These things never happened: Bill Clinton shilling for a Chinese men's clothing label, Diana Ross getting engaged to David Gest, or Indian scientists inventing a robot to help couples with their sex lives. Again: none of these things happened, but UK news site Ananova reported all of them and then published corrections. We can't put our brutish North American finger on it, but there's something about the way the corrections and apologies are written on Ananova that makes it seem like they are written with a fist firmly planted in cheek. You decide:
Rowan Atkinson - an apology
On December 31, 2003, we published an article entitled: "Rowan Atkinson 'treated for depression'" where we wrongly reported that Rowan Atkinson had spent time in an Arizona clinic to receive treatment for depression.
In fact Rowan Atkinson is not and has never suffered from depression (severe or otherwise) and did not spend time at an Arizona clinic to receive treatment for depression.
We apologise to Rowan Atkinson and are happy to put the record straight.
Or this one:
Rasta Pasta was never on the menu
A story published on August 31 stated a Wakefield headteacher had been criticised for introducing a dish called Rasta Pasta to school menus during a project on race.
Ananova has since discovered the entire detail of the article was false and arose from a supply of bogus information to us.
We are happy to confirm the school had no such dish on its menu and that no story stating it did have has been published by the Wakefield Express newspaper.
We are happy to apologise to the school quoted in the article, Horbury Junior School, Wakefield Council and the Wakefield Express.
These notes are simultaneously the most apologetic and nasty corrections we have ever read. Oh, you mean that wasn't you assaulting a blind man with a stolen crtuch? We'd really like to apologize about saying you just assaulted a blind man with a stolen crutch. Just so we're clear: you had nothing to do with assaulting that blind chap with the nicked crutch. Terrible sorry about that. Fancy a shag, you blind beater?
