Great Britain is experiencing an upsurge in hospital admissions of those contracting influenza. Several of those treated in Scotland have died, although some of these may have been experiencing underlying health issues. Those deaths have tragically included an 18-year-old girl called Bethany Walker, whose flu developed into pneumonia. She succumbed to her condition last Friday at Inverness’ Raigmore Hospital.
What's so f***ing wrong with intruding on family grief to sell more papers, c***?!?!?
Her mother Heather Teale told “She had been suffering from a flu virus, which became pneumonia, she was airlifted to Raigmore with me by her side yesterday morning, where she rapidly deteriorated, the staff in intensive care could not have done more, she was given the best possible treatment from a team of 8 people for over two hours, they tried everything possible but sadly despite their best efforts she didn't make it”.
The Planet Radio report added “Bethany left Plockton High School last summer before going on to study midwifery in Aberdeen … The secondary also paid tribute on social media, saying she was a ‘kind, caring, gifted and exceptionally conscientious student and a super role model for younger pupils both in the school itself’ … She had been deputy head girl at the school”. And then the Daily Mail entered the scene.
Bethany Walker, who died last Friday
That meant every social media nook and cranny was scoured for content, which was then plastered all over Mail Online as readers were told “'I am broken, the bottom has fallen out of my world': Mother's heartache as her 'beautiful' 18-year-old daughter dies from one of the killer flu strains currently sweeping the UK”. And then the reporters turned up, which is quite a feat in itself, given the location of where Ms Teale lives.
Applecross is in Wester Ross, accessible for many years only by a challenging access road through the mountains. Even now, it is a 36 mile round trip to the next significant settlement. Yet the Mail has got there, found Ms Teale, and made her life even more of a misery than it was before. None of those bleating when calls are made for the press to be more accountable to those whose lives they callously disrupt have complained, though.
Ms Teale has had to take to Facebook to plead for the intrusion to end: “Please be aware that I am being plagued by newspaper reporters. I spoke with the local paper when they phoned to ensure that they published accurate and useful information. I am now constantly answering the phone to reporters, the Scottish Daily Mail being the most intrusive, disrespectful and patronising, completely oblivious to my feelings”.
And there was more. “Despite being told I did not wish to comment, a while later a reporter turned up in the pub. Please, if asked to comment about Bethany’s passing away DO NOT. They are also phoning Plockton High School. I have actually been told today by a reporter that grief sells newspapers!” What she might not have known is that the Mail has an NHS bashing agenda as well. But the intrusion is on its own inexcusable.
The Mail’s determination to leverage a mother’s grief at the tragically early passing of her daughter is beyond shameless, beyond callous, and beyond inexcusable. But the most shocking element of this saga is that it is not exceptional or surprising.
The Daily Mail is once again bang out of order. So no change there, then.
How did the reporters get there?
ReplyDeleteVirgin trains is probably out of the running.
"Media to come under scrutiny in Manchester arena attack inquiry"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jan/12/media-to-come-under-scrutiny-in-manchester-arena-attack-inquiry
I expect that the Mail will be featured.
Par for the corrupt far right course of the Daily Heil.
ReplyDeleteJust be patient. There'll be another example along tomorrow.
Odd, don't you think, that media STILL haven't come under scrutiny for their corrupt and twisted lies after the Hillsborough disaster. The establishment have had TWENTY EIGHT YEARS to "inquire" into press and broadcast propaganda in the wake of that horror. They have done NOTHING to explain the rapid and widespread collusion that was obvious from the very beginning. Collusion that involved not only media but establishment at every level of politics, the civil service, police and legal system. Even Leveson 1 ignored it. It was and is collusion at its most evil, and propaganda at its most disgusting and dishonest.
ReplyDeleteTurn that stone over and you'll find the same creatures clinging to the underside as those blocking the way to truth at Grenfell Tower and the Manchester Arena. The political and media classes of this country are the most sickeningly corrupt and cowardly on the planet. And that is why the general public hold them in such deep contempt.
That's 28 years and more to cover up or "spin to win".
DeleteLet's see if their version of events tally up with the files at Vauxhall Cross.
@4
ReplyDeleteHillsborough was not covered during Part 1 of Leveson as it was not within the ToR.
But it IS within the ToR for Part 2 - which would investigate the relationship between press and the Police.
The press is resisting Leveson Part 2. This may be one of the (several) reasons.
Tim @ 15:03,
ReplyDeleteI know that. Hence "ignored".
Which is why, as you know, in the past I urged Grenfell victims to go over their ToR with a fine tooth comb.
But the Hillsborough ToR was yet more corrupt because it tagged on a requirement concerning hooliganism in football. Which almost tied Peter Taylor's hands - but didn't because he was an honest man. He didn't allow it to obscure his main target. Nevertheless, it was enough to divert resources and time of his inquiry and to "justify" the behaviour of corrupt chauvinist spivs like the liar and coward Mackenzie, his like minded colleague Neil (now employed at the BBC)plus assorted right wing columnists who stuck the boot in.
If Leveson 2 - if it ever happens - is to be taken seriously on this specific issue it better subpoena every last press and broadcast editor and "journalist" who lied about and used the Hillsborough disaster for political attacks on the people of Liverpool. To my knowledge the only msm journalist to stand against the propaganda was Peter Sissons. The real questions are:
(a) How did this collusion originate, who spread it and how did it persist so long in the face of evidence available from the very beginning? South Yorkshire Police bears a heavy responsibility to be sure, but that is far from the entire story.
(b) WHY did media ignore the evidence?
and
(c) Is there a single organisation or company responsible for organising and/or spreading the lies?
Leveson 2 could be an opportunity to expose this rottenness down to its very roots. My guess is that there are many cowards shitting themselves at this possibility. Dragging them into a public interrogation would be the second best thing Leveson 2 could do. But the BEST thing would be a report that unequivocally tells the truth, names names and identifies organisations that leaves no option but legal action against the guilty.
If that doesn't happen, Leveson 2 won't be worth the proverbial carrot.