After Fulham, what Arsène did not say: an Untold apology « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
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After Fulham, what Arsène did not say: an Untold apology
By: Anne
In my previous Untold Media article, “After Fulham. All the things the press reported but which Arsène did not say,” I made the insinuation that a certain quote by Arsène Wenger had likely been fabricated by the media. Specifically, I said that:
“For some reason, nearly every major newspaper in England appears to have published the same fabricated quote from Arsène Wenger…That is, unless I’m going temporarily deaf during the same portion of the post-match press conference over and over again…[I]t seems that any journalist who actually attended or watched the press conference would simply have to be aware that, during the conference, Arsène did not say [anything about the referee being ‘naive.’]”
I followed this comment with a list of quotes attributed to Arsène in various publications in which he called referee Lee Probert “naive,” along with the names of the journalists who published these quotes.
Immediately afterwards, I included the following qualification:
“I have watched the post-match press conference four times in a row, and…I cannot make out the word ‘naive’ anywhere. If anyone else can, please let me know, so that I can offer a full and public apology to the above journalists.”
Well, I have to give credit to Untold commenter Chad for taking me up on the above challenge, and drawing my attention to this BBC interview where Arsene did, in fact, call referee Probert “naive,” exactly as was reported (Arsene’s “naive” comment can be found at the 50 second mark):
So, in accordance with my promise in the original article, I would now like to offer a “full and public apology” to the following journalists:
- Laura Williamson of the Daily Mail
- Neil McLeman of the Mirror
- The BBC (author unattributed)
- David Hytner of the Guardian
- Antony Kastrinkis of the Sun
As the video link above clearly shows, I was completely and utterly incorrect to insinuate in my previous article that any of these journalists had published a fabricated quote from Arsene Wenger about the referee being “naive.” The truth is that Arsene did, in fact, make this statement to the BBC, and was quoted accurately. So, I’m sorry to all concerned, and I retract* the above-referenced portion of my previous article.
I also hope that any and all of these same journalists will comport themselves in a similar manner with regard to any future inaccuracies about Arsenal that might appear in their own reporting.
So, to wrap up, I once again offer my full and sincere apology to all of the above journalists. And my thanks to Chad as well, who pointed out my mistake in the comments.
*With regard to David Hytner of the Guardian and Antony Kastrinakis of the Sun, I would like to clarify that Untold Media stands by all of our other previous coverage of these journalists, aside from the specific incident referenced above.
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