In discussing a misleading news story planted during the Napoleonic Wars, William Cobbett was reminded of a time in his childhood when he and some friends used a red herring to distract the hounds chasing a hare, so that the boys could catch the hare for themselves. The newspapers, he said, had been similarly duped by someone in Government.

The ‘Morning Chronicle’, wrote Cobbett, had behaved like the leader in a pack of hounds, eagerly chasing the story dangled in front of it. Other newspapers and several senior politicians had happily followed, repeating that Napoleon Bonaparte had been worsted in battle by the Russians. No corresponding reports appeared in the French press, however, and the frenzy subsided.

Just as rumours of Napoleon’s defeat were fading away, reports came in from Baltic states, from Holland and even from France that appeared to confirm them. The excitable British media passed on the reports gleefully, but these too turned out to be as reliable as Cobbett’s red herring, and at last the truth prevailed.

171 words