Nevermind. That Al Qaeda threat splashed across the front page of Rupert Murdoch’s 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 wasn’t true. Sorry. Moving right along.
As the Guardian’s 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 story–still posted on the Sun’s website–claimed 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 Sun’s sorry-for-that-little-spot-of-bother correction makes clear:
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.
Misunderstanding, you say? You mean, I read what you wrote and got the wrong idea kind of misunderstanding?
