The New York Times made an error in the obituary of Col. David Hackworth last week, calling him the inspiration for Apocalypse Now character Kurtz (Marlon Brando) rather than, as he actually was, for character Kilgore (Robert Duvall). As Editor & Publisher notes, others blithely passed along the mistake:
Time magazine, NPR’s “Fresh Air” and “All Things Considered,” and London’s Sunday Mirror. It’s likely they all just cribbed from “the newspaper of record.”
Kurtz, of course, is based on the character of the same name in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.