A while ago we talked about howThe Daily Starran afictional story as fact. The story claimed that Rockstar was developing aGrand Theft Autogame on British murderer Raoul Moat, and went so far as to contact the grandmother of one of his victims and tell her. This week, the British rag has paid “substantial” damages toGTApublisher Take-Two.
Despite the original writer of the article (Jerry Lawton, a tosser) making fun of gamers andrefusing to apologizewith sneering contempt, his publication refused to back him and said it was sorry. Despite the apology, theStarwas taken to the High Court on charges of libel and lost.
“Professional” journalists often know nothing of accountability, since they control all content in their publication and often keep their less-than-net-savvy readers in the dark about facts. Jerry Lawton’s behavior confirmed that he thought the Star would get away with it, but he’s learned a valuable lesson — being a lying little shit doesn’t always work out so well.
