'Corrections must be given more prominence'

The main headline on the front page of the Mail on 3 January stated there were '4,000 foreign murderers and rapists we can't throw out':

The first line of the story underneath proved the headline wasn't literally true:

Nearly 4,000 foreign murderers, rapists and other criminals are roaming the streets, free to commit more crimes.

A factcheck by the excellent Full Fact concluded:

After Full Fact contacted the UKBA, they confirmed that no published breakdown is available for the types of offences these people served a sentence for. Such information could be obtained by a freedom of information request, but no such requests seem to have been made.

So while we know that there are just under 4,000 foreign national offenders living in the community subject to deportation, there's no evidence as to how many of these are guilty of the offences being suggested. This doesn't sit well with the Mail's headline

Perhaps inevitably, then, there's a clarification in today's Mail, which confirms what Full Fact found three weeks ago:

The headline of an article on 3 January suggested that there are 4,000 foreign murderers and rapists in the UK who cannot be deported.

We are happy to clarify that, as the article stated, the figure in fact refers to 3,980 foreign criminals, including murderers and rapists, who are currently subject to deportation orders.

In other words, when the Mail splashed '4,000 murderers and rapists' on its front page, it didn't actually know how many of that 4,000 were guilty of those crimes.

The clarification, however, did not make the front page, where the original error appeared so prominently. Mail editor Paul Dacre said at one of the Leveson seminars in October 2011:

I believe corrections must be given more prominence. As from next week, the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday and Metro will introduce a "Corrections and Clarifications" column on page two of these papers.

He said this a couple of months after telling MPs that it was a 'great myth' that corrections are 'buried'.

But today's clarification didn't make page two either. The paper has devoted that page to their 'daily lottery' today. Instead, it's buried towards the bottom of page four:

Quite a difference when compared with the size of the original error - especially from a paper whose editor said that corrections 'must be given more prominence'. 

(Thanks to Nick, Steve and Lee for help with the page four image)

Today's corrections

The Sun has published the following correction on page two of today's paper:

We reported on October 18 that 'more than 40 per cent' of all knife crime involves juveniles. In fact, this was an estimate by local police for the London borough of Enfield. The most recent Ministry of Justice figures show the proportion is just under 20 per cent in England and Wales.

This comes after Full Fact looked into the original article and complained to the PCC that the figures were inaccurate. They say:

The correction - within a month of the original article - is welcome, even if it does come after the claim was used by elected representatives when pressing particular policies from the Government.

It highlights how important it is for newspapers to take as much care as possible not to publish inaccurate figures, particularly on crucial matters of policy.

The Mirror has also published a correction today thanks to an investigation by Full Fact:

In our article “Cheating up 30% in 3yrs” we stated the figure for benefit fraud had reached £22billion a year. In fact this figure is an estimate for the total of all fraud and error, and includes mistakes made by the Government and claimants, and fraud which is unrelated to benefits.

Today's Mail corrections are:

Two commentary articles about psychic Sally Morgan in September stated that it is 'illegal in this country to claim to be a medium'. It has been pointed out to us that mediums are in fact legal in this country, although like other businesses they are subject to  consumer protection legislation.

*

In our coverage of Joe Frazier's death on Wednesday, we said that Muhammad Ali had had only one  comeback fight before facing Frazier in 1971. He had in fact fought twice before that bout, facing both Jerry Quarry, as we stated, and Oscar Bonavena.

Earlier this week, the the Mirror published this apology and correction:

On August 3 this year the Daily Mirror published an article regarding the death of Miss Catherine Zaks, aged 21, in Krakow, Poland.

The article contained claims that Miss Zaks, from Robertsbridge, East Sussex, abused drugs and had engaged in casual sex following the break-up of a long-term relationship.

Miss Zaks’ parents have pointed out that these claims are entirely false and that their daughter was much loved, and of good character.

We are happy to set the record straight and apologise for any distress caused.

The Star's latest source for a front page exclusive: a psychic

As the tabloid media continues its frenzy over the murder of Jo Yeates, today's Daily Star claimed an 'exclusive':


So who is this person who 'knows' who did it? What is the 'new evidence' they have provided? Jerry Lawton, responsible for the infamous 'GTA: Rothbury' article, explains:

A psychic has told police she sketched Jo Yeates’s killers only days before the murder.

