'Profuse apologies'

Not BBC-related but obviously related to the previous post, I see that one of the Exaro people Newsnight used to work with - Orwell Prize-winning ex-Guardian reporter David Hencke (a precursor of the Observer's Carole Cadwalladr) - provoked The Guardian into this fulsome apology to Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard today:

Stephen Pollard, an apology. There were a number of significant errors in a report by David Hencke on page 9, yesterday, headed Chance chat over dinner led Blair to order u-turn on beds. 

The report depended substantially on the assertion that Tony Blair had had an animated conversation on the NHS beds crisis with Stephen Pollard, described as an associate editor of the Daily Express, whom he was said to have met by chance while the latter was dining in the River Cafe with his girlfriend. 

Mr Pollard is not an associate editor of the Daily Express; he is a columnist. He has never eaten in the River Cafe, let alone with Tony and Cherie Blair. While it is true that he has strong views on the NHS and the private sector, he has never discussed them "animatedly" with Tony or Cherie Blair. 

Mr Hencke did not check any of this with Mr Pollard. Profuse apologies.

Would that the BBC were more willing to offer such 'profuse apologies'!