Sunday 19 September 2010

Mail's small apology to Small World

The Mail has apologised for falsely accusing the board game Small World of being at the centre of a case of online game addiction and child neglect:

An article published on 13 September, 'Addicted to a fantasy world: Mother obsessed with computer game let her children live in squalor' reported court proceedings which referred to a game called Small World.

In fact, Small World was not the game in question.

We are happy to make this clear and apologise to the publishers of Small World for any contrary impression given.

The publishers of the game, Days of Wonder, had issued a strong statement in response to the original articles, pointing out the lazy 'Google Journalism' involved. They also threatened legal action, which may well explain why the Mail has apologised so swiftly.

But the wording of the apology is typically weak. The Mail published a lengthy article directly accusing Small World and included screenshots of the wrong game. 'Contrary impression' doesn't really cover it.

(Hat-tip to Picklechu)

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