CMT Blog: Claude Akins

Oops!

There’s nothing more embarrassing as a journalist than to have a story that’s factually incorrect. It damages the credibility of the entire story when readers see any information that is wrong, and it can also cast doubt on other stories in the same media outlet or by the same writer. And yet, journalists are people, so mistakes happen. Been there, done that, lost plenty of sleep over it, too.

One of the funniest stories (to me, probably not to the reporter or to the artists who were in the article) occurred 25 years ago, on Feb. 4. The Oak Ridge Boys’ bass singer, Richard Sterban, decided not to go through with his planned wedding, and a Knoxville paper reported -- erroneously, it turned out -- that he jilted disco queen Donna Summer. The problem was in spelling: Sterban walked away from Donna Summers. The paper missed the “s.”

It was quite a shock to the singer Summer, and probably to her husband, Bruce Sudano. The couple had just had a child the previous August. There was some crossover between the pop and country worlds, because Summer wrote the Dolly Parton hit “Starting Over Again” and the Oaks sang on Paul Simon’s “Slip Slidin’ Away.” However, Sterban and Summer as a couple should have raised a red flag somewhere before the story ran. Sterban, by the way, did marry Donna Summers five years later. They had a child and are still married.

There’ve been other miscues since. NBC reported briefly on Christmas Day 1994 that Chet Atkins had died earlier in the year. The real celebrity in question had the same initials, actor Claude Akins. A fan magazine reported in the fall that “Ready, Set, Don’t Go” singer Miley Cyrus was pregnant. She was not. This month, Slim Whitman was reported in several media outlets to have died. He is, in fact, alive and well and living in Florida, a robust 84 years old.

There are two morals to the story. One, reporters need to always check their facts. Two, if you’re unhappy that you’re not a celebrity, don’t be: Imagine how much time you might have to invest in clearing up the reports of your demise.