diff --git a/autotools/check-news b/autotools/check-news
index 146faf2ea6229bb73b62b8f39eefd57c0e7f894d..cb5ac9a410e5f5ebf8eac4d2e69c12ec7020815e 100755
--- a/autotools/check-news
+++ b/autotools/check-news
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ def main():
       m = RELEASED_RE.match(line)
       if not m:
         Error("Line %s: Invalid release line" % fileinput.filelineno())
+        expect_date = False
+        continue
 
       # Including the weekday in the date string does not work as time.strptime
       # would return an inconsistent result if the weekday is incorrect.