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# Boris created EU "fake news" 20 years ago
- URL: https://onemanandhisblog.com/2017/05/boris-fake-news-eu/
- Published: 2017-05-03T09:32:16.000Z
- Updated: 2017-05-04T13:36:22.000Z
- Author: Adam Tinworth
- Tags: boris johnson, brexit, eu, Europe, political journalism, politicians, Politics, The Sun

Fascinating quote in a *New York Times* piece on the [Brexit-backing British newspapers](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/02/world/europe/london-tabloids-brexit.html?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) (and principally, *The Sun*):

> With little regard for the truth — he was previously fired by *The Times of London* for making up a quote — Mr. Johnson wrote about a Europe scheming to impose standard condom sizes and ban his country’s beloved prawn-cocktail-flavored chips (both untrue).
> 
> “Boris invented fake news,” said Martin Fletcher, a former foreign editor of *The Times*, who was in Brussels shortly after Mr. Johnson. “He turned euroskepticism into an art form that every news editor in London came to expect.”

In effect, Boris created a caricature of the EU in his journalism days – and then effectively campaigned against that caricature once he became a politician.

Another reason to be uneasy about the revolving door between national-level journalism and politics.

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