Lies and outrageous smears

In one of many recent Mail articles attacking the Liberal Democrats, Peter Oborne writes that the party is:

profoundly dishonest...prepared to lie, cheat and on occasion issue outrageous smears on its opponents

What better time, then, for the Mail to have to publish an apology to Reza Pankhurst for the profoundly dishonest article 'Revealed: Islamist preacher who lectures at top London university 'groomed suicide bomber'':

On 15 January a headline on our report said that Reza Pankhurst, a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir who teaches at the LSE, had groomed the suicide bomber Omar Sharif for an attack in Israel in 2003.

We accept that this allegation was untrue, should not have been made and we apologise to Mr Pankhurst, who had had no contact with Sharif since attending Kings’ College, London, some eight years before Sharif’s attempted suicide bombing.

The Evening Standard - which had its own version of the article under the headline 'LSE’s Islamist teacher 'groomed suicide bomber for Tel Aviv attack'' - hasn't apologised yet but, presumably, will.

Pankhurst said at the time he was seeking legal advice, so the Mail and the Standard may still have to go to court over their 'outrageous smears'.