<<If so, I wonder if those posters who were so quick to pour emotional scorn on the journalistic race will be as rapid with their apologies?>>
I don't think so, Seloco. Pilots, controllers and other aviation professionals have had to put up with far too much garbage from journos over the years; it just gets too tiresome.
Why anyone is even bothering to argue about how close they might have been I can't imagine. The radar playback says they were 1000ft apart. End of story. A thousand aeroplanes a day will be similarly separated over London. Are people going to argue that they all might be separated by only 600ft... C'mon..