On 16 September we published an article headed “I’ve had Moore women than James Bond” which claimed that Sir Roger Moore had recently spoken exclusively to The People and made comments to our journalist about his private life.
We now accept that Sir Roger did not give an interview to our reporter and did not make the comments that were reported in the headline.
We apologise for any distress and embarrassment our article has caused to Sir Roger Moore and we have agreed to pay him damages and legal costs.
Two months later and the Mail, which appears to have simply copied-and-pasted the claims, has also apologised:
An article on September 17 (‘I’ve had more lovers than 007’) included comments attributed to Sir Roger Moore by a Sunday newspaper about his private life.
That newspaper has now accepted its report did not accurately reflect a conversation with Sir Roger Moore and he did not make the comments it reported.
We apologise for any distress and embarrassment caused.
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I love the artfully worded "We now accept that Sir Roger did not give an interview to our reporter and did not make the comments that were reported". It sounds so much more high-minded than just admitting "We made it all up", which is what it means.
ReplyDeleteAnd The Mail going "its report did not accurately reflect a conversation with Sir Roger Moore" which implies that there was a conversation when there wasn't!
DeleteStonyground:
ReplyDeleteI have been following this blog for some time and so I am quite aware of the way that newspapers often spin a non-story to create news. The pretend Roger Moore interview surely takes their dishonesty to an entirely new level.