Thursday 27 August 2009

Mail tries to whip up outrage with misleading headline

It's that same old question again - is the standard of journalism at the Mail just incredibly sloppy, or are they wilfully and maliciously giving a false impression?

Here's the headline:

And the first paragraph:

A lesbian former soldier awarded nearly £190,000 after being sexually harassed by a male sergeant said she was 'disgusted' at the compensation given to injured servicemen.

The phrasing of both has been very carefully chosen to imply the woman in question thinks she deserves her compensation and injured soldiers do not. And she's a lesbian, so the messageboard torch-and-pitchfork crew will be out in force.

But what she actually said was:

'I'm embarrassed the MoD have only given them such a low sum. To be honest, I'm disgusted in the MoD more than anything.'

So it's a 'disgust' that those injured soldiers have not got more money. Which begs the question - why is that a story at all? Unless you want to report it in a way that hints at something else...

1 comment:

  1. If it was the latter, they got their way - most of the comments are about how she should be ashamed of herself compared to 'real' soldiers (well, she is a woman, I guess she can't be a real soldier) and the only one supporting her is being voted down. Same old...

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