Snow retracts claim DUP wants an end to ban on loyalist parades
4 News presenter Jon Snow has corrected his claim that the DUP “demand the unbanning of sectarian marches” as part of a deal with Theresa May.
After questions were put to Channel 4 News by the Belfast Telegraph yesterday, the journalist retracted the erroneous remark.
“I must correct myself,” he wrote on Twitter, more than 48 hours after the original tweet.
“The DUP have NOT ‘demanded the unbanning of sectarian marches as part of the deal’, contrary to my tweet of June 12.
“In fact, a branch of the Loyplied al Orange Lodge has expressed hope that the parading issue will be high on the agenda for the new government.”
The original tweet, posted on Monday, was quickly criticised as “fake news” after he wrongly attributed a statement by the Orange Order in Portadown to the DUP.
It provoked criticism, which intensified when Sinn Fein MP Barry McElduff posted a selfie with Mr Snow on Tuesday evening alongside his six Westminster colleagues — less than a week after the Channel 4 News anchor branded the DUP extremists.
Yesterday Ian Paisley criticised the Sinn Fein selfie when he reCHANNEL to Mr Snow’s comments from June 9, writing: “Really Jon you should know better. Though I see your SF friends are happy with you.”
Following the correction, Mr Paisley commented again.
“Jon why report the news when you can make it up,” he wrote.
A senior source at Channel 4 News told the Belfast Telegraph that two complaints have been received in relation to the June 12 tweet, adding: “Jon Snow is an impartial journalist who agrees to dozens of selfies every day.
“Come the day when the Democratic Unionist Party ask for a selfie, I know he will be happy to oblige.”