{"id":27270,"date":"2007-09-07T16:33:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-07T15:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amateurphotographer.co.uk\/uncategorized\/bbc-apologises-over-hoax-meerkat-report-27270"},"modified":"2014-09-02T18:24:12","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T17:24:12","slug":"bbc-apologises-over-hoax-meerkat-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/bbc-apologises-over-hoax-meerkat-report\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC apologises over ‘hoax’ meerkat report"},"content":{"rendered":"

MEERKAT MOUNTAIN: THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE<\/p>\n

The BBC, The Guardian<\/i> and The Daily Telegraph<\/i> have today admitted that picture editors nationwide were duped into reporting that meerkats were capable of taking photographs.<\/p>\n

As Amateur Photographer<\/i> (AP) reported yesterday<\/a>, the UK widely reported<\/a> that a cheeky meerkat called Monty had used a Canon EOS 650 to take a portrait at Longleat Safari Park.<\/p>\n

The EOS 650 is a 20-year-old film-based SLR camera. <\/p>\n

But the reports stated that the pictures were stored on the camera’s ‘digital memory card’, an error quickly spotted by AP technical writer Barney Britton. <\/p>\n

This raised doubts about the story – prompting Keith Harris, head warden at Longleat Safari Park, to admit: ‘It started off as a joke. It was a slight hoax. The meerkats didn’t take any pictures at all.’<\/p>\n

Commenting on the fiasco, The Guardian<\/i>‘s media commentator Roy Greenslade said that his newspaper ?accepted the story at face value with a follow-up and a large picture in [today?s] G2? . <\/p>\n

In his report, on The Guardian<\/i> website, he adds: ?There was a glaring error in the story that picture editors should have spotted.?<\/p>\n

The Daily Telegraph<\/i>, which also published the story in good faith yesterday, reports on its website today: ?News of budding photographic talent amongst the UK?s meerkat population has been greatly exaggerated.? A meerkat photo caption adds: ?All was not exactly as it seemed on Meerkat Mountain?.<\/p>\n

The story had been distributed to the press by South West News Service, an agency whose picture editor Paul Walters today told The Daily Telegraph<\/a> he had accepted the images ?in good faith? as the work of the meerkats. ?We?ve been duped ultimately,? he told the paper.<\/p>\n

Roy Greenslade<\/a> added: ?The revelation of the hoax will certainly be a relief to newspaper photographers, who suffer from the indignity of being called ?monkeys? by reporters. If this had been a true story it would have confirmed the prejudices of their critics.?<\/p>\n

The story forced the BBC to apologise<\/a> this afternoon.<\/p>\n

Click on the full Amateur Photographer story here<\/a> for details of how the hoax was uncovered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The BBC, The Guardian<\/i> and The Daily Telegraph<\/i> have today admitted that picture editors nationwide were duped into reporting that meerkats were capable of taking photographs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":324,"featured_media":27271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"product-category":[],"class_list":["post-27270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photo-news"],"yoast_head":"\nBBC apologises over 'hoax' meerkat report - Amateur Photographer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The BBC, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph have today admitted that picture editors nationwide were duped into reporting that meerkats were capable of taking photographs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/bbc-apologises-over-hoax-meerkat-report\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BBC apologises over 'hoax' meerkat report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The BBC, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph have today admitted that picture editors nationwide were duped into reporting that meerkats were capable of taking photographs.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/bbc-apologises-over-hoax-meerkat-report\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Amateur Photographer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Amateur.photographer.magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-09-07T15:33:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-02T17:24:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2007\/09\/Telegraph_hoax.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"632\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"715\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Megan Graye\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AP_Magazine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AP_Magazine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Megan Graye\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/bbc-apologises-over-hoax-meerkat-report\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/bbc-apologises-over-hoax-meerkat-report\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Megan Graye\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/#\/schema\/person\/09a37c0ec6db00d983eb2045e99ff2f1\"},\"headline\":\"BBC apologises over ‘hoax’ meerkat report\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-09-07T15:33:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-02T17:24:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/bbc-apologises-over-hoax-meerkat-report\/\"},\"wordCount\":358,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/bbc-apologises-over-hoax-meerkat-report\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2007\/09\/Telegraph_hoax.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Latest news\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/bbc-apologises-over-hoax-meerkat-report\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/bbc-apologises-over-hoax-meerkat-report\/\",\"name\":\"BBC apologises over 'hoax' meerkat report - 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