Our newsletter says a councillor voted against a motion, but the record says abstained. How do I fix it?
Politics"Are you going to correct this before the next issue?" the councillor asked. I had written our neighbourhood newsletter's account of a contentious vote, and the headline said he opposed the motion.
In this fictional meeting, the published vote table lists him as abstaining. My notes record him saying he couldn't support the wording without an amendment. I treated that as a vote against it. Nobody on the volunteer editing team checked the table before we emailed the issue.
Another councillor has since quoted our headline in a political post. Our editor thinks we should quietly fix the online version because a prominent correction will make the newsletter look unreliable. The councillor who complained wants an apology and a sentence saying he supported the project's aims. I have his meeting remarks, but they don't seem that clear.
I can see a definite mistake in how I described the recorded vote. I'm less sure that we should replace it with the account he now prefers. The next issue is a week away, and I don't know how many readers will return to the webpage.
How do we correct the specific error promptly, without turning the correction into his statement or guessing why he abstained? Should the emailed readers get a separate correction?
The newsletter, councillors and vote record are fictional.