Results tagged “Liverpool Echo World Exclusives Rick Parry Michael Shields” from Liverpool Echo - Echo Editor's Blog

Been getting some flak over two 'World Exclusives' we championed on our front page last Friday.
Deserved some of it certainly.
This is what happened. There were two big stories on the go and we'd stolen a march on both of them.One was Liverpool FC parting company with Rick Parry and the other was an 'announcement' about jailed Reds fan, Michael Shields.
The Parry story was a belter. The whole world was after it but our Reds correspondent Tony Barrett got it first and it was on our website before the chasing pack had rubbed the sleep out of their eyes. Reds are global news. It was, in my opinion, a genuine world exclusive. (Bit self-indulgent, I know, but we don't come into this business to finish second)..
As that story was breaking we got a solid tip-off that there was a big development in the Michael Shields case. We asked how big. And were told 'very signficant'.
By this time we had minutes until press deadline.
We took a punt and set up a front page that had SHIELDS FREED, next to PARRY TO GO. We put world exclusive on both stories.
Of course, we couldn't print until we had confirmation on the Shields line. We waited, and waited, ...then it broke. No release, rather, the news that Merseyside Police had been called into the inquiry.
Good story, but not the scale we had imagined.
By this time the press crew were screaming at us and the vans were queuing up outside.
We lashed in the correct story but in our pressurised haste, forgot to remove the World Exclusive tag from the original lay-out.
Simple as that. People working under pressure sometimes make mistakes in good faith. My fault.
That night Bernard Hogan-Howe, Merseyside Chief Constable, gently poked fun at me over the Shields 'World Exclusive'. He had a laugh when I told him the circumstances.
But yeah, I know. We were getting a bit full of ourselves anyway.
Message received and understood.