But this time they were rumbled

The future of Sunday Age columnist Terry Lane is in limbo after he re-published a discredited internet hoax. In his column on Sunday, Lane supported internet claims that American troops in Iraq were engaged in the officially sanctioned murder of civilians and ignoring the Geneva Conventions. The claims were debunked as a hoax months ago. Lane wrote that the Iraqi war had killed "probably more than 100,000 innocents", which should be investigated rather than the death of Aussie soldier Private Kovco.

"It's one almighty stuff-up," Sunday Age editor Peter Fray said yesterday. "I mean, there's no other way of looking at it. "Myself and Terry are embarrassed by the mistake."

Lane has offered to resign and told a newsletter website he was guilty of the "unforgivable sin . . . of failing to check the facts". "In my case I fell for it because I wanted to believe it. That is inexcusable," he said.

Mr Fray said he was considering Lane's future. "I need to speak to him first before I speak to anyone else about it," he said. "I'm worried about our readers. "We have a duty, just as the Herald Sun has a duty, to publish facts. "Clearly no one is trying to run away from the fact that there was an almighty stuff-up. ". . . It's what is the appropriate punishment for the crime. "The punishment could be that we accept his resignation, or that he explains what happened to the readers, and we apologise to the readers." Lane could not be contacted yesterday

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