Daily Star is sorry for Grand Theft Auto Raoul Moat blunder
Journalism at its best
Last week the Daily Star published the sensational scoop that Rockstar Games was prepping Grand Theft Auto Rothbury, inspired by the murderer Raoul Moat.
It was a hoax of course, but it would be much too kind to describe the Star as a victim. The paper compounded its error by mocking up a fake cover (see here) and by soliciting a response from the grandmother of Moat's girlfriend.
Today the Star issued a long, grovelling apology. Among other thing, the paper - motto: Simply The Best 7 Days a Week- admits it didn't check up the story with Rockstar Games, a mistake, for which it must pay substantial damages.
Rockstar is donating the windfall to charity.
COMMENTS
Disgraceful
They're an embarrassment to gutter-tabloid-filth, they are.
Here is the Daily Star's statement in full:
Here is the Daily Star's statement in full:
"On 21 July we published an article claiming that the video games company Rockstar Games were planning to release a version of their popular Grand Theft Auto video games series titled 'Grand Theft Auto Rothbury'.
We also published what we claimed would be the cover of this game, solicited comments from a family member impacted by the recent tragedy and criticised Rockstar Games for their alleged plans.
We made no attempt to check the accuracy of the story before publication and did not contact Rockstar Games prior to publishing the story. We also did not question why a best selling and critically acclaimed fictional games series would choose to base one of their most popular games on this horrifying real crime event.
It is now accepted that there were never any plans by Rockstar Games to publish such a game and that the story was false. We apologise for publishing the story using a mock-up of the game cover, our own comments on the matter and soliciting critical comments from a grieving family member.
We unreservedly apologise to Rockstar Games and we have undertaken not to repeat the claims again. We have also agreed to pay them a substantial amount in damages which they are donating to charity."
Paywall?
And the newspaper industry is hoping to sit behind a pay wall and expect people to pay for journalism of this quality ?
It was probably...
one of the conditions that meant Rockstar didn't sue them. That and the fat settlement.
I thought they had lawyers for this kind of thing
Even if they don't spend any money on journalists to check the facts, I thought the tabloids still spent lots of cash on lawyers to avoid getting their arses sued from here to buggery.
Clearly not in this case. Ouch! I guess they couldn't get away with the usual 1 paragraph apology on page 20, as it was an open and shut case, and Rockstar might well sue for serious money if not appeased quickly.
Hahahahahahaha. Always nice to see the nastier side of the 'press' having to pay out.
