Coronavirus and the British Press - disgracing itself as usual

This post has been cross-posted at Harry's Place

The current Coronavirus crisis is bringing out the worst in British journalism with panic mongering and false reporting showing up our tabloid press as incompetent as well as dangerous.

Look at this disgraceful farrago. On the 2nd April the Daily Mirror tweeted a headline that said that "UK's deadliest day set to be Easter Sunday when government fears 50,000 will die" quoting “a source”. Of course this was unlikely on any reckoning especially since the lock down was in place by then.

If you look for the page on this story now you will see that the Mirror has changed the headline to “Coronavirus 'could kill 50,000' in UK with Easter Sunday 'to be deadliest day'”. Rather a change eh ?  And at the bottom of the article they say "Mirror Online has amended this story to clarify that, according to a source, as many as 50,000 people could die in the UK throughout the entire pandemic, not before Easter Sunday."

A disgrace to journalism - but there you go, alarmism, incompetence and buried retractions - all stock in trade for much of the MSM. Lets hope after this crisis is over there is some reckoning for this kind of behaviour.