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Emanuel Steward: How dangerous a tweet?

Phil D. Jay 
WBN Editor
Boxer removes tweets on trainer

An unwitting Jonathan Banks has now removed his tweet that may have had the snowballing effect of wrongly confirming Emanuel Steward’s death earlier today.

Banks, 30, tweeted the sad news that Steward had passed away, before confirming the news again when asked by a follower and the fighter has now deleted both posts from his account.

Rumours began to swirl on the back of the tweets as Banks is a known friend of Steward and heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, which had given his incorrect statement the validity needed.

Several media outlets then ran the story, which prompted WBN to do the same and even Wikipedia announced Steward's death, along with a whole host of top media sites who ran with the story.

WBN then ran the denial that Mr. Steward’s sister Diane Steward-Jones put out, before a way-off story in The Detroit News confirmed Steward-Jones as announcing her brother’s death, which was not true.

We are now at the point where we do know that as of 20:00pm BST, Emanuel Steward HAD NOT DIED, but that he is gravely ill and in the care of what his family have described as ‘the best doctors possible' after undergoing surgery. 

Editor's Note (21:13pm BST): Mr Steward has now passed away it has been formally announced.

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