The Sun has apologised for falsely claiming that TV hypnotist Paul McKenna had been drunk on a transatlantic flight and abusive towards staff.
The page 3 article, published on 1 January, was headlined “McKenna’s Brahms ’n hypnotist”.
It claimed other passengers on the flight had seen McKenna “staggering around” the airplane while “pissed” and spilling a drink on a fellow passenger. It also said that when he was refused more alcohol, McKenna had “kicked off” which made a flight attendant cry.
McKenna complained to press regulator Ipso, claiming that the story was false and he was in fact suffering from food poisoning. He also alleged that the journalist had broken Ipso’s rules on subterfuge in his discussions with his spokesperson.
The hypnotist said he did not believe that the Sun had witnesses who said he had made the attendant cry, or that the airline had confirmed the incident off the record.
His complaint also said that the journalist had given the impression that he had both a sound recording of the incident and a statement from the airline, when in fact the the recording was of witnesses describing what they had seen and the airline did not issue a statement until after McKenna’s spokesperson had provided a comment.
It also said that his spokesperson had been told that the allegations of being drunk and making the attendant cry would not be published, something denied by the newspaper.
Ipso said that the story had been inaccurate, but rejected McKenna’s complaint about subterfuge, saying that while the journalist had “exaggerated the evidential basis for the story” he had not concealed his job or that he was inquiring about McKenna’s behaviour on the flight.
The apology, printed on page 2 on Tuesday: read: “Our 1 January article about Paul McKenna wrongly alleged that Paul McKenna was drunk on a flight to Barbados; was accordingly refused alcohol by the flight crew; and reacted to that refusal by launching into an abusive rant which reduced a female flight attendant to tears. We now accept that these allegations were untrue. We apologise to Mr McKenna.”
Earlier this month, the Mirror also apologised for publishing the same story.
The ruling is the latest in a string of complaints that have been upheld against against Sun articles this year, including its “Queen backs Brexit” front page, which was deemed to have a misleading headline, and a story alleging that one in five British Muslims had sympathy for Islamic militants, which Ipso said was significantly misleading.