Carol Everett says she saw the pair in a premonition she had about the landscape architect’s death.

The psychic investigator insists she “saw” Jo being attacked by two of a group of five men after she rejected their offer of a lift.

She said she did not realise the significance of her vision until Jo’s body was found three weeks later.

Carol, who claims her drawings have helped police in 20 previous cases, came forward after officers arrested Jo’s landlord Chris Jefferies, because she was certain detectives had got the wrong man.

The psychic – who handed police drawings of Soham double child killer Ian Huntley before his 2002 arrest, and claims she drew Washington sniper John Allen Muhammed – said she sketched Jo’s killing on December 7, 10 days before she vanished. “I just knew there was going to be something with this drawing,’’ she said. “I had a feeling about it.

The psychic goes on to give the height, age and race of the two men she thinks are guilty, which is quite irresponsible. As Jonathan, at No Sleep Til Brooklands says:

ultimately this kind of unfounded speculation from a single source who has no knowledge of the case can't be helpful, particularly when she's allowed to toss out potentially serious misinformation like this

Jonathan also looks at her 'contribution' to the Soham case:

She claimed to have drawn Huntley and Maxine Carr before they were arrested, a claim which seems impressive at first but falls apart when you scroll down to the untouched image, which has 'Carr' with beyond-shoulder-length hair, and an utterly generic white male drawing which claims Huntley has blue eyes (he doesn't)...and isn't even sure whether the thing on his head is hair or a scarf.

Jamie Thunder, who has also blogged about today's Star, calls it a 'disgrace':

I can’t imagine how this must make Joanna Yeates’ family feel. To have a national newspaper exploiting her death by printing pathetic, desperate, unfounded claims from a publicity-seeking fraud (or ‘psychic’) under a headline promising some sort of hope.

The Daily Star. Because sometimes losing your daughter just doesn’t hurt enough.

(Further posts about today's dreadful coverage - including the Sun's offer of a reward and Mail linking the murder to Facebook - from Roy Greenslade, Anorak and Angry Mob)

Recommended reading on Chris Jefferies

There have been two very good blogposts about the media's coverage of Chris Jefferies, who was arrested and then released on bail during the investigation into the murder of Joanna Yeates.

See Anton Vowl's 'Chris Jefferies and trial by media' and Minority Thought's 'A loss of faith in the morality of the British press'.

Anton writes:

Now is a time full of speculation and implication, of innuendo and finger-pointing; you might hope that the established media could demonstrate more restraint and subtlety than the blogosphere, proving their journalistic credentials and why they should be trusted news sources, but what we are left with from many sources is a trail of smearing and sneering.

Minority Thought adds:

The presumption of innocence is a vital part of the British justice system and is something that certain newspapers claim to hold dear, and rightly so. Yet almost all of them, from the Daily Mail and The Sun to the Daily Mirror and the Telegraph, have treated him as if he were guilty.

A tawdry frenzy

The arrest and charging of Stephen Griffiths led to a predictably hysterical outburst from the media. For example:


And it wasn't just the tabloids.

On both the BBC News Channel and Sky News this morning, we had at least 15 minutes of 'reporting' from outside a Bradford court, which involved their on-the-scene reporters saying nothing new over live pictures of the back of police van. When the van moved slightly, the camera crews ran to find a better position, before moving back to where they started when the van moved again.

And all this for a completely unrevealing two second (at most) glimpse of a person in a hoodie who could have been absolutely anyone.

It was dismal stuff - a prime example of what Charlie Brooker called 'boring live nothing'.

Once in court, Griffiths was asked to confirm his name:

Mr Griffiths told the court he was "the crossbow cannibal".

'Crossbow cannibal'? Now where have we heard that before?

Oh:


The overwhelming feeling from all this coverage is almost that we don't need to have a trial. Some sections of the media have already decided Griffiths is guilty.

There seems to be no thought of Barry George, or Robert Murat, or laws on contempt.

Much of it is pure speculation. The articles are peppered with such tell-tale phrases as 'it is understood that...' and 'a source revealed that...' and 'it is not known if...'

We are told - apparently - how he once swallowed a live rat, his mum liked to dress provacatively, he sent 'heavy items' down the communal rubbish chute in the early hours, his family were 'odd', he was a 'weirdo'.

