opera reviews or whatever it is that they do best.

Oh, and a big thumbs up to SportsBusiness Journal’s Daniel Kaplan for being the one to catch this. I didn’t realize it, but apparently SBJ and the New Yorker are sister publications. Takes some big cojones to point out when someone in the company makes a mistake like that.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to write some hyper-critical posts in my personal blog dedicated to the destruction of Jay Leno, Brian Williams, Matt Lauer and Tina Fey.