The Sun has owned up to what I guess we in the journalism trade realised the moment we saw it - its splash about the pre-Christmas live episode Coronation Street being targeted by al-Qaeda was false.
On 9 December, it carried this front page story (which still appears on its website, incidentally) claiming that "cops" were "throwing a ring of steel" around the studios in Manchester after being "tipped off" that the show "could be hit by a terror strike."
It had that familiar Daily Star-ish ring of complete nonsense, and so it turns out, as yesterday's page 2 "correction" admits: "Further to our article about increased security at Coronation Street's studios for their live 50th anniversary episode... we would like to make clear that while cast and crew were subject to full body searches, there was no specific threat from Al-Qaeda as we reported. We apologise for the misunderstanding and are happy to set the record straight."
Happy? I doubt that. Note also the above tweet from the Press Complaints Commission. The regulator is, quite rightly, becoming much more publicity-conscious about its work.
Friday 31 December 2010
The Sun admits publishing false story | Media | guardian.co.uk
via guardian.co.uk
