Ooh, ah, gone too far? Dramatic four-paper apology to begin today

Sweaty-palmed news watchers expecting a slow news day in print tomorrow are to be given something special, as the Guardian's Roy Greenslade reported in his blog tonight. It seems that the Daily Star and Express have ended up giving themselves the media story of the year so far.

The tabs, which were set to be laden with figures further detailing the economic slowdowns and the snore-inducing minutiae of the McCartney divorce, have announced a decision to carry front page apologies this morning, in addition to some hefty out-of-court damages. Their weekend editions are expected to follow suit.

The newspapers have already updated their websites with similar leads, headlined ‘KATE AND JERRY MCCANN: SORRY’. The Express's piece notes that the step of taking out a splash is ‘unprecedented.’ The articles both carry a footnote, no doubt very much willingly written, saying ‘Please note that, for legal reasons, we have disabled reader comments on this article.’

The 75p it costs to buy the two papers tomorrow will for once be money well spent, if only for the reminder the cuttings will provide of the need to practice self-restraint in journalism.

Update, daytime of March 19: It seems that someone neglected to tell the sub working on p 68 of today's issue about the grave apology being made on page one, meaning that the paper's overseas property section bears the cringe-inducing headline ‘Luz yourself in Spain.’ Not quite the sensitive touch there.

Inheritance stacks

The piling up of the post-conference reporting on the two leading parties' to-ing and fro-ing on inheritance laws is now likely to have an impact on another financial issue that could affect the Tories before they get anywhere near No 10.

One wonders whether today's loss of £8m from the Tory piggy bank was judged in favour of the benefactor's family largely on account of one particular "delusional" statement he made about Margaret Thatcher, who he called

‘the greatest leader of the free world in history.’

The judge's ruling may then be even more political than you might first assume - not only did the ruling lose £8m of what could be a much-needed future election fund, but recent Tory policy makes an appeal against the ruling unlikely. Which party would want to be seen to be attempting to prise money out of the hands of a dead man's family, just at a time when it has pledged to raise the tax threshold so that

‘In a Conservative Britain you will not be punished for working hard and saving hard.’

No, that would never do.

The temptations of MySpace journalism: the Ipswich killings investigation

Mr Tom Stephens of Ipswich was arrested early this morning for further questioning in connection with the killings of five women whose bodies were found in the Ipswich area.

The news have been awash with this gripping story for weeks now, and as Mr. Stephens's house was being cordoned off and covered over with a tent this morning, News 24 showed us the police activity using a camera sneakily positioned in an upstairs window of a nearby house. Sky had to make do with peeking round a corner from street level...

The Telegraph quotes from Mr Stephens's profile liberally in addition to describing it in some detail. This actually makes it rather easy to locate his profile, a privilege I am glad to see has not yet been abused. This raises the issue of whether personal profiles, which in theory list the personal friends of their authors and allow direct contact to be made, should now become as closely guarded by journalists as the addresses of private individuals.