Metro spouts JKR nonsense, reader comments tell a different story

[SlackJawedDisbeliefXY]

Nicholas Hoult fans say damage is done despite him quitting Harry Potter: 'Still icky' | Metro News

Only putting this here as the comments seem to show a sea change in the Metro's readership.

Starts with an apology

An earlier version of this story wrongly stated that JK Rowling had been ‘engaged in Holocaust denial’. This follows claims in March 2024 when Ms Rowling was accused on X of denying aspects of the Holocaust, an allegation which she strenuously denied. The allegation has been removed and Metro apologises for the error.

When a core part of your article involves quoting CookieBaBaYT, PhioneV2, esotericmagic, Maxinfire and 42andBlue, it might be time to start questioning your choices as a journalist

She should sue the shit out of them, joke rag.

They are SPOILING for a suing here! If that's not libel... what is?!

Agree- Hoult is wooden AF anyway.

Oh that's harsh! He was fantastic is About A Boy as a wee lad and has generally been a talented performer. He was good in the X Men films and in Superman.

He's got a recurring role in a superhero franchise, so if he wants to stick to that, fair enough. Lockhart is a vain, duplicitous pretty boy and I think Kit Harrington will do a grand job.

Another one happy to get Kit Harrington instead. He obviously doesn’t give a shit about the TRAs as he was fine doing the audio books.

Contrast and compare

https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/magnus-hirschfeld-and-the-institute-for-sexual-science/

His interest in Eugenics is completely ignored, there is no mention of any controversies or disagreements and there is no curiosity about what happened to Erwin Gorhrbandt who is only name checked once.

The metro are backpeddling

https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/celebrity-news/national-newspaper-apologises-jk-rowling-37593321

Apparently Rupert Grint is following Tom Felton and reprising his role as Ron Weasley for a stint in the Cursed Child on Broadway.

Let the meltdowns begin!

Yes, reddit is in meltdown because of this announcement. It's very funny.

They're now saying that Daniel Radcliffe and Emma what's her name would never do this because they dont need the money (I doubt grint needs the money either) and anyway, they're such good actors (😅) they wouldn't be seen dead acting in this. Hilarious.

Just to come back to Holocaust denial - the phrase specifically refers to the claim that the Nazis did not commit genocide against the Jews. It is nothing to do with books about trans healthcare (ffs) or even about whether the Nazis killed other groups. It is absolutely defamatory to accuse JKR of being a Holocaust denier.

Rupert Grint as big Ron is huge news! Even the BBC is reporting on it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20vmp1v3rdo

TRAs bandy about the phrase 'trans genocide' as if it's A Thing. What a vile insult to those who have lived through actual genocides, including Jewish people who lived through the Holocaust, and their surviving loved ones.

Holocaust denial is reprehensible. Inventing a fictional genocide to further an agenda is pretty low, too.

The Metro has now issued a formal apology.
https://metro.co.uk/2026/08/28/correction-jk-rowling-29483319/

Archive version: https://archive.ph/ThwuW

I didn't think that archive copies were changed. However, I'm sure that the second link in this post used to contain the comment about the Holocaust (as per the screenshot upthread), and it now appears to be gone.

I completely agree with this and - respectfully - disagree with the poster above regarding trans book burning being part of the Holocaust.

And on the general point of TRAs calling everything a bloody genocide and fascism, I find this so deeply offensive. Firstly because genocide and fascism have specific meanings and it's not "Someone having an opinion you don't like that hurts your feelings" but also because the TRA behaviour diminishes those words. If we start using 'genocide' and 'fascism' as loosely as they do, what word are we going to use if an actual genocide happens? Or fascism really rears its hideous head again?

I have no doubt the Metro's lawyers have had a word. Let's hope this is the beginning of the end of their support for gender bollocks

Couldn’t agree more. It’s disgusting.

Implicit in the idea of a genocide is the idea of an inheritable ethnicity. But being “trans” isn’t a heritable trait.

In fact, if you think it might be and you’re in favour of it, sterilizing yourself with hormones at a young age, having yourself castrated, or volunteering for a radical hysterectomy are all retrograde steps in your goal to pass on the trait to a new generation.

Just another way that nothing about trans makes sense.

Went too early with the thread title - should have been

Metro spouts libelous JKR nonsense, gets pulled up, issues non-apology and finally actually apologises

Good to know that, going forward, Metro have been warned about their content and admitted that they have published known falsehoods.

To the Metro, good luck next time you decide to publish this sort of grot-for-clicks

Perhaps some of this content is provided free of charge.

If you are an activist journalist the payment for articles may just be getting your point of view into the public consciousness. Writing free articles is probably more cost effective than self-publishing (to a tiny audience) or paying for an advertising campaign.

Free content that generates plenty of clicks probably works well with publication's business models, right up to the point were a big fat libel case appears.

But there is no evidence that any of these books on 'trans healthcare' even existed, in the first place. How can you burn something that didn't even exist? It was just a lie manufactured by trans activists.

Only though, as you say, if it can be shown that the books were burned because of their content and not because their owner was Jewish.

Or that the books even existed in the first place, in order to be burned. I doubt very much there was trans anything back then. It's just trans revisionist history to make trans out to be the most oppressedest evah!