Back in October 2006, there was a great deal of fuss over a house belonging to British soldiers supposedly vandalised by 'Muslims'. The Sun made a great deal of the situation and many others followed suit. This in turn led to increasing tensions between the white and Muslim populations. It now transpires that the story was nothing more than fabrication. So much so, that The Sun actually issued a rather mealy mouthed apology on it's website (hat-tip Obsolete):
Following our report ‘Hounded out’ about a soldier's home in Datchet, Berks, being vandalised by Muslims, we have been asked to point out no threatening calls were logged at Combermere Barracks from Muslims and police have been unable to establish if any faith or religious group was responsible for the incident.
We are happy to make this clear.
Yes, happy to make it clear and yet it still appears on their website. A typical response by a right-wing rag. Damage done, what's next?? But, as I said, The Sun were not alone.
One of the advantages/disadvantages of keeping a blog, is that once you have published your comments, they sit there forever (or at least until you have the good sense to delete it). This is, of course, troublesome for many on the right as they often write reactionary posts without really thinking it through. Melanie Phillips, for example, was quick to jump on The Sun's bandwagon. Here is an extract from one article on her site, yet to be taken down or altered (I thought I should screen grab it before it changes):
Aaaahh, the 'wider silence'. Rather like the silence when a reactionary journalist has been caught out and refuses to acknowledge it. Marc at USS Neverdock also couldn't resist to wade in on this one:
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