I am eternally indebted to Journal copy editor Lesa Walter, for it is she that saved me from a headline that would have been remembered in South Dakota media circles far longer than me.

It was on a night in a long string of nights furiously working away on the Journal's copy desk, and the big story of the day was Sen. Tim Johnson's surgery for prostate cancer. In a meeting of word economy forced by newspaper design, it was the lead story of the day in the lead position on the page (upper right, about a column and a half) and it needed to be big, it needed to be bold, and it needed to be accurate.

It ended up all three - and something else.

I began to know something was amiss with the headline when Lesa began snickering, then laughing, the bellowing out loud until tears streamed down her face. Peeking over the partition that separated the desks, I could see she was proofing the front page that I had just finished, so I quickly grabbed my own copy and began reading to see what egregious error I had introduced. Cutlines, nut graphs, subheads, headlines - I just couldn't see it.

So after a bit of persuading, she offered up the gaff: "Look at the lead headline," she told me.

And there it was. Big, bold, accurate, and totally inappropriate: "Johnson surgery successful."

I was saved from that mistake, but I have plenty of others that were significant enough that I have on more than one occasion have the boxes in my office to prepare for my imminent departure.

You see, the problem with newspaper work is that it isn't baseball. As a journalist handling hundreds and even thousands of pieces of information daily, you are bound to screw up more than a few times. And while nobody is perfect, perfection is expected not only in the information printed but in the tone and manner in which it is printed.

The problem is, if you handle 10,000 pieces of information and you screw up something like "Johnson surgery successful," the reflection of the ability of you being able to do your job is seen as lacking (and rightfully so) in the public eye.

Of course, "There's always tomorrow" is the battle cry of all battle tested journalists, and we take heart that we are not alone in our endeavors and that we'll have plenty of chances to redeem ourselves the next day (as long as we don't get fired or the newspaper doesn't go under).

For me, I'm eternally thankful to Ms. Walter and her keen eye for the headline that never made the front page of the Journal. Maybe it wasn't a career saver, but then again …

Anyway, here's a quick reference guide at some memorable gaffs of newspaper and the types of trouble a journalist can find themselves with little work at all.

Dewey defeats Truman

The granddaddy of them all, the Dewey Defeats Truman headline on the cover on the Chicago Daily Tribune is the marker by which all other newspaper errors are measured. It was immortalized not only by that fantastic photo of a smiling Harry S Truman holding it up for all to see, but also in bronze on the corner of St. Joseph Street and Rushmore Road right here in Rapid City.

It always makes me smile a bit when I pass by it on the way into work each morning, and it made me smile even more when the Rapid City Weekly News launched a few years back and used an image of the statue holding up their product. That might not be the kind of parallels you would normally want to create in the public's mind with newspaper, but it seems to have worked for them.

The reason I smile is because like all true journalists, any error of such consequence is acknowledged in the mindset that "There by the grace of God go I."

As for the specifics of how a newspaper got it so wrong on a story so big (although many followed suit in 2000 with the Bush v. Gore election), this explanation on Regret The Error is quite revealing. For years, I had shared with whomever would listen that it was the manner in which they polled (using only people who had telephones, who, in turn, were only the wealthy types) and not when they polled.

It turns out I was wrong. Much of the reason the newspaper got it wrong - and most of the mass media - is that they had been using polls that had been done weeks before the election. Anyway, if you wonder how such a big error is made, read "Happy 60th anniversary, 'Dewey Defeats Truman'" here.

Misspelling its own name

This mistake, also featured on Regret The Error, is more interesting for the spectacular editor's note accompanying the mistake. Now, generally, the newspaper's flag is a piece of art and not typography these days, so the mistake must have been difficult to make.

As for the correction editor's note, I like it. I think if newspapers wrote their corrections more like this, the public might be a little more forgiving. Or at least in a little more humorous mood.

The best in double entendres

The "Johnson" headline falls under the double entendre headline. Sometimes, you kind of shoot for that to catch the reader's attention. Sometimes, it occurs and you wish it hadn't (such as the Johnson headline).

Of course, many headline writers spend too much time working for such headlines and end up missing the point of the article. I was one of those as a copy editor at times, but I've purged most of those desires, thanks in large part to my friends on the copy desk.

Here's a long list of funny headlines, many of which fall into this category.

"He's running"

The "Dewey Defeats Truman" of my era in South Dakota journalism is the Sioux Falls Argus Leader's "He's Running" banner headline that it ran in anticipation of Tom Daschle, then Democratic leader in the U.S. Senate, making announcement that he would seek the party's nomination in the 2004 presidential race against incumbent George Bush.

About the time it hit the front steps of readers in Sioux Falls, Daschle had made his announcement that he would not seek the nomination.

What went wrong?

Argus editor Randall Beck explained the next day. I had trouble tracking down the history of the gaff and Beck's explanation, but the best is on the decidedly anti-Daschle "South Dakota Politics" blog. To see the full post, scroll down the page after clicking here.

The Scoop That Wasn't

"He's Running," blared the headline in South Dakota's largest paper, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.

Within hours, though, Tom Daschle announced that he wasn't running for president.

How does the senator's home-state paper feel about its "Dewey Defeats Truman" moment? "I have mixed feelings because I never want any reader to think we were careless with the facts or in any way misled them," Editor Randell Beck says. But he insists the story was right - at the time.

The lead in last Tuesday's story: "Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle is telling confidants and friends he will run for president and could make an announcement in South Dakota as early as this weekend, Gannett News Service and the Argus Leader learned Monday. . . . Interviews with nearly a dozen people . . . indicated that Daschle had decided to seek the nation's highest office."

Not much wiggle room there.

"I'm not sure, frankly, that I would do it differently because I don't think we did anything wrong," Beck says. "I trusted and still trust the reporters who gathered the information.

"If I don't sound properly self-flagellating, it's because I'm not. The story was dead-on correct and I slept like a baby. Yes, when you read it it was wrong. I understand people being upset with us. Damn, we're human."

The error made national news, including CNN's Reliable Sources. This kind of error is as much process as it is the desire to beat the competition. With Daschle in the limelight at the time, national media and even state media (even our political reporter at the time, Denise Ross - now of hoghouseblog.com - had stepped up the pressure by tracking Daschle's decision process), the Argus certainly was pressing to get the story.

It reminds me of two important things.

No. 1: At some point in your career, you are going to make the biggest mistake of your career. Have compassion on others who are in that moment, but expect little when you make yours. Your level of empathy and understanding should carry you through.

No. 2: If you are doing a story such as this, it might be a good idea to make that last call to the subject of the article and say, "Hey, we're running this story that says you are running for president. Would you like to make a comment?" It might save a little embarrassment.

Our good friend Jay Leno

Good for layman and professional journalists alike, this has easily been the best part of "The Tonight Show" during Jay Leno's tenure on the late night TV talk show.

The Journal has been featured twice on the show, and thankfully, I haven't been involved in either. The first was in the early 2000s when the cover of the TV guide misspelled Tom Brokaw's name as Tim Brokaw. Yes, considering that he is from South Dakota and once owned a few radio stations around town, it probably should have been caught.

The second wasn't for an error but more of an omission of information on a photo taken during a National Guard homecoming. The photo showed a soldier returning home from a yearlong or so deployment to his very pregnant wife. It didn't mention that he had been back at some time during the deployment. It probably should have been considered crucial information.