And what about that 'cannibal' claim? The Sun admit:

Police are probing the possibility the killer may have eaten some of her flesh.

But they are still trying to find corroborating evidence.

The Express goes further:

Allegations of cannibalism were last night refuted by senior investigators who said there was "absolutely no evidence" of such an act in any of the cases.

So why did the Sun splash 'cannibal' all over the front page? Do we really need sensationalism in such a story?

Every paper was trying to find their own angle. The Star's was particularly notable:


'I survived the Ripper'. The obvious impression the Star's front page was trying to give was that Griffiths is the 'Ripper', he's guilty and they have spoken to someone who had a narrow escape from him.

But as ever with Star headlines, the story says no such thing:

A former vice girl last night told how a weirdo “with demon eyes” tried to pick her up just days before her prostitute pal was brutally murdered.

Anna Kennedy said she was approached at a petrol station in Bradford’s red light district.

The man seemed fascinated by her conversation with the cashier about the disappearance of two hookers within the past year.

She told the Daily Star the man “made my hairs stand on end” – and was even more terrified when she heard this week about the murder of her hooker friend Suzanne Blamires.

In fact, the Star makes no attempt to claim the 'weirdo with demon eyes' was Griffiths. Or even someone you needed to 'run for your life' from:

“I didn’t like the look of him,” she said.

“There was something about his eyes, demon eyes. Something about him made the hairs stand up on the back of my arms.”

Anna, 36, said she used to see the man “nearly every day’’ for 10 years while she was walking the streets but never felt threatened by him.

Hmm. So man goes up to till in petrol station and woman thinks he's creepy for joining the cashier's conversation. Despite never thinking him creepy for ten years before that.

The tabloids wallow in this stuff and there will be plenty more frenzied coverage over the weekend. It's all rather tawdry, but it is no real surprise - after all, it happens all too regularly.

Is it cuz he is black?

Like the Express, the Star also has the same, intrusive Tesco ad on the front page. Richard Desmond must be coining it in.

But the story (and for once, they appear to have accurately reported what has been said elsewhere) is framed in a strange way. After all, would the headline have ever been written as 'White Prem ace held in 'race abuse' attack' if the attacker was white? The answer, of course, is no.

So why is do they feel it relevant to highlight that the attacker was 'black' here?

How the tabloids cover crime

Anyone on the mailing list of the Institute of Race Relations will frequently receive batches of emails in their inbox highlighting news stories about racism. Having looked through some of these recently, one thought struck me - that I hadn't noticed any of these incidents mentioned in our favourite tabloids.

So in an entirely unscientific (and possible entirely useless) experiment, I randomly selected 13 articles from the past few weeks, mainly attacks against members of the black and ethnic minority community. I then searched the websites of the Sun, Express and Mail to see if any of them had reports on the story. The results won't surprise anyone, but here goes...

1. Man accused of five racist attacks in 11 minutes (Coventry Telegraph, 24 April 2009) - Jason Baker was charged with three counts of racially aggravated assault and one count of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm following the two incidents on March 30. He is accused of punching two people in the face, shouting ‘Get back to your own country’ at one of them, and later fracturing the skull of an Asian builder after hitting him with a hammer.

None of these tabloids covered the story.

2. Teachers report 'racist bullying' (bbc.co.uk, 23 April 2009) - A Teachers TV survey of 802 teachers has found that nearly half say racist bullying is a problem in their schools.

The Express covered in Racism is ‘still rife in schools’ (although the quote marks help put a suggestion of doubt around it)

3. Racist escapes terror charge (Scotsman, 15 April 2009) - Neil MacGregor has admitted threatening to blow up Scotland's biggest mosque and to behead one Muslim a week until every mosque was shut down.

None of these tabloids covered the story.

4. Racists force out Polish family (Newtownabbey Times, 15 April 2009) - Vandals smashed windows and sprayed graffiti at a property in the Forthilll Drive area - the latest in a series of sickening attacks in recent weeks...windows were smashed and the front of the house was painted with racist slogans including 'White Power' and 'Poles Out'.

None of these tabloids covered the story.

5. Alcoholic Tonbridge gunman jailed (thisiskent, 3 April 2009) - Ian Pennells admitted possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence after firing a .22 air rifle after terrorising two men in a drunken racist attack.

