Heat magazine also apologized for the same accusation, according to the Guardian.

The Tabloid Watch blog has an excellent overview of the issue and some of the offending front pages. A sample:

The paper issued their apologies in court last week and subsequently published apologies — though none of the expressions of regret were given the prominence of thier original, offending coverage. A few of the apologies:

IN court yesterday the Daily Star apologised to Christopher Jefferies for articles published on December 31 2010 and January 1 2011, in which we reported on his arrest on suspicion of the murder of Joanna Yeates.
The articles suggested that there were strong grounds to believe that Mr Jefferies had killed Ms Yeates and that he had acted in an inappropriate oversexualised manner with his pupils when he was a teacher.
The articles also suggested that he had probably lied to police to obstruct their investigations.
We accepted that all these allegations were untrue and apologised to Mr Jefferies. Link

IN court yesterday the Daily Express apologised to Christopher Jefferies for articles published in the Daily Express on December 31 2010 in which we reported on his arrest on suspicion of the murder of Joanna Yeates.
The articles suggested that there were strong grounds to believe that Mr Jefferies had killed Ms Yeates and that he had acted in an inappropriate, over-sexualised manner with his pupils when he was a teacher.
in The articles also suggested that he had probably lied to police to obstruct their investigations. It was further suggested that there were grounds to investigate whether he was responsible for an unsolved murder dating back to 1974. We accepted that all these allegations were untrue and apologised to Mr Jefferies. Link

Eight newspapers apologised to Mr Christopher Jefferies in the High Court yesterday. Reports of the investigation into the death of Joanna Yeates had wrongly suggested that Mr Jefferies, who was arrested but released without charge, was suspected of killing Ms Yeates, may have had links to a convicted paedophile and an unresolved murder. It was also wrongly alleged that the former school master had acted inappropriately to pupils. The newspapers, including the Daily Mail, agreed to pay Mr Jefferies substantial damages and legal costs.
Later the Daily Mirror was fined £50,000 and the Sun ,£18,000 for contempt of court in relation to their reports. Link

Yesterday the Daily Record and other newspapers apologised in court for the publication of false allegations about the retired school master Christopher Jefferies, who, we had wrongly suggested, was strongly to be suspected of having killed his former tenant Joanna Yeates.
We also wrongly suggested that he had acted inappropriately towards his pupils in the past and invaded his tenants’ privacy.
We accepted that these allegations were untrue and that far from being involved in the crime, Mr Jefferies helped the police with their inquiries as best he could.
We have agreed to pay substantial damages to Mr Jefferies plus his legal costs. Link

*Correction August 1, 2011: The original headline of this post misspelled Jefferies as Jeffries. I regret the error.

A Bad Byline

From a report on WQAD.com:

The Western Courier is an award-winning newspaper at Western Illinois University that takes pride in its publication. The paper comes out three times a week and usually without any major problems.

But on the back page of Monday's issue, a glaring error: a vulgar typo in the byline of a sports story, dubbing the writer a "bad mother [expletive]."

"In any newsroom situation, it's a highly stressful situation. Jokes are made sometimes to defuse that stress and make everybody feel a little more comfortable," said Western Courier editor-in-chief Ed Komenda. "That byline was in the template for years before I started, and it just so happens it got printed accidentally."

Komenda said he sees the typo as a mistake he clearly wished wouldn't have been made …

Read the paper's apology here.

A Tabloid Reporter's Confession

Richard Peppiat was until recently a reporter for the Daily Star, a tabloid paper published by U.K. media mogul and former pornographer Richard Desmond. Rather than just resigning and quietly moving on, Peppiatt went out in a blaze of glory by writing a scathing resignation email that was subsequently published by the Guardian. The email accused the paper of fabricating reporting and pursuing an anti-Muslim agenda.* (I wrote about the resignation in my weekly Toronto Star column.). From the email:

… as a young hack keen to prove his worth I threw myself into working at the Daily Star with gusto. On order I dressed up as a John Lennon, a vampire, a Mexican, Noel Gallagher, Saint George (twice), Santa Claus, Aleksandr the Meerkat, the Stig, and a transvestite Alex Reid.

