I got a laugh out of the USA Weekend Magazine in the Griffin Daily News on Sunday, April 28, 2002. This insert runs in many newspapers.  A mistake in it was funny at first but then it made me wonder if the accuracy of this article was typical of the stuff in that magazine and USA Weekend in general.

At first I was happy to see an article about fishing in it. On page 9 under the heading "Sports" the headline said "A champion bass fisherman shares his top 4 spots." The article was by Tom Mann, famous fisherman and maker of baits from Eufaula, Alabama. Tom Mann invented the Jelly Worm, the Little George and many other baits.

Tom Mann has been around as long as I can remember. I was buying his Jelly Worms back in the early 1970’s and saw his name in many tournament reports when he won or placed high in them. He fished the BASS pro trail as well as making lures.

What made me laugh was the picture with the article. It showed Tom Mann, Jr. of Buford, GA - and no relationship to Tom Mann of Eufaula, AL - holding up a big bass. The caption said "Mann vs. fish: Mann usually wins - but then he releases his catch."

I wonder who put the wrong picture with that article. Surely Tom Mann did not send them the wrong picture to go with his article. My guess is someone at the magazine that does not know which end of the rod the bullet comes out of got the picture and put it with the article.

I have been watching for the past month but have not seen any correction or explanation about this mistake. I started to write to them to point it out but they do not have a letters section except for people to ask silly questions about celebrities.

Maybe it is just fishing that these national media folks know nothing about, but way too often information I know something about is totally wrong in their publications. It makes me think everything published by them is just as inaccurate. Maybe they have the wrong information accidentally or maybe they sometimes do it to mislead us. Either way it is unacceptable.