The New York Times recently investigated the internet phenomenon known as Rickrolling—the fun-for-all-ages game of tricking people into clicking on a link that takes them to a Youtube clip of unlikely pop star Rick Astley singing his greatest hit, "Never Gonna Give You Up"—but they didn't do a very thorough job, considering that they were unable to track down Mr. Astley himself for comment (the LA Times found Rick and ran a lengthy, entertaining interview). They were also duped by a hoax clip of a "prankster" interrupting a college basketball game dressed as Astley and lip-synching the song. That performance, it turns out, happened before four different games, none of them the one the Times identified, and was not a halftime prank. And so, today, the Grey Lady runs a Rickrolling correction:

Jeff Bercovici's deleted blog post on Portfolio.com-on the tussles between fellow Conde Nast writer, Malcolm Gladwell, and the fact-checkers-has reappeared again. Apparently, it wasn't so much censored as benched, pending additional reporting. So, what has Bercovici's additional reporting uncovered? Gladwell, author of anecdotally rich best-sellers such as The Tipping Point, now denies ignoring a fact-checker's warnings at the New Yorker, where he is a contributor. That would be the end of it, except Gladwell's credibility is shot. The pop science writer boasts that he inserts nonsense into articles for his own amusement, but Gladwell is inaccurate even in regard to his inaccuracies. His denial might be a denial; or it could just be another elaborate prank within a prank.

For modern actors who have long suspected the Times of having a classical theater bias, now there is irrefutable proof. A Q & A with a director and cast member from the Classical Stage Company was conducted by a freelancer who is also on the Classic Stage company's board. Rosemarie Tichler, the writer who did the piece, told the New York Times about her affiliation, which her editor didn't notice. God, The Times will go to any length to push their classical theater agenda. [Fishbowl NY]

Incoming New York governor David Paterson will indeed be state's first black governor, but reports that he will be the nation's first blind governor neglect the amazing true story of American hero Bob Riley, the blind man who was president of Arkansas for 11 days in 1975, until it was revealed that the charmingly absent-minded old man had just accidentally stumbled into the governor's office while walking his dog around a construction site without wearing his glasses. Riley remained the head of state, convinced he was attending an amusing vaudeville show, until he was retrieved by his nephew Waldo. [Wonkette]

So it turns out Los Angeles skies were not cleared of planes for Britney Spears and her inevitable return to the hospital. The Federal Aviation Administration, which would know about such things, has written in with a correction. Along with website the Superficial, People quoted a source saying authorities would "block off the road and airspace" for Spears' hospital trip but it turns out only local authorities were involved. In other words, our government is almost as ill-prepared for a celebrity breakdown as it is for other mass emergencies and the smart paparazzi can go ahead and buy a Predator drone or Apache gunship or whatever. FAA email to Gawker after the jump.

San Antonio's Express-News is concerned about the state of American matrimony. (Under siege, say experts!) To illustrate the front-page story, the Texas newspaper ran pictures of Nell and Wallace Crain: one on their wedding day, and now, as a loving elderly couple, still together after 67 years. The secret: a commitment to stay "married until death", according to the photo caption. Unfortunately, death had indeed broken their bond, unbeknownst to the Express-News' editors. Nell and Wallace Crain, interviewed last summer, died within two weeks of eachother, around Thanksgiving. The author of the piece, J. Michael Parker, explained: "I didn't feel like Mr. Crain's comments needed updating." The Express-News' abject correction, and apology, after the jump.

I'm no cheerleader for this here website—after all, I quit! Monday is my last day! Even so, I can't help but be irritated when Real Media Outlets write total lies about Gawker—because it's just bad journalism. Why, they're worse than bloggers!

We've been asked to clarify an earlier post about jailed wild-girl exploiter Joe Francis, who managed not to make himself look good in the New York Times Styles section this weekend in spite of being given every opportunity to do so. We'd suggested that publicist Mike Sitrick was responsible for the good placement—but 5W Public Relations flack Ronn Torrosian begs to differ: "please call gawker let them know you rep him not mike that got him the piece in NY times. Fix it and let him know," reads an email from Ronn's assistant Katrina, forwarded to us (on purpose? Maybe!) by Ronn.

