Great Story… Just not factual.

You hear it all the time, all the time. People reading an article resulting from a recent interview they did and are amazed that the information they gave during the interview is so different from what they see in print. This past week I was interviewed by the Temple Daily Telegram. Nice lady. The story came out this morning. Great story, nice and long. But before it was published, I had asked her to let me read it first. I wanted to proof the information, not the writing. Just the facts and quotes. So the story came out this morning without me ever seeing it and it has many misquotes and outright errors, none that would hurt anyone, fortunately.

You can find the story here.

Here are a few of the goofs:

“Gujjar region of India” – The Gujjars are a ethnic group not a region. (Ironically, I just Googled the word “Gujjar” to get the Wikipedia link and found my old CompuServe website from 1997 still online with a lot of information on these people.) They are all over North India. The Muslim Gujjars are primarily in Northern U.P. and Kashmir as well as in Northern Pakistan.

“One of his Gujjar photos is of a woman kneeling before a brightly colored mosque.” – This is of a Kashmiri woman at Shaw Hamadan, in Srinagar. She is not a Gujjar.

“Another Gujjar photo shows a pair of Indian newlyweds on their honeymoon in India.” – Not sure how this coupe became Gujjars. They are a “Indian” couple in New Delhi on their honeymoon. The image was taken at the Qutub Minar monument site, not a restaurant.

“Waco is where he met his wife.” – I met my wife in California, while I was living in Waco.

“Santa took care of that problem and gave him a digital camera.” – Santa did not give me my first digital camera. I don’t even like Santa, he would not have given me a present, I am way too naughty for that. I bought the camera myself.

“In Dec. 2004, the BBC (British Broadcasting Co.) bought rights to Brandon’s photographic coverage of the infamous tsunami that killed thousands.” – This is completely wrong. It was the Kashmir earthquake, not the tsunami and they did not buy the rights, but wanted them royalty free.

There were other minor errors, but none worth mentioning. Honesty, I love the exposure, but couldn’t the author have taken the time to send me a copy of the article to check the facts. I guess I need to shut up and remember, “any press is good press.”