Sex Romps in a VW Camper, and Other Sun Fairytales

image via motoringartist.com

Who knew that corrections pages could be so exciting? Backing off baseless allegations that gypsies sabotaged police helicopters and incorrect accusations that Teri Hatcher hosted “sex romps” in a VW camper is all in a year’s work for charmingly libelous British tabloid The Sun. And they’re more accurate than many British papers, somehow!

Via CJR: According to Craig Silverman, who runs Regret the Error, a site that tracks media corrections, The Sun regularly provides him with some of the most entertaining corrections on his beat, such as this one about how the Teri Hatcher sex romps were totally made up, whoops:

AN item on 2 August last year “Telly Teri’s Romps in Van” stated that actress Teri Hatcher had sex romps in her VW camper van at her home.
Although published in good faith, we now accept that the article was totally incorrect and we apologise to Ms Hatcher for the embarrassment caused.

Still, one British media expert told Silverman that “The Sun generally does better than some of its national newspaper colleagues when it comes to accuracy.”

Silverman recognizes that not all is lemon drops and gumdrops in the corrections biz: “A jaw-dropping apology or correction requires an equally jaw-dropping story, and that usually means someone has been falsely accused of something nasty.” Gypsies already get a bad enough rap, Sun, you don’t need to pretend they are fighting a secret war against the police.

Read Silverman’s full list of this year’s outrageous Sun corrections at Columbia Journalism Review.

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