by Tim Fenton

Having to withdraw allegations – more prosaically publish a “correction” or “clarification” – is an occupational hazard for newspapers.

But to have to back down four times in four months suggests an attack campaign that has gone seriously wrong.

No prizes for guessing that the rag in question is the Sun, and its target has been Gordon Brown.

1) Led last September by the loathsome Toby Young – whose services the paper has wisely dispensed with in the meantime – talking of “Toffs who play at being comrades”. Tobes managed not to mention that Brown’s fees for his speaking engagements do not go into his own pocket, but help fund the charitable work done by him and wife Sarah.

2) Four days after the clarification, there was another issued over an article last July that managed not to mention that Brown’s staff expenses also did not go into his own pocket. This time, the Sun was additionally persuaded to tell its readers that the former PM had renounced the Prime Ministerial pension to which he is entitled.

3) this month brought yet another “clarification”, admitting that Brown did not claim accommodation expenses when visiting London on parliamentary business. This time, there was the addition of a brass neck component, as they blamed the Tories. So that’s an admission of using a partisan single source for news items, then.

4) And it wasn’t over, even then: last week brought the fourth “clarification”, over the Sun’s story alleging that Brown’s press conference at the UN was cancelled because only one reporter turned up.

It was actually canned as he was delayed attending another meeting which was paying tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi. That’s another story they didn’t bother checking out before publishing.

On top of all that, there is the pretence they are actually bothered about getting the right story before putting the boot in: “Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes”. That’s one fresh and steaming pile of bullshit for you.