Nevermind. That Al Qaeda threat splashed across the front page of Rupert Murdochs Sun a few weeks ago? Well, in a page two correction yesterday, editors just wanted to pass on an update on that story: yeah, turns out that scary bit we told you, well that wasnt true. Sorry. Moving right along.
As the Guardians Roy Greenslade writes today, the pre-Christmas story about a supposed terrorist plot against a live holiday episode of a popular UK television show, Coronation Street, had British journalists smelling a rat from the start. It had that familiar
ring of complete nonsense.
The original storystill posted on the Suns websiteclaimed that cops were throwing a ring of steel around the (Coronation Street) studios in Manchester after being tipped off that the show could be hit by a terror strike.
Yeah, well, not so much as it turns out, as the Suns sorry-for-that-little-spot-of-bother correction makes clear:
Further to our article about increased security at Coronation Streets 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.
Misunderstanding, you say? You mean, I read what you wrote and got the wrong idea kind of misunderstanding?