None of these tabloids covered the story.

6. Knife attack on Polish man (Paisley Daily Express, 31 March 2009) - A Polish man had his leg slashed after being ambushed by a gang of five men.

None of these tabloids covered the story.

7. Family speak out over racism terror (Newtownabbey Times, 26 March 2009) - An Indian woman has spoken out about the numerous racist attacks she and her family have been subjected to over a year and a half in Newtownabbey, near Belfast.

None of these tabloids covered the story.

8. Chef's jaw broken in racist attack (Asian News, 25 March) - Abdul Motin, who owns Shaheen Takeaway, was left with a badly broken jaw when thugs entered his premises on Friday night and threw a glass bottle at his face. He was hospitalised and needed reconstructive surgery on his jaw after the most recent in a string of attacks going back three years.

None of these tabloids covered the story.

9. £4,000 for Pendle race abuse teacher (Lancashire Telegraph, 25 March 2009) - Ajaz Ditta, a teacher who was racially abused by pupils at a Pendle school, has been awarded £4,000. The school has been ordered to implement changes and to take advice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

None of the tabloids covered this story. But note how the Sun, Mail (twice) and Express covered the case of Erica Connor who was 'branded a racist at a mainly Muslim school', so they're only interested when the racism is against white people.

10. Off-duty officers 'attacked' man (bbc.co.uk, 23 March 2009) - Southwark Crown Court has heard how three drunk, off-duty police officers attacked and racially abused Ghanian Ernest Domfeh on a Tube train in London.

The Mail did report on this story in Three drunk off-duty police officers 'attacked Tube passenger and called him a black b******', although have used quote marks to suggest they don't believe it, and have also used a deliberately unflattering pic of the victim, puffing on a cigarette.

11. Muslim inmates in racism claim (bbc.co.uk, 21 March 2009) - Muslim inmates at the Glen Parvae young offenders institute in Leicestershire have told the BBC that they have been verbally abused by staff. The complaints echo critical reports published by the prison inspectorate, citing similar racial taunts at other prisons.

None of these tabloids covered the story.

12. Police officers in abuse case accused of 60 other assaults (Guardian, 21 March 2009) - Police officers involved in the 'serious, gratuitous and prolonged' attack on Babar Ahmad that led to the Met police paying him £60,000 in damages have been accused of sixty previous assaults against other Black or Asian men.

All the tabloids including 'outraged' stories that Ahmad had been awarded damages. The Mail reported on the allegations here although with great scepticism.

13. Racist stab attack man locked up (Glasgow Evening Times, 4 March 2009) - Grant Murphy, 18, who stabbed a 14-year-old boy eight times in a racist attack in Glasgow city centre has been jailed for four years and three months.

None of these tabloids covered the story.

So there it is. 13 stories and only three articles appeared in the three tabloids (so 3 out of 39). This isn't scientific - articles may have appeared in the paper but not been added to the site (especially with the Express) but I think that's unlikely.

It could also be argued that these stories never appeared in the Independent or Guardian either and that would probably be true. But the point then is that those papers aren't so quick to publish stories where asylum seekers or minortiy ethnic people are the perpetrators, as the tabloids clearly are. It's not hard to imagine the coverage a roles-reversed version of story 3 would look... And the differences in the reporting of the teacher's compensation stories (no. 9) are stark.

When Ian Blair suggested the media is institutionally racist in its coverage of crime there was a predictable outcry from the media. Surely not us, guv. The Mail was happy to emphasis claims he'd 'lost the plot'. The Sun said: 'How dare Sir Ian use them as a platform for his political correctness? Besides, his assertions are absurd'. Clearly my little survey is very limited, but I am absolutely sure more examples would produce the same results. The tabloids have little interest in crime when the victims are from ethnic minorities, but dwell on it excessively when they're the perpetrators.

So, to end, a story from page 371 of Flat Earth News by Nick Davies:

I spoke to a man who had worked for the Daily Mail for some years as a senior news reporter. He said: 'They phoned me early one morning and told me to drive about three hundred miles to cover a murder. It was a woman and her two children who'd been killed. I got an hour into the journey, and the news desk called me on my mobile and said, "Come back." I said, "Why's that?" They said, "They're black."