The UK Sun stirred controversy when it slammed students for finding Frankenstein’s monster victim. The Sun‘s March 5 story was headlined, “Snowflake students claim Frankenstein’s monster was ‘misunderstood’ — and is in fact a victim.”
Now, the newspaper is apologizing. The Sun published a page 2 apology on March 8 that apologizes not to the students it called snowflakes, but rather to monsters.
Before the apology, Sun spokesperson Andy Silvester noted on Twitter that the same claims were published in the Sun‘s sister paper, the Times of London. He also tweeted a lengthy statement saying, “We’re delighted that our article has turned the spotlight on this classic of literature.”
Silvester tweeted, “Our full statement is below, though I can’t *quite believe* I’m having to defend a story which WAS IN THE TIMES THE DAY BEFORE AND NOBODY CARED.” iMediaEthics notes that the Times story, which was published March 5, was headlined, “Frankenstein’s monster? He was stitched up, say millenials.”
The Sun statement notes that “our story simply reflects that with time, more and more people have begun to see the character not as a terror to be feared but find his actions to be a result of the unimaginable horror from which he has been created.”
In a subsequent tweet, Silvester added,
“I’m treating the story with the seriousness it deserves. Which is no seriousness whatsoever. Also, screw it, if people are talking about 19th century literature on twitter, then I’m glad we’ve written the damn thing. It’s better than the media bubble eating itself for a change.”
The apology reads,
“Frankenstein’s Monster: An Apology
“An article in Tuesday’s Sun suggested ‘Snowflake’ students were wrong to side with Frankenstein’s monster in the classic Mary Shelley novel. We would like to apologise to him, and all fictitious monsters, or any offence caused.”