Daily Star Apologises to Rockstar

Remember Jerry Lawton, the journalist who made up a story about “Grand Theft Auto: Rothbury” and then lied to a grieving grandmother to get quotes? Well this morning the Daily Star, Mr Lawton’s employers and the publishers of that invented story, have admitted they were wrong. The British tabloid has accepted that there was no accuracy in the story, that they didn’t do even the most basic of fact-checking and that the article was entirely incorrect.

The publication has posted a public apology to Rockstar. They also say they’ve paid “substantial damages” which Rockstar will be giving to charity (which is nice of them) and fully retracted the story in a statement which, in part, reads:

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 think that it takes a certain amount of honour to accept you were wrong and apologise. We’d like to congratulate the Daily Star for having the decency to admit their appalling journalistic practice in this instance and apologise for their mistake. Now, will Jerry Lawton show similar respect for truth and decency by apologising for his FaceBook tirade against gamers?