How sensitive are newspapers these days about errors? If the response by the Kansas City Star’s sports editor to a glaring error in a recent sports story is any indication, very, very sensitive.

It should be noted that reporters often get in trouble when story errors are pointed out by readers and the newspaper is forced to print a correction. In fact, you can lose your job if too many errors are made.

Savvy PR pros know that demanding a correction to a story can have major consequences. If you want to have an ongoing relationship with a reporter making him/her print a correction for all the world to see is not the way to do it. It would be like you making an accounting error at your company and having it broadcast to the world.

In my book, “Confessions of a Corporate Sycophant” I told the story of where I pointed out to a reporter a major error in a story (he had misspelled the name of my client throughout the article). Rather than demand an immediate correction as my client was demanding, the reporter agreed to write a feature about the client in the future.

It was a win-win. The reporter didn’t have to admit his mistake and my client received a glowing story a few months later.

Malcom Haney is a former Kansas City Star sales employee and admitted golf nut who started the McClatchy-owned paper’s Golf Preview Section. When he picked up the May 8 edition of the Star he was stunned to see the cutline “Jordan Spieth is only 20 and has yet to win on the PGA Tour, but after a tie for second at the Masters, he could be golf’s future star.”

He sent an email to key executives titled: “Pitiful mistake about Jordan Spieth.”

“I have written before about how I feel your coverage of golf could be better, but this is just a bush league mistake,” Haney wrote. “It looks like much of the story was drawn from the wire, but poor research like this certainly reflects a lack of interest and poor attention to detail on the part of your staff.

“Spieth’s win on the PGA Tour last year (John Deere Classic) was a major story. IN FACT, he had to win a tournament to get into The Masters, where he finished 2nd to Bubba Watson. Any sports intern should know that. Then the mistake is compounded in the sixth paragraph where it says ‘Spieth is still searching for his first win on the PGA Tour.’”

Haney closed out his email noting, “As a former employee I am quick to defend the paper to my peers, but I am sure I will be hearing from my golf buddies about this rookie mistake.”

What really surprised Haney was the nasty response by the Star’s spokesperson:

Malcolm,
Yes, the Jordan Spieth mistake is embarrassing, and of course we wish it did not happen.
I’m not sure what you once did here at The Star, but I bristle when someone who used to work at 1729 Grand writes in to chastise us for an error. Did they not happen when you were here? If not, amazing. Because in my twenty years in this business, I’ve seen them occur at every level: weeklies, small dailies, papers like The Star and Sports Illustrated.
We always regret them, but they are a fact of life in the publishing business.
Perhaps we can discuss further on the course some time.

Haney was stunned by the mean-spirited and defensive response, which resulted in a 22-word correction on Page A-2 of the paper today.

“My wording may have been a little strong calling the mistake pitiful…but it was,” Haney told Bottom Line. “I don’t know why he thinks I have any less of a right to point out a mistake because I am an ex-employee.”

So you want to point out an error in a media story? You might want to think long and hard about it-particularly if you are a former employee.