A lot of papers were wrong in the summer about the cost of coeliac bread prescriptions. £32.27 A LOAF, said the Sun, under the banner ‘Prescription Scandal’. Similar stories appeared in the Telegraph, the Mirror and the Mail. All these appear to have been taken down from the papers’ sites. You can read all about it, and see the Sun spread, on media journalist Roy Greenslade’s blog – though many of the links no longer work.
Only Wales Online, still seem to be live with the story, as far as I can see (this link may not work soon, though).
The Express corrected their piece the following day.
The Sun took two months, as the Sun – Tabloid Lies blog pointed out.
The Daily Mail issued a correction yesterday, mid-October. It’s a correction, it must really be emphasised, and not an apology, as this post on the Coeliac Chat Board suggests.
We appear to still be waiting for the Mirror and Telegraph.
(If you’re interested in the source of the story, and the mistake which led to it, I can recommend this Tabloid Watch blog post.)
We’ve also waited six months for the BBC to rule on complaints made to them from viewers (or ‘viewer’ – singular – as they have it for some inexplicable reason) of Saturday Kitchen regarding remarks made by guest chef Anthony Demetre, which I blogged about earlier in the year here and then here.
The complaint was upheld – and there have been a lot of expressions of (small) victory from coeliacs online, and rightly so, although many remain dissatisifed, such as the GF Guerrillas, and I don’t blame them.
As far as I am aware, the BBC hasn’t apologised, and neither has Saturday Kitchen / the production company behind the show.
The only apology, unless I’m mistaken, is from Anthony Demetre himself, issued through his agent, in April.
He says: “I apologise for causing any offence, and for being perceived as handing out bad advice, or for allegedly underplaying the seriousness of this condition.”
Allegedly? For ‘being perceived’? At the time I was unsatisfied with the wording, but in retrospect, in light of the fact that nobody else is saying sorry to the coeliac community for getting things wrong, perhaps we should be grateful for that small gesture – and let’s hope for more to come…