NPR Reports Hundreds of Children Buried in Irish Septic Tank, Posts Correct

iMediaEthics publishes international media ethics news stories and investigations into journalism ethics lapses.

Menu

Home » Apologies & Retractions»

(Credit: Flickr, "Dave Dugdale" www.learningdslrvideo.com

Gore creates clicks; never mind if it’s not fact checked.

Hundreds of children were not discovered buried in a mass unmarked grave in a septic tank in Tuam, Ireland. The Associated Press issued a whopper of a correction earlier this month to their erronous story, as iMediaEthics previously reported.

Regardless, five news outlets reported “800 Baby Skeletons” were found; they weren’t. This truth would have been known to reporters if they had bothered to fact check.

Now the disgrace falls on National Public Radio, which has also published a long correction admitting that its original report contained errors.

NPR said its article has been updated to correct the errors, such as wrongly reporting hundreds of bodies were discovered and that the true story had been “exaggerated.” NPR published the following June 24 correction about a story it broadcast on June 3:

“This post originally stated that the bodies of hundreds of children had been found in a septic tank at a former home for unwed mothers in Tuam, Ireland, drawing from news reports that were based on research conducted by a local historian. The story was exaggerated by the media and key details of the historian’s findings have been called into question. It’s not clear how many — if any — bodies may be buried in the disused tank. This post has been updated to reflect developments.”

In addition to its correction, the AP published a June 23 story explaining how it made the errors — by “repeating incorrect” claims from other news outlets:

“The Associated Press was among the media organizations that covered Corless and her findings, repeating incorrect Irish news reports that suggested the babies who died had never been baptized and that Catholic Church teaching guided priests not to baptize the babies of unwed mothers or give to them Christian burials.”

 

Were 800 Baby Skeletons found? NO

Numerous other news outlets also had faulty headlines on top of their reports about the Tuam Catholic home for unwed mothers.

UK online magazine Spiked editor Brendan O’Neill told the AP one major error he saw in the news media’s coverage was inaccurate headlines.

News outlets referred to 800 baby skeletons being found, which is flat-out wrong. No skeletons were found, much less 800 of them.  Fact checking would have revealed that what was found was 796 death records for children living in Tuam, Ireland at the Catholic Church-run home for mothers and children.

Irish historian Catherine Corless, who obtained the records, only suggested the bodies may be in a disused septic tank. But, as the Associated Press’ correction noted, this speculation can’t be determined as fact without analysis.

Below, see a list of news outlets that erred by stating in gory headlines that babies’ skeletons were found.

The Daily News‘ June 3 story:

Australia’s News.Com.au used the following headline and also repeated the error about babies’ skeletons being found.

 

Christian Post published a June 3 headline that also inaccurately stated 800 babies’ skeletons were found.

 

The article repeated the erronenous claims that the 800 skeletons were found in a septic tank:

“An old septic tank located next to a former home for unwed mothers run by Catholic nuns in Ireland from 1925 to 1961, was revealed this week to be a massive grave containing the skeletons of nearly 800 infants and children.”

Al Jazeera also erred when its inaccurate headline said babies’ skeletons were in the septic tank.

Thought Catalog did the same thing. It wrongly said in a June 4 headline that 800 babies were found in a septictank.

 

Submit a tip / Report a problem

NPR Reports Hundreds of Children Buried in Irish Septic Tank, Posts Correction

Share this article:

คาสิโน
สล็อต
sa gaming
tkb365
https://tkb399.com/login
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต
ทำความรู้จักกับ
PG
สล็อต
tkb138
sa gaming
https://www.hotelplayagolf.com/es/instalaciones/piscinas
tkb365
บาคาร่า
สล็อตเว็บตรง
บาคาร่า
ทดลองเล่นสล็อตฟรี
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต pg
สล็อตเว็บตรง
สล็อตเว็บตรง
tkb138
ซุปเปอร์สล็อต
tkb138
tkb365
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต
changbet789
สูตรสล็อต pg ทดลองเล่นฟรี
สล็อต ดาวน์โหลด รับเครดิตฟรี
สล็อต
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต
tkb138
https://www.hotelalbora.com/
https://tkb108.co/register
tkb696
สล็อตเว็บตรง
changbet789
สล็อตทดลอง
pg
betflix
pg slot
สล็อต
pg slot
สล็อตเว็บจริง100%
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต
sbobet
ดลองเล่นสล็อต pg
tkb138
https://titanium-hotel.com/
สล็อต
tkb138
taokaebet
tkb777
อันดับแรก
คาสิโน
changbet789
แจกเครดิตฟรี 100%
ทดลองเล่นสล็อตทุกค่ายฟรี
สล็อต
changbet789
tkb365
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต
changbet789
finfinbet
คาสิโน
changbet789
tkb108
tkbneko
สล็อตเว็บตรง
สล็อต
สล็อต
สล็อต
https://www.gday96.com/
สล็อต888
สล็อต
PG
บาคาร่าเว็บตรง
changbet789
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต pg
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต
ทดลองเล่นสล็อตฟรี
tkb365
tkb365
tkb365
tkb555
tkb555
tkb555
tkb555
tkb555
tkb555
tkb555
tkbking
tkbking
tkbking
tkbking
tkbking
tkbking
thb889
thb889
thb889
thb889
thb889
thb889
thb889
tkb4
tkb4
tkb4
tkb4
tkb4
tkb4
tkb4
tkb9
tkb9
tkb9
tkb9
tkb9
tkb9
tkb9
tkb33
tkb33
tkb33
tkb33
tkb33
tkb33
tkb33
finfinbet
finfinbet
finfinbet
finfinbet
finfinbet
finfinbet
finfinbet
TKB96
tkb96
tkb96
tkb96
tkb96
tkb96
tkb96
tkbfun
tkbfun
tkbfun
tkbfun
tkbfun
tkbfun
tkbfun
tkbpg
tkbpg
tkbpg
tkbpg
tkbpg
tkbpg
tkbpg
tkbpussy
tkbpussy
tkbpussy
tkbpussy
tkbpussy
tkbpussy
tkbpussy
tkbrich
tkbrich
tkbrich
tkbrich
tkbrich
tkbrich
tkbrich
tkbsexy
tkbsexy
tkbsexy
tkbsexy
tkbsexy
tkbsexy
tkb777
tkb777
tkb777
tkb777
tkb777
tkb777
tkb777
taokaebet
taokaebet
taokaebet
taokaebet
taokaebet
taokaebet
taokaebet
tkbsexy
tkbrich
tkbpussy
tkbpg
tkbfun
tkb96
tkb33
tkb9
tkb4
thb889
tkbking
tkb555
tkb365
changbet789
บาคาร่า
คาสิโนออนไลน์
sa gaming
คาสิโนออนไลน์สด
สล็อต
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต pg ซื้อฟรีสปิน
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต
บาคาร่า
สล็อต เว็บตรงไม่ผ่านเอเย่นต์ไม่มีขั้นต่ำ
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต
สล็อต