I've been spraytanned, waxed, and in a kilt clutching roses trawled a Glasgow council estate trying to propose to Susan Boyle (I did. She said no).

When I was ordered to wear a burkha in public for the day, I asked: "Just a head scarf or full veil?" Even after being ambushed by anti-terror cops when panicked Londoners reported "a bloke pretending to be a Muslim woman", I didn't complain. Mercifully, I'd discovered some backbone by the time I was told to find some burkha-clad shoppers (spot the trend?) to pose with for a picture – dressed in just a pair of skintight M&S underpants.

Forget journalistic merit, I heard this was just an ill-conceived ploy to land an advertising contract with the chain. Admittedly, that was unusual. Often we hacks write vacuous puff pieces about things you own. Few would deny there's one hell of an incestuous orgy of cross-promotion to leer at down at Northern & Shell HQ.

Never mind that it insults the intelligence of amoebas when your readers are breathlessly informed the week's telly highlights include OK! TV and the Vanessa Feltz Show.

I suspect you see a perfect circle. I see a downward spiral. I see a cascade of shit pirouetting from your penthouse office, caking each layer of management, splattering all in between.

Daily Star favourite Kelly Brook recently said in an interview: "I do Google myself. Not that often, though, and the stories are always rubbish. "There was a story that I'd seen a hypnotherapist to help me cut down on the time I take to get ready to go out. Where do they get it from?"

Maybe I should answer that one. I made it up. Not that it was my choice; I was told to. At 6pm and staring at a blank page I simply plucked it from my arse. Not that it was all bad. I pocketed a £150 bonus. You may have read some of my other earth-shattering exclusives.

'Michael Jackson to attend Jade Goody's funeral'. (He didn't.) 'Robbie pops 'pill at heroes concert'. (He didn't either.) 'Matt Lucas on suicide watch'. (He wasn't.) 'Jordan turns to Buddha.' (She might have, but I doubt it.)

I know showbiz is the sand on which your readership is built. And while I didn't write tittle-tattle dreaming of Pulitzers, I never knew I'd fear a Booker Prize nomination instead …

Correction March 14, 2011: This post originally referred to an "anti-Muslin agenda," instead of an "anti-Muslim agenda." Thanks to the commenters and @mattgauk for spotting this amusing typo.

A Radio Host's Meltdown

Courtesy of the great Montreal blogger Fagstein, here's Marco Campagna of The Team 990 in Montreal getting a little upset over some technical difficulties ("Nothing fucking works!"):

At that point, Katie Price had not become estranged from her husband Alex Reid. In fact, Amir Khan did not meet with Katie Price whilst in Las Vegas and has never, as alleged, sent indecent photographs of himself to Katie Price.

We apologise to Amir Khan for any distress or embarrassment our story may have caused. Link

I have been asked by several emailers and callers, including two radio producers, to provide evidence about my claim that Express Newspapers EN has paid out more in libel damages in recent times than any other newspaper group.

– via Catalogue of legal pay-outs that shames Express Newspapers, a must-read post from Roy Greenslade of the Guardian.

We accept that Ron Brand did not behave in such a disrespectful way towards Ms Winehouse, with whom he is good friends.

We acknowledge also that the so-called "fan" has been cautioned by the police for assault. We apologise to Mr Brand for both articles. Link

ON 21 July we published an article claiming that the video games company Rockstar Games were planning to release a version of their popular Grand Theft Auto video games series titled “Grand Theft Auto Rothbury”.
We also published what we claimed would be the cover of this game, solicited comments from a family member impacted by the recent tragedy and criticised Rockstar Games for their alleged plans.
We made no attempt to check the accuracy of the story before publication and did not contact Rockstar Games prior to publishing the story. We also did not question why a best selling and critically acclaimed fictional games series would choose to base one of their most popular games on this horrifying real crime event.
It is now accepted that there were never any plans by Rockstar Games to publish such a game and that the story was false. We apologise for publishing the story using a mock-up of the game cover, our own comments on the matter and soliciting critical comments from a grieving family member.
We unreservedly apologise to Rockstar Games and we have undertaken not to repeat the claims again. We have also agreed to pay them a substantial amount in damages which they are donating to charity. Link

Thanks, Alex and Andy!

