Daily Mail issues correction over Petronella Wyatt-mother-hit-by-cyclists column

Unbelievable. I mean, not just the articles, but also the PCC response. Simply Unbelievable.

I am a newspaper reporter (not, I hasten to add, for the Daily Mail or anything as remotely appalling) and keen cyclist, who writes the Invisible Visible Man blog (http://invisiblevisibleman.blogspot.com/). I'm nothing like as surprised by others at the level of sub-editor involvement in the column. The Mail (and the Express) are both known as "subs' papers," where the power resides with the sub-editors, rather than the writers. There is a tendency for the subs to rip stories up and start all over again, far more than at other papers. That's why the Mail is so successful at imposing its Weltanschauung on pretty much every story. But it can also lead the stories to wander rather far from what most people would regard as the truth...

So this followed my complaint to the PCC.

I pointed out the articles' similarity, and they replied that there were three incidents. I said that this was so unlikely as to be untrue, and then they replied with the supposed dates of hospital treatments.

They then offered to print the following clarification.

"An article on September 9 said the writer Petronella Wyatt had her handbag stolen by a gang of youths on bicycles in 2012. In fact there was an editing mistake and the incident actually occurred in 2008, as Miss Wyatt wrote in a previous article in 2010. Her mother has been hurt in three incidents involving cyclists"

I pointed out that this made no sense unless you had cross-referenced both articles, which most readers would not do, and suggested the following:

“On x February 2010 the Mail published an article by Petronella Wyatt describing her mother being knocked down by a bicycle. On September 9 2012 the Mail On Sunday published a very similar article by Petronella Wyatt about her mother being knocked down by a bicycle twice, in 2012. We would like to clarify that there were in fact three separate incidents, one in 2010, and two in 2012. In addition, there was an editing mistake in the 2012 article, stating that Miss Wyatt had been mugged in 2012. In fact this incident occurred in 2008, as stated in the previous article.”

They preferred their own wording, now published....

So does this mean her column is ghosted now?

Another trip for their Editor to the Leveson Inquiry about Press Standards methinks. Surely making up facts to fit the story you want to write is, to say the least, unethical

So regardless of the oh-sorry-we-plucked-a-4-year-old-word-file-from-nowhere-and-edited-it-into-a-current-piece handbag snatch, PW still claims that:

- Her mother was hit by cyclists twice in a month
- Doesn't mention that it happened previously, even though she has a previous article to reference
- Another (or the same?) friend showed the same odd smirk-changing-to-concern expression
- It doesn't occur to her that this happened last time as well

Yeah, that sounds true. Wonder if they've only backed down on the bit that could be exposed via a Police incident record?

So there's basically no editorial controll between incompetent Daily Mail sub-editors and the printing press. Finally, some kind of explanation.

and hi-viz and helmets .....

@Crikey and Rumpo Kid - that's nothing, the other brother is called Perineum.

The solution to this problem is obvious: ban Daily Mail sub-editors. Or at least make them pay more tax, and wear a license plate.

She got off easy. Her brother's called Pericles. (Quite a nice bloke actually).

Even her patents weren't that keen on her; Petronella? FFS..

"...and to observe that Ms Wyatt has some rather unpleasant friends"

I have a suspicion her friends have the worst end of the deal.

how ridiculous this whole thing is, why is it even 'news' I don't know.

Life is a MATRIX, lies, lies and more lies ...

Do not believe anything that you cannot see with your own eyes as you are deceived daily ..

Roll on the Tory Conference for more of the same ..

Jaded, moi???

You betcha ..

Quelle suprise.