UK news site Kent Live unpublished after falling for a fake story.
The Aug. 29 story that was published on its website was headlined “Dreamland theme park goers were left terrified after the Scenic Railway broke down,” according to Press Gazette.
The story claimed that people were trapped on a ride at the Margate-owned Dreamland theme park’s Scenic Railway ride. Margate is in Kent, England. But, that ride isn’t open and the photo used by the paper actually showed staff on the ride, Press Gazette reported.
The Dreamland website states on its homepage, “The Scenic Railway testing is now underway and we anticipate that the ride will be ready to take passengers soon. We are sorry for the wait!”
Kent Live added a follow-up story reporting that the original story was false but not admitting that it published the fake story. iMediaEthics has written to Kent Live and the Margate theme park for more information and further comment. We’ll update with any additional response.
“No guests were trapped on a Dreamland ride yesterday (August 29), a representative for the Margate theme park has confirmed following publication of a photo on twitter of the Scenic Railway halted on the track,” the follow-up article said. “A spokeswoman for the company said it was engineers and operations staff testing the ride who were seen in photo not paying guests at the park.”
Hat Tip: David Mascord