No, Daily Spew, Kay didn't kill Lynn
Over on my main blog, Indigo Jo Blogs, I've dedicated quite a bit of space (less so recently) to countering ridiculous stories in the Daily Express, which I refer to as the Daily Spew. Very often, they consist of an inflammatory headline on top of a pretty banal story about someone kicking up a fuss about Muslims (or some other minority group) getting special treatment or doing something outrageous, and the headline will make it look like, "oh, the Muslims (or whoever) are at it again". The other tabloid pet hate of mine, however, is the decent story with a ridiculous headline on it, and the Daily Mail are best (or rather worst) at it, but the Spew proves itself capable of it once in a while too.
An example appeared yesterday, and Antoinette Christie flagged it up on Facebook. It was an interview with Kay Gilderdale, with the headline "I KILLED MY GIRL OUT OF KINDNESS". Of course, Kay says no such thing in the article, because it simply is not true. Kay provided some assistance to Lynn's suicide, for which she was convicted of assisting a suicide and given a conditional discharge in January 2010. That is not the same as killing someone, which is what the prosecution said she may have done by administering other drugs while Lynn was unconscious, which Kay herself maintained was done to make sure Lynn was not in distress or pain.
The headline puts words in Kay's mouth, and it's not the first time that someone in the media assumed that the prosecution's version of events was the correct one; I have seen this in one very supportive article in the Mail, but what it puts in her mouth is a guilty plea, and contradicts everything she has said about the events surrounding Lynn's (Jessie's) death. The editor should be contacted and some comments left to correct this headline; whether they will take any notice is another matter. They are not members of the Press Complaints Commission, so there is no point in making a complaint to them.
(Update 26th June: I've come across another inaccuracy in the story: the claim that Lynn suffered a punctured lung months before her death in 2008. That incident in fact happened in late 2005, more than three years before her death.)
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An example appeared yesterday, and Antoinette Christie flagged it up on Facebook. It was an interview with Kay Gilderdale, with the headline "I KILLED MY GIRL OUT OF KINDNESS". Of course, Kay says no such thing in the article, because it simply is not true. Kay provided some assistance to Lynn's suicide, for which she was convicted of assisting a suicide and given a conditional discharge in January 2010. That is not the same as killing someone, which is what the prosecution said she may have done by administering other drugs while Lynn was unconscious, which Kay herself maintained was done to make sure Lynn was not in distress or pain.
The headline puts words in Kay's mouth, and it's not the first time that someone in the media assumed that the prosecution's version of events was the correct one; I have seen this in one very supportive article in the Mail, but what it puts in her mouth is a guilty plea, and contradicts everything she has said about the events surrounding Lynn's (Jessie's) death. The editor should be contacted and some comments left to correct this headline; whether they will take any notice is another matter. They are not members of the Press Complaints Commission, so there is no point in making a complaint to them.
(Update 26th June: I've come across another inaccuracy in the story: the claim that Lynn suffered a punctured lung months before her death in 2008. That incident in fact happened in late 2005, more than three years before her death.)
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This entry was originally posted at http://indigojo.dreamwidth.org/7373.html and you can also comment there, using your LJ username to log in with OpenID.