This thread reminds me of something I read in Readers' Digest (so it must be true...) eons ago when I was young. A newspaper printed a story wherein they alluded to "Sgt. So-&-So of the defective branch of the police force" - which drew fierce complaint from the precinct in question. So next day they published an apology:

We regret the misprint from the previous edition and apologize unreservedly to Sgt. So-&-So for any unintended misinformation. We meant, of course, to say "Sgt. So-&-So of the detective branch of the police farce".