Gotcha! Reversed

Prime Minister Harper will no longer be obliged to defend himself against accusations that he offended Roman Catholics by not adequately observing Church ritual. Claims that Mr. Harper, on the occasion of the state funeral held for former Governor General Romeo LeBlanc in Memramcook, New Brunswick, unheedingly pocketed a proffered wafer representing the 'body' of Christ instead of respectfully (even as an evangelical Protestant) eating it, raised a furore across the land.

That, despite that the officiating priest who had offered Mr. Harper the wafer, having attested that it had been duly eaten, when the story had first emerged. But the news media wanted some lively responses and they ran with it, joyfully picking up the story from the Saint John Telegraph-Journal; determined to get as much mileage and reader response from ongoing speculation out of the story as was conceivably possible.

Everyone felt like weighing in; from outraged Roman Catholics, to priests inveighing against offering the wafer to a non Roman Catholic, to pundits who did their best to assess the fallout come election time. The Pope, on meeting with Mr. Harper, had the good sense to avert his attention from this non-issue. And now, the very newspaper that broke the story had to eat crow, admitting that the reporters who wrote the original story did not themselves suggest that the prime minister gave grave disrespect to ritual by placing the wafer in his pocket.

The insinuation verging on accusation was written into the story after it was filed by way of an edit. Added without the knowledge or acquiescence of the two reporters who filed the story and whose bylines appeared above it. Mischief? You bet. Malfeasance? Of a type. Both the editor whose offensive addition was responsible for the resulting national (even international) hubbub, along with the editor-in-chief who exercised such poor judgement, are looking elsewhere now to fulfil their newspapering aspirations.

Controversy in this particular instance over for now. Doubtless there will be other purported lapses in due diligence to be reported on in the future. But for now, the paper involved has published an apology, one graciously accepted by the Prime Minister.