by Whatsblem the Pro

The Associated Press has released a correction to their November 11th story regarding Burning Man’s agreement with Pershing County, and it’s only fair that we acknowledge the correction as well, since we repeated it here in good faith.

Burners everywhere have been wondering what the real story might be regarding the agreed-upon payments to be made to Pershing County by the Burning Man organization, since the press release at Burningman.com gave different figures than were being reported in virtually every major news outlet around the globe.

The Associated Press’ correction reads as follows:

RENO, Nev. (AP) — RENO, Nev. (AP) — In a story Nov. 11 about security and insurance costs at the Burning Man counterculture festival, The Associated Press erroneously reported the terms of the agreement. The agreement estimates Burning Man will pay $240,000 a year over 10 years to Pershing County, with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s share covered in a separate agreement, not more than $600,000 a year to the county and BLM. Burning Man would be required to maintain up to $1 million in insurance coverage in the separate BLM agreement, not the agreement with the county.

While we wouldn’t have been surprised had the Org’s numbers turned out to be inaccurate and the Associated Press’ the reality, this is not the case. . . and since there are plenty of genuine issues to address regarding the Org and the way they run the event, we feel that it’s only right to go out of our way to point out the correction and do what we can to discourage people from citing the discrepancy as evidence of some kind of chicanery.