There are times when editors breathe a huge sigh relief...
Yesterday, at 3.36pm to be precise, the sports desk received an enticing and very professional-looking press release headed: "Fan's bid to save club."
It was accompanied by an email from Katie Woodward, of the North-East PR Group, advising us that her company was acting on behalf of a Mr Rick Parkinson, regarding a potential bid for Newcastle United.
The media release explained that "multi-millionaire textile magnate" Mr Parkinson had put a £150m consortium together. It all seemed very plausible.
Ms Woodward's explanatory email stated that the press statement would be released officially at precisely 8am the following morning. This was our chance to get the story ahead of the rest.
But we smelled a rat. We could find no reference on-line to Mr Parkinson and we'd never come across Katie Woodward.
We, therefore, took the decision not to publish the story. It would have been reckless to have gone ahead without having some verification.
I'm so glad that we took that decision - unlike Sky TV, the Press Association and other newspapers - because it turned out to be a hoax.
All will be revealed in tomorrow morning's Northern Echo.
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