We didn’t make THIS mistake today
The Beaumont Enterprise is fortunate to have a great number of faithful and attentive readers. Some of them regularly call the Reader Representative phone line (409-880-0748) to report errors in our paper.
That’s a good thing. Not that we like making errors, but if we make them, we want to know about them as quickly as possible so we can get them corrected. It’s not only part of our responsibility as journalists, but it affects our credibility, and the accuracy of our archives. So, we correct virtually every mistake we are aware of (though we do, occasionally, let an obvious typographical error go uncorrected.)
So, when a reader called to point out an error in the Today in History column on page 2A Wednesday, I listened and took notes attentively. The Highlight in History said: "On Oct. 3, 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November Thanksgiving Day."
The woman caller pointed out that Thanksgiving is NOT the last Thursday in November, which would make it Nov. 29 this year. Thanksgiving is, in fact, celebrated on the FOURTH Thursday in November, which this year is Nov. 22.
By golly, she was right, or at least it appeared that she was right. But we, as journalists, generally don’t take such apparently correct statements as truth without checking our facts.
Turns out we were right and SHE was wrong. President Abraham Lincoln in fact, did proclaim the last Thursday in November to be the national holiday Thanksgiving Day.
That worked perfectly well for 75 years until 1939, when retailers complained to President Franklin D. Roosevelt that the Nov. 30 Thanksgiving holiday that year was going to make the lucrative Christmas shopping season too short, so he moved the date, that year, back to Nov. 23. The change created confusion with everything from school holidays to football games with some states choosing to mark the day on the traditional date and others choosing FDR’s new option. Interestingly, Texas honored both dates.
Confusion followed with a similar situation in 1940 and 1941 (when Thanksgiving was on Nov. 20) until Congress passed a joint resolution in December of 1941, (when it seems as though they might have had more important business) officially making the national holiday the fourth Thursday in November.
It’s a story that provides a great illustration of political power plays and outside influences that some might have thought were only a by-product of our modern political system when, in fact, politics has always been . . . politics.
That’s a good thing. Not that we like making errors, but if we make them, we want to know about them as quickly as possible so we can get them corrected. It’s not only part of our responsibility as journalists, but it affects our credibility, and the accuracy of our archives. So, we correct virtually every mistake we are aware of (though we do, occasionally, let an obvious typographical error go uncorrected.)
So, when a reader called to point out an error in the Today in History column on page 2A Wednesday, I listened and took notes attentively. The Highlight in History said: "On Oct. 3, 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November Thanksgiving Day."
The woman caller pointed out that Thanksgiving is NOT the last Thursday in November, which would make it Nov. 29 this year. Thanksgiving is, in fact, celebrated on the FOURTH Thursday in November, which this year is Nov. 22.
By golly, she was right, or at least it appeared that she was right. But we, as journalists, generally don’t take such apparently correct statements as truth without checking our facts.
Turns out we were right and SHE was wrong. President Abraham Lincoln in fact, did proclaim the last Thursday in November to be the national holiday Thanksgiving Day.
That worked perfectly well for 75 years until 1939, when retailers complained to President Franklin D. Roosevelt that the Nov. 30 Thanksgiving holiday that year was going to make the lucrative Christmas shopping season too short, so he moved the date, that year, back to Nov. 23. The change created confusion with everything from school holidays to football games with some states choosing to mark the day on the traditional date and others choosing FDR’s new option. Interestingly, Texas honored both dates.
Confusion followed with a similar situation in 1940 and 1941 (when Thanksgiving was on Nov. 20) until Congress passed a joint resolution in December of 1941, (when it seems as though they might have had more important business) officially making the national holiday the fourth Thursday in November.
It’s a story that provides a great illustration of political power plays and outside influences that some might have thought were only a by-product of our modern political system when, in fact, politics has always been . . . politics.
posted by Sheila Friedeck at 1:33 PM
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