BEN FORDHAM: There's a bit of breaking news coming out of the union movement this afternoon because there is a raid going on in Melbourne. The CFMEU's offices in Swanston Street have been raided by the Royal Commission. — 2GB, Sydney Live, 27th August, 2015

Hello, I'm Paul Barry, welcome to Media Watch.

And that was Sydney radio host Ben Fordham catching onto a big scoop in Melbourne's Herald Sun that that had just popped up online :

CFMEU Offices raided Detectives from Taskforce Heracles entered the building before 9am. Rank and file CFMEU members at the office said there were several police there. — Herald Sun, 27th August, 2015

Great story. And it made good sense, because police had raided the union's Canberra office just two days before.

But who were those CFMEU members who saw all the cops?

Because, surprise surprise, the raid had never actually happened

As Victorian police were soon telling journalists:

Taskforce Heracles did not execute a warrant on the CFMEU headquarters this morning. — Victoria Police, Media Statement, 27th August, 2015

Whoops. Er must have imagined it.

And so, less than an hour after putting it up, the Hun removed the story from its website.

But how had it got there in the first place?

Well, at 10.14 that morning Herald Sun reporter Stephen Drill had emailed the union's media officer Clancy Dobbyn to check on a tip-off.

Hi Clancy, I have had a tip that Victoria Police raided the CFMEU offices this morning. Is that correct? — Stephen Drill, Journalist, Herald Sun, email to CFMEU, 27th August, 2015

Dobbyn, who was out of the office, told Drill he knew nothing about it.

Not a good sign.

As Dobbyn told Media Watch:

From my perspective a raid is not opinion, it's a matter of fact. It either did or did not happen. I would have assumed that he would have checked more sources than me. He might have thought to check with, I don't know, the police? — Clancy Dobbyn, CFMEU spokesman, 28th August, 2015

But if Drill did do that he did not get confirmation.

Nor did he find anyone who'd actually witnessed the raid.

Apart from those mysterious 'CFMEU members'

Which is why the Hun was soon running this correction:

Police confirm no raid on CFMEU headquarters — Herald Sun, 28th August, 2015

And stating bleakly

The error was made by the reporter. — Herald Sun, 28th August, 2015

Oh dear. And we still don't know how he made it, because the Hun's editor Damon Johnston was not keen to explain. Merely saying:

When we confirmed the story was wrong we pulled it — Damon Johnston, Editor, Herald Sun, 28th August, 2015

A novel approach

And we still don't know how those CFMEU members came to spy all those police.

But it's surely a question that needs to be answered.