Mirror duped by Wikipedia 'fact'

Days after web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee criticised the amount of inaccurate information now published online, the Daily Mirror has fallen victim to erroneous material.

A journalist for the newspaper took and published information about Manchester City's UEFA Cup opponents AC Omonia from a Wikipedia entry.

However, bloggers on b3ta.com had edited information on the Cypriot football team's Wikipedia entry following the UEFA Cup official draw.

Among the 'updated' information, was the titbit in the fans section: "A small but loyal group of fans are lovingly called 'The Zany Ones' - they like to wear hats made from discarded shoes and have a song about a little potato".

The update passed unnoticed until yesterday when the Cypriot side played Manchester City. As part of the pre-match build up one of the Mirror's reporters writing from Nicosia in Cyprus included a reference to the 'shoe hat wearing fans'.

The Wikipedia page has since been updated and now includes a footnote about the prank and the Mirror journalist who quoted the fact verbatim.

Manchester City came from behind to win 2-1 on the night, and that's a fact.

www.b3ta.com