Oy, do we make errors — 150 in all during 2003. And those were only the ones we knew about so we could run corrections in the newspaper.

The number 150 is not an approximation. That is the exact number of corrections we had during the past year. It would be a nice, round figure, except there is nothing nice about making a factual mistake in the newspaper — unless, of course, it's that we own up to our errors.

In 2002, we ran 82 corrections. That means in 2003, we had 45 percent more than in the previous year.

But who's counting.

Well, actually, I am, with an assist from our diligent librarian, Deb McCaffery.

Like every other editor (I haven't actually spoken with every other editor, mind you, but I think I have their proxy on this matter), I hate errors in my newspaper.

Most of them are our fault. Maybe we misidentified someone's job title or got a date wrong for an outing. But sometimes we're provided with wrong information by an organization, and we run a correction, anyway.

Why so many more corrections in 2003?

That's a very good question, with few apparent answers. We did have a considerable amount of staff turnover. Whenever new employees are learning their jobs, there are bound to be errors of omission and commission.

Perhaps we have also gotten the message out to the communities we serve that we are willing to correct any factual mistakes in a timely manner.

I'd like to think that's the case, but I'm also aware that sometimes, we just screwed up.

By far our most embarrassing correction of 2003 occurred in April, after a 27-year-old Hartwick College sophomore pulled an elaborate hoax on his college and this newspaper.

The gentleman first informed a Hartwick official and later a Daily Star reporter that he had spent his spring break training military policemen at Fort Drum for duty in Iraq.

The reporter interviewed the man and also talked to someone claiming to be a staff sergeant at Fort Drum who backed up the student's story.

We ran a story on Page 1 of the April 8 paper along with a photo of the man in his Hartwick dormitory room showing off what he claimed was a military-issue M-4 assault rifle.

When we found out that the young man had fabricated virtually his whole story, we knew we needed to run a correction. It was obvious to us that a short mention on Page 5 — our customary spot for corrections - would be woefully inadequate.

So, I wrote a front-page column/correction explaining to our readers how it all happened and expressing my regret that we had been hoodwinked.

Anyone who missed that longest correction of the year can find it on our website at http://www.thedailystar.com/news/stories/2003/ 04/09/mea.html.

Also in April, we got the chance to correct an error that appeared in this newspaper ... 50 years ago!

Our "Step Back In Time" feature recalled an event at the Mount Vision Baptist Church in 1953 that apparently was reported incorrectly at the time. A current reader set us straight, and we were happy to run a correction.

Less remarkably, many of the corrections we run are of this variety:

12/11/03: Tea and cookies will not be offered at the Cooperstown United Methodist Women's annual Christmas bazaar Saturday.

11/19/03: Because of a typing error, some of the ingredient measurements for Pumpkin Chiffon Pie by Helen Kuebler of Sidney were incorrect on Page 9 of the 2003 Holiday Recipe Guide inserted into Thursday's edition. The correct measurements are 1/2 teaspoon each of ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt.

The ones we get the most grief over (deservedly so) are these:

10/30/03: The winning numbers for Tuesday's Take Five drawing were 11, 23, 28, 31, 34 and bonus number 8. One of the numbers was incorrect in a list on Page 14 Wednesday.

04/18/03: The numbers for Wednesday's Lotto drawing were 2-9-13-19-24-46 B-43. Because of a typing error, one number was incorrect on Page 14 Thursday.

So far, to our knowledge, no one has thrown out a winning ticket because of us. We double-check lottery numbers every night, but somehow we have still messed up on rare occasions. Our intention is not to make that kind of mistake in 2004, and for that matter, 2005.

The errors that distress me most are when we misspell a name or otherwise print something that hurts this newspaper's credibility. I'm proud that we haven't had a whiff of anything like The New York Times' 2003 troubles.

We haven't had a Jayson Blair, who fabricated stories and damaged the credibility of every newspaper in the country. But there is something very important to remember.

The whole sorry Blair episode was huge news because that violation of readers' trust was so rare, so unusual. The vast, vast majority of reporters, photographers and editors are hard-working, honest and go to great lengths to get things right.

At this newspaper, I'm not happy about our 150 corrections in 2003. But taken in context with the incredible amount of news we present during the course of a year, 150 might not be such a bad number.

Anyway, we'll try hard to do better in 2004.

Sam Pollak is editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at spollak@thedailystar.com or at (607) 432-1000, ext. 208.