ROLLINS STUDENT NEWSPAPER GETS VICTIM WRONG

HOW EMBARRASSING. JUST GOES TO SHOW REPORTER SHOULD ALWAYS CHECK AND RECHECK FACTS.

This is on the Orlando Sentinel website under headline.

SEA WORLD STUNNER: ROLLINS COLLEGE NEWSPAPER REPORTS WKMG'S MIKE HOLFELD WAS VICTIM OF TILIKUM.


Here’s a mistake that stunned — and amused — WKMG-Channel 6 reporter Mike Holfeld.
He learned that he died in 1999, a victim of the killer whale Tilikum, according to The Sandspur, the newspaper at Rollins College.
The newspaper was covering a trainer’s death at SeaWorld last week. And the reporter wrote that it wasn’t the first time Tilikum had been responsible for a person’s death. “Reporter Mike Holfeld died from an attack in 1999,” the story read.
Actually, Holfeld was anchoring WKMG’s live coverage of last week’s tragedy with Jacqueline London and Mike Garofalo.
Holfeld’s theory: “Somehow this reporter heard my name and assumed I was the 1999 victim.”
There was a victim then who slipped into SeaWorld, swam in Tilikum’s tank after hours and died of hypothermia.
The Sandspur bills itself as “the oldest college newspaper in Florida.” Holfeld by e-mail writes, “I thought it was funny that Florida’s oldest college newspaper allowed a major gaffe.”
The newspaper told me, “We are in the process of investigating how this egregious error occurred.” Holfeld said the newspaper promised a front-page retraction.