Today was a historic day for newspaper apologies. A sad, shameful, embarrassingly historic day.
Two UK papers controlled by the same owner (Express Newspapers) issued front page apologies to a British couple, Kate and Gerry McCann. The apologies will be repeated in the related Sunday editions of both papers, the Sunday Express and Daily Star Sunday*.
In more than 100 articles, the papers had repeatedly and forcefully suggested that the couple were responsible for the disappearance of their young daughter. Roy Greenslade of the Guardian summed up the papers’ work:
This was no journalistic accident, but a sustained campaign of vitriol against a grief-stricken family. The stories were not merely speculative, but laced with innuendo which continually made accusations against the McCanns on the basis of anonymous sources and without any hard evidence.
Wild claims, often made by unattributed sources to Portuguese newspapers, were then spun even more negatively by the Express and Star titles. Of course, they were not the only papers to carry prejudicial material, but they were by far the worst.
Realizing that it could not win in court, and could not defend their work, Express Newspapers negotiated a settlement with the couple that includes the apologies and a payment of roughly $1 million. This is the apology published by the Daily Express (”The World’s Greatest Newspaper”):
The Daily Express has taken the unprecedented step of making a front-page apology to Kate and Gerry McCann.
We did so because we accept that a number of articles in the newspaper have suggested that the couple caused the death of their missing daughter Madeleine and then covered it up.
We acknowledge that there is no evidence whatsoever to support this theory and that Kate and Gerry are completely innocent of any involvement in their daughter’s disappearance.
We trust that the suspicion that has clouded their lives for many months will soon be lifted.
As an expression of its regret, the Daily Express has now paid a very substantial sum into the Madeleine Fund and we promise to do all in our power to help efforts to find her.
Kate and Gerry, we are truly sorry to have added to your distress.
We assure you that we hope Madeleine will one day be found alive and well and will be restored to her loving family.
It was a questionable decision to begin the apology with a statement that seems to suggest that the paper is doing something noble, and purely of its own choosing. A front page apology was a necessity, and a long overdue one at that. So many of the offending stories had been on the front page that to offer anything less in terms of placement would have been unacceptable.
The Express, and the Daily Star (apology here), took this step because they finally came to see they had been wholly irresponsible and wanted to avoid a massively expensive lawsuit. I don’t mean to suggest there isn’t any genuine remorse at the papers, but it’s not the sole motivation for the apologies. It’s likely not even the dominant one.
Since this website launched in fall of 2004, the most notable apologies have consistently appeared in the UK press. But two papers with front page apologies on the same day, and two repeats to come? Yes, you could call that unprecedented. But the actions that led to this event bring other words to mind.
*Correction April 9: The name of the Daily Star Sunday was initially and incorrectly written as the “Daily Sunday Star.” It has been corrected. Thanks Smylers!