IN articles published between July and December last year we suggested that the holiday companions of Kate and Gerry McCann might have covered up the true facts concerning Madeleine McCann’s disappearance and/or misled the authorities investigating her disappearance.

We also reported speculation that one member of the group, Dr Russell O’Brien, was suspected of involvement with Madeleine’s abduction. We now accept that these suggestions should never have been made and were completely untrue. We apologise to Jane Tanner, Russell O’Brien, Fiona Payne, David Payne, Matthew Oldfield, Rachael Oldfield and Diane Webster to whom we have agreed to pay substantial damages which they will be donating to the Find Madeleine Fund.

The Guardian has some background:

The Daily Express and Daily Star have today printed apologies to the so-called “tapas seven” friends of Kate and Gerry McCann as part of a legal settlement.
Daily Express – ‘tapas seven’ apology Daily Express: ran apology on page 5
Today’s apologies, on page 5 of the Daily Express and page 3 of the Daily Star, come ahead of a statement about the “tapas seven” settlement to be read out in the high court in London at 10.30am.
Richard Desmond’s Express Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Express and Daily Star, will also pay the group £375,000 in damages, according to a report yesterday by the Sky News crime correspondent, Martin Brunt. The money will be donated to the Find Madeleine Fund.
Under the headline “Tapas seven – an apology”, both papers apologised for publishing “completely untrue” suggestions that the friends may have lied about the case …
More details of the holiday companions’ settlement with Express Newspapers are expected to be outlined in the high court statement before Mr Justice Eady.
The legal action, undertaken for the “tapas seven” by law firm Carter-Ruck, follows big payouts by British papers to the McCanns and to Robert Murat.
In July, Murat accepted more than £600,000 in damages from 11 British newspapers after he was libelled in more than 100 articles.
The Express Newspapers-owned Daily Express, Sunday Express and Daily Star; Associated Newspapers’ Daily Mail, Evening Standard, and Metro; Mirror Group Newspapers’ Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror and Scottish Daily Record; and News Group’s Sun and News of the World acknowledged that the stories they had run about Murat over nine months were entirely untrue and should never have been printed.
In March, Kate and Gerry McCann accepted £550,000 from Express Newspapers after the Daily and Sunday Express, the Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday ran numerous defamatory articles after their daughter Madeleine disappeared from the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal on May 3, 2007.

Case one: yesterday it apologised in the high court to the Italian footballer Marco Materazzi who was infamously headbutted in the chest by Zinedine Zidane in the 2006 world cup final. The paper falsely claimed that the attack was prompted by Materazzi making racist comments.

It was not an error made once. The Star repeated the allegation in a series of articles. It was not the only paper to publish the claims, but the Star was more blatant than most. Anyway, lies are part of that disgraceful paper’s special stock in trade.

Case two: last Wednesday the Star carried a front page story about footballer Andy Cole that was, in all but name, an apology for a previous story that accused him of beating his wife.

Case three: three weeks ago the Star was one of the four Express Newspapers’ titles that carried a front page apology to the parents of Madeleine McCann for libelling them in a series of inaccurate and prejudicial stories. It also apologised formally in the high court.

But there is no sign of the Star’s editor, Dawn Neesom, stepping down for making a string of errors. Why? Because she has a proprietor who clearly doesn’t care about ethics (just a county to the east of London for him)…

Regret coverage of the Express Newspapers’ apologies is here. Another case against the Star is here.

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!