ACA Botches Royal Announcement, As UK’s The Sun Wrongly Reports Philip’s Death

ACA Botches Royal Announcement, As UK’s The Sun Wrongly Reports Philip’s Death

When the Queen called all the help to Buckingham Palace yesterday afternoon for an important announcement the world’s media quickly went into a complete tizz.

Early reports said the flag atop the Palace itself was at half-mast and rumours circulated that Her Maj herself had finally popped her royal clogs.

Thankfully, the actual announcement was merely to do with her 95-year-old husband, Prince Philip, retiring from public duty.

Our very own veritable news organ, Nine’s A Current Affair, was first to botch the reporting, with host Tracy Grimshaw last night telling viewers it was the Queen who was officially retiring from public life.

Grimshaw told viewers  she had “confirmation of the significant news” during a live cross with the program’s UK correspondent Michael Best outside Buckingham Palace before wrongly reporting the news.

To be fair to Grimshaw, she was merely reading out what she was being told over an earpiece. However, her error was correctly amended by Best.

However, ACA’s balls-up wasn’t a patch on UK newspaper The Sun who filed a story on its website reporting that Prince Philip had actually died.

Screen Shot 2017-05-05 at 9.39.20 am

The Rupert Murdoch-owned publication posted a story online with the headline “Prince Philip dead at 95, how did the Duke of Edinburgh die, etc etc.”

“Prince Philip, otherwise known as the Duke of Edinburgh, was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II,” the story read.

The article was quickly deleted soon after, however, it still appeared on Google searches and the publisher soon tweeted out an apology.




Latest News

Sydney Comedy Festival: Taking The City & Social Media By Storm
  • Media

Sydney Comedy Festival: Taking The City & Social Media By Storm

Sydney Comedy Festival 2024 is live and ready to rumble, showing the best of international and homegrown talent at a host of venues around town. As usual, it’s hot on the heels of its big sister, the giant that is the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, picking up some acts as they continue on their own […]

Global Marketers Descend For AANA’s RESET For Growth
  • Advertising

Global Marketers Descend For AANA’s RESET For Growth

The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has announced the final epic lineup of local and global marketing powerhouses for RESET for Growth 2024. Lead image: Josh Faulks, chief executive officer, AANA  Back in 2000, a woman with no business experience opened her first juice bar in Adelaide. The idea was brilliantly simple: make healthy […]