“Kiss the rod of correction”
From a media column in The Independent:
Former No 10 aides may have criticised Tony Blair for pandering to the media, but the Prime Minister"s attention to the Fourth Estate cuts both ways. Downing Street demanded a correction from Prospect magazine after its last issue repeated the line that Blair had falsely claimed that as a lad he had watched Jackie Milburn play for Newcastle United. Not so, said No 10, furnishing Prospect with cuttings demonstrating how they had made other publications kiss the rod of correction.
Curiously, though, No 10 had no problem with the main point in the Prospect piece, which cast doubt on another Blair claim " that he had listened to the speeches of Daniel Cohn-Bendit in his youth. "We took that as confirmation by omission," said a source at the magazine, where staff are somewhat bewildered at how seriously Blair"s minions took this matter.
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