Great white lie
Britain’s great white shark story was a hoax after all. It was indeed a great white, but it was filmed off South Africa - not England.
“I took it whilst I was on a fishing trip in Cape Town and just sent it in as a joke,” the cameraman told the Newquay Voice. “I didn’t expect anyone to be daft enough to take it seriously.”
The Sun did, and got a full week out of it. But while it was chasing a non-existent shark, the Mirror secured the interview with Pete Doherty in which he begged Kate Moss to return. The Sun’s editor Rebekah Wade is reported (by the Guardian) to have sent this furious email to staff:
From: Wade, Rebekah
Sent: 31 July 2007 12:30
To: Clench, James; France, Anthony; Brian Flynn; Hagan, Lucy; Hartley, Clodagh; Lazzeri, Antonella; Lister, Kathryn; Lorraine, Veronica; O’Shea, Gary; Parker, Nick; Peake, Alex; Syson, Neil; Wheeler, Virginia; Whitaker, Thomas; White, Richard; Smart, Gordon; Lawler, Danielle; Moult, Julie; Samson, Pete; Rothstein, Simon
Cc: Pharo, Chris; O’Driscoll, Ben; Edwards, John - The Sun; Newton, Victoria; Picton, Pete
Subject: Pete DohertyHow many of you woke up this morning, read the Daily Mirror and tendered your resignation?
Thanks mainly to a few brilliant journalists like John Kay and Tom Newton Dunn we have scooped the rest of fleet street week in week out this year with brilliant exclusives from Kate and Wills split to the Friendly Fire video.
But this morning you chose to hand The Mirror a gift wrapped exclusive. I have asked repeatedly “when will we get the Pete Doherty interview’?’ because unless you have all lost any journalistic ability you ever had - it was pretty much a no-brainer to believe he was going to talk. It is the sloppiness not the size of the story that has compelled me to write this email. The lack of initiative and determination from reporters; photographers; news desk, picture desk and Bizarre to get this ’sitter’ is totally astonishing. And when the story broke - we didn’t even get it online until 10.30am.
Can anyone explain this aberration? Answers on a postcard please.
They might have preferred to have been bitten by a shark.
the gas thing about this story is how it diverts from the panic of the major and the amity townspeople in Jaws who are terrified that if news of a white pointer gets out that tourism will die. In reality, there isnt a small town major anywhere in these isles who wouldn’t give their right arm literally to have a white shark crusing their waters, imagine the boost to tourism, the give away in the shot was the breaching, only south african great whites in the area of seal bay breach like that, great whites in other parts of the world simply dont do that.
Comment by Rev Jules | August 9, 2007 at 6:51 pmYou’re probably right about the tourism. I’ll have to take your word on the habits of South African great whites.
Comment by Shane | August 9, 2007 at 9:23 pm