After the article came out, Shields said he asked for an independent investigation, which ultimately exonerated him. He also reached an out-of-court settlement with the newspaper ahead of a lawsuit.
He said the Globe and Mail published a retraction: "It was about two inches by two inches."
Laura Robinson made false accusation
What does "two inches by two inches" mean?
Thank you.
This would refer to the size of the article in the newspaper being very small. Newspaper articles are traditionally in a column format which can look like a box, so a two inch by two inch column is very short.
I'm gonna add a little bit to Mel's answer.
It's not just saying that they posted a very short retraction announcement, it's specifying exactly how large the column was. "A by B" is a common way to say "A tall and B wide." So two inches by two inches means that the column was two inches wide and two inches tall. (4 square inches)
