The first version of Carter's story began with this: "It appears increasingly likely that David Letterman will surpass his idol Johnny Carson as the longest-running late-night star in television history."
I posted a comment explaining that Dave had already surpassed Johnny last September. To recap what I posted here back then: Johnny: October 1, 1962 to May 22, 1992 = 10,826 days Dave: February 1, 1982 to September 23, 2011 = 10,826 days Dave surpassed Johnny on September 24, 2011. I also posted that I had emailed Carter a week before the milestone and gave him the stats. Never heard back from him then. I then received an e-mail from Noam Cohen, who runs the NYT media blog site. He said that Carter's story was about "seasons milestones, more than actual days," which I thought was a crock, since Carter said nothing of the kind in his description of "longest-running late-night star in television history." He also tried to qualify my stats by mentioning that "both carson and letterman took days off, letterman missed months between gigs, etc." which was true but irrelevant, as I replied that Johnny had some extended hiatuses of his own (his one-man 1980 strike, the 1988 Writers' Strike, which affected both him and Dave). My comment was never posted. Hollywood Reporter then parroted Carter's story, so I posted a comment in there, too. At least HR allowed it in. Then Variety piped in but, to the author's credit, left out the "longest-running" error. Shortly later, Carter's lead was changed to read: "It appears increasingly likely that David Letterman will extend his contract, pushing him past the 30-year run of his idol, Johnny Carson." So "longest-running late-night star in television history" was changed to "pushing [Dave] past the 30-year run..." A little better, though still not accurate: Johnny's run lasted 29 years, 7 months. So even though the Times wouldn't acknowledge that the stats I provided them had established Dave's milestone months earlier than they claim, at least they changed their copy to reflect the new data. Baby steps. On Jan 12, 9:57 pm, Karen Owen <[email protected]> wrote: > http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/arts/television/eddie-brill-and-the... > > http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/deal-would-lead-lett... -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
