The Washington Post corrected after falsely claiming that “Prince Charles has always denied he’s member of the IRA,” the Washingtonian‘s Andrew Beaujon reported.
The May 19 story, “Prince Charles to ‘reconcile’ IRA and Britain,” was temporarily unpublished and then re-posted. The article mixed up Prince Charles with Gerry Adams, the president of Irish political party Sinn Fein. It nows carries this correction:
“Correction: An earlier version of this story transposed the names of Prince Charles and Gerry Adams. This version has been corrected.”
The story on the meeting between Prince Charles and Adams “to promote ‘reconciliation and healing,'” wasn’t written by a Post reporter, though, but credits entertainment news agency bangshowbiz.com. The Post told Washingtonian that it has “an experimental partnership with Bangshowbiz.com, an entertainment syndicate service, to offer our readers additional entertainment news and updates.”
Irish news site The Journal has screenshots of the error and noted that neither Prince Charles nor Adams claim to have been members of the IRA.
Adams “has consistently denied that he was ever a member of the IRA, but has said he will never ‘disassociate’ himself from the organisation,” the BBC’s profile of Adams states.
(Credit: The Washington Post via the Journal
In addition to the Bang Show Biz article, the Washington Post published its own article on the Prince Charles-Gerry Adams meeting, “Prince Charles, in Ireland, meets with Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams.”
iMediaEthics has written to the Washington Post and Bang Show Biz for more information. We will update with any additional information.
UPDATE: 5/19/2015 10:02 PM EST The Washington Post declined to comment.