Regret The Error has posted its annual year-end best media errors and corrections list, and our favorite is this one, from Slate: "In the May 25 'Explainer,' Michelle Tsai asserted that an eight ball is about 10 lines of cocaine. While the size of a line depends on personal preference, most users would divide an eight ball into more than 25 lines."

Many readers expressed incredulity regarding the case of two Williamsburg residents who were burgled while they were "working" at home. ("Apparently, the victims — a 24-year-old woman and 26-year-old man — were working so hard that they failed to notice that someone had broken into their apartment and stolen a Toshiba laptop, a Sony Playstation 2, an iPod, an iMac, a digital camera, a mini-disc recorder, and a video iPod.") What exactly were they doing? Each other? Drugs? How did they not notice? Were they listening to their iPod? (No, it was stolen!) Turns out that the simplest answer is indeed the most obvious!

Yesterday when we mentioned that Marquee founder Jason Strauss looks more and more like Carson Daly every excruciating second, it was because that picture was miscaptioned and actually was of Carson Daly. Jason Strauss is someone else entirely and less immediately crazy-looking. THANK YOU, GOD.

So the tussle between the Details freelancer and Ben Affleck gets murkier. Says a spokesperson about the mag's correction, which says the piece quotes Affleck saying things he did not say: "Statements taken out of context.... Nothing fabricated." Well, they can't have it both ways. The New York Observer asks: "Will Details run a correction of their correction?"

Emily and Michelle happened into our life at the right moment. We met them just the other day through Craigslist, where they wondered aloud why no one would live with them in their Astoria apartment. They threw a potluck dinner for potential renters and one potential renter, Peter W. Knox sent us a report. Now we hear what really went down from Emily and Michelle themselves.

A correction in today's New York Times addressed their juxtaposition, either accidentally or idiotically, of a photo of a Philadelphia Inquirer and Philly Daily News delivery truck with a business piece on why declining circulation isn't always a bad thing. "Neither The Inquirer nor The Daily News was mentioned in the article, and the photograph was an inappropriate illustration for it." Daily News circ was down 2.3% this year.

Correction of the day, from the Times coverage of the Isiah Thomas sexual harassment verdict: "An earlier version of this article misstated the location of a 2005 sexual encounter between Stephon Marbury of the Knicks and a team intern. Marbury testified that it took place in his truck, not in the trunk of his car." [NYT]

"We misspelled the word misspelled twice, as mispelled, in the Corrections and clarifications column on September 26, page 30." [Guardian]

"PROTESTING PLANS by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center attack site, the New York Daily News told the Iranian president in a headline to "Go to Hell." A Politics & Economics article yesterday incorrectly said the headline was in the New York Post." Nice to see the folks at the Wall Street Journal trying to give credit to their new fellow employees at the Post. Given the way the News has been destroying its competition in the front-page outrage department, the Post needs all the help it can get. [WSJ]

When Times TV critic Virginia Heffernan wrote that "'K-Ville' opens with a silly in- medias-res chase sequence—meant, presumably, to grab you by the lapels—which turns out to be a dream," she had no idea how in medias res she really was: "A television review yesterday about 'K-Ville,' which had its premiere on Fox last night, critiqued the wrong episode. It was about next week's show, not last night's premiere." [NYT]

"A picture caption in some copies yesterday about residents in Canyon, Calif., who bought their own pay phone misspelled the given name and the surname of the woman shown using the telephone. She is Philippa W. Heathcock, not Philiooa W. Heartcock." [NYT]

Blogger Matthew Baldwin is sick and tired of the media misusing the word "hoax." A few days back, MSNBC Googled up a parody blog and included its fake quotes from Al Sharpton in their story on dog-killing former NFL quarterback Michael Vick. (Like Al Sharpton would have been so hard for the reporter to get on the phone—the trouble is getting Al Sharpton not on the phone! It's like phones come with Al Sharpton in them!) And so they ran a correction and said "MSNBC.com has determined that the blog is a hoax." Actually, no. No it's not!