The Daily Star, owned by Daily Express and XLeague.tv, and famed UK pornographer, Richard Desmond, has been forced into a humiliating climbdown, retraction and apology for its GTA Rothbury story.
In case you've already forgotten it, the story revolved around an entirely fabricated idea that Rockstar would be making a game based on the recent killing spree of Raul Moat.
On Saturday, the paper printed the following (we've bolded the most salient paragraph)
"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."
We're not linking to the Star, however, you can read the note over here.
In case you've already forgotten it, the story revolved around an entirely fabricated idea that Rockstar would be making a game based on the recent killing spree of Raul Moat.
On Saturday, the paper printed the following (we've bolded the most salient paragraph)
"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."
We're not linking to the Star, however, you can read the note over here.
Companies:
Rockstar
Read More Like This
Comments
DrkStr 26 Jul 2010 12:13
1/1
I notice they aren't apologising to the "family member impacted by the recent tragedy" - I think they deserve an apology too.