Co-worker Kari Lucin sent me an e-mail Wednesday morning with the title, "Journalistic Screw-ups." Now, if there’s one thing we journalists like to see, it’s the mistakes of other journalists.

You would think that working in this profession, we would take pity on writers and editors who make dumb errors in print, but in reality most of us giggle and say a word of thanks that it wasn’t our name on the byline. Well, there are some exceptions, such as if the error was made by a co-worker, and if the mistake is in the paper we work for.

The work we, as reporters, do every day is critiqued by thousands of people who read our newspaper. A typo makes me look incompetent, an incorrect name in a story means I lose credibility with the reader, and making an error in the facts severs the trust readers have in their newspapers.

Reporters are under this invisible pressure to do everything right – to do a perfect job. After enough time and experience the pressure seems to subside. I think that’s just because we become more confident – at least until the next time we have to write a correction.

We make mistakes – we’re human. We get angry, we get embarrassed, we mumble under our breath because nobody caught the error, we write the correction and we move on. We have to.

After I read the link to the journalist’s screw-ups, I told Kari I was going to write a blog about my own screw-ups as a newspaper reporter.

Her response: "You’re brave!"

Naturally, I started to rethink my idea. After all, who wants to admit a huge faux pas – especially one that happened about a dozen years ago, in a different community, at a small town newspaper?

It’s kind of strange, but I remember my reaction to the error more than the actual error itself. I had been in my job at a bi-weekly newspaper for about a year when I wrote a story about a local church receiving a financial gift from some millionaire that wrote a syndicated financial column.

My error: I wrote that it was the local Methodist church, when it should have been the local Presbyterian church (or vice-versa … I can’t remember!) Anyway, had the proofreader not taken that press day off – and had the publisher taken the time to read the story – the mistake would have been caught and changed before the paper went to press. The proofreader went to the one church, and the publisher went to the other.

Of course, had the mistake been caught, I wouldn’t be writing this blog!

Needless to say, I was called into the publisher’s office with my editor the day the paper came out. I was certain I was going to be fired as I sat in that uncomfortable chair across from the boss with tears streaming down my face. (The words of my newswriting instructor at South Dakota State University kept repeating in my head … "Misspelling a person’s name is grounds for immediate firing!") I figured the same held true for misidentifying a church.

It was the biggest mistake I’d ever made in my journalism career, and I thought it was the last I’d ever make. Since I’m still working in the newspaper business, you now realize I was given a second chance.

Oh, I’ve made other mistakes in my 16 years in the newspaper business, but I don’t think any are as memorable as that first one. And certainly, none of them are as funny as the screw-ups made by Joe Posnanski.

A blog topic has been itching to get out of my brain and onto the printed page (or in this case, the blank, white computer screen).

First, I want to thank Samantha C. for her letter to the editor in Wednesday’s Daily Globe. It isn’t often that someone will go to bat, so to speak, for a newspaper reporter in print. As journalists, we don’t expect it. We are simply doing our jobs.

Certainly, I didn’t expect to see 30 comments on the Web site pertaining to Samantha’s letter by early Wednesday evening! How disappointing it was to see the comments had come down to three people doing nothing more than offending each other.

While I find it infuriating that some commenters refer to the product we bring to people’s doorsteps and computer monitors six days a week as the Glob, people are entitled to their opinion. If it wasn’t for freedom of speech, we wouldn’t have newspapers worth reading.

That said, I feel the need to talk a little bit about being a reporter.

We are regular, common folks who struggle to find time to spend with our families, mow the lawn, do the dishes, read a book or go to a ball game. We are private citizens with very public jobs that are open to criticism.

As reporters, we ask questions and we expect honest answers. We write stories based on facts given to us, not rumors or unconfirmed reports.

We work hard each day to bring our readers the news of their communities. With nine counties in our coverage area it’s impossible to report on everything with our limited staff, but we do what we can.

We put in long hours. We work mornings, afternoons, evenings, weekends and holidays to make sure our readers are informed.

Lest you think I’m complaining, I certainly am not.

I chose this profession … I might even say this profession chose me.

As a journalist, my job is to report the news. I know I’m not going to make everyone happy with what I write, but after 16 years of journalism experience I’ve developed a rather thick skin and a good support system.

So, whether I’m heading out in the middle of the night to bring our readers breaking news on a potentially dangerous situation, covering an important meeting or transforming a refugee’s journey to America into a story that can make our community a little more accepting of its neighbors, I will do my job. The same can be said for those around me in the Daily Globe newsroom.

And as far as commenters go, I do appreciate what each of you has to say … whether it’s praise or criticism. You have proven, on occasion, that there are questions we, as reporters, need to be asking. When you can stay on topic, stop bashing other people for their comments and add information to a story, I think all of our readers will benefit.