Rowback
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According to journalism educator Melvin Mencher, a "rowback is a story that attempts to correct a previous story without indicating that the prior story had been in error or without taking responsibility for the error."
Notes Jack Shafer in Salon, October 13, 2006, "Instead of announcing their errors in judgment, most newspapers reverse course by ignoring the flawed stories in their back pages and taking a new tack—as if those old stories had never been written. Inside the trade, correcting a previous story in a new story without acknowledging the past error is called row-back" [alt. spelling].
Many articles in a deadline-driven, competitive newspaper contain at least one error -- and often quite a few. These can typically be managed in the "corrections" column in subsequent editions or on subsequent days. But if a developing or on-going story is riddled with errors, or based on flawed assumptions, most journalists prefer to take a fresh start and bury their mistakes rather than correct them in a follow-up story.
The practice is particularly pernicious when a newspaper's erroneous coverage actually plays a major role in how the press approaches the on-going story. Yet journalists get no kudos for unforced mea culpas, and even the most prestigious newspapers prefer a rowback to a stand-up to admit a major error.
