England shirt / Polish bus driver tale update
Regular readers will recall the tale of a mum who had claimed her son was ordered off a bus, apparently by a 'Polish or East European' driver, because he was wearing an 'offensive' England shirt. It was a local news story which went straight into the eager mitts of the national papers, including the Mail, chiming as it did with an existing mythology about patriotic England imagery supposedly being banned by the PC Brigade. This story had the bonus of apparently involving an immigrant as well, so it was a real win-win.
The bus company concerned released a statement casting doubt on the story a little while ago. Now they have decided there is no truth in the allegations. To be fair to the (Daily Mail-owned, but let's not hold that against them) local paper which carried the original story, they have prominently covered the follow-up here:
A MOTHER who claimed her two-year-old was ordered off a bus for wearing an England shirt has been branded a liar.
Sam Fardon, of Trent Vale, had claimed an Eastern European driver for First Bus had described her son Dylan Hall's shirt as "offensive" when they tried to board the 34A service from Newcastle Bus Station to Chesterton.
The 27-year-old said it was only when other passengers intervened that she was allowed on the vehicle.
But a First investigation has found nothing to back up her claims.
Not only that, though - and you can read the lengths to which the company went to in order to see if the claims were true - but here is the really crucial detail, in my opinion:
Miss Fardon has now withdrawn her complaint. She said today: "I have continued to use the buses."
The complaint has been withdrawn. Case closed.
If you pop over to the Mail website, you can still find the original story, though:
We now know that headline to be almost certainly false - perhaps a bit of checking could have saved an awful lot of blushes all round. Fair play to the local paper for doing the decent thing and reporting on the new information now that it's come to light, but you have to wonder whether the story sounded so good, and chimed in so nicely with existing mythology, that it couldn't be turned down by the likes of the Mail - whether there was any substance in it or not, or rather, regardless of whether there was any substance in it or not.
What I hope, by the way, is that this doesn't get twisted into being an attack on the woman in question, as I don't really go in for that kind of thing at all. People make mistakes and do daft things. It's finished now, and as long as the new information that's come to light is reported as prominently as the original tale, then there's no need for recriminations.
But how many people will find out about this new information? And how many will still think there's some truth to the 'foreign bus driver kicked the toddler off the bus' tale, because it's what they want to hear? Can we really do anything about it, trying to boost the profile of the competing information? Who knows. I hope we can.
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Hello. I'm a Bristol-based writer and soon-to-be-redundant journalist. You can read more about me and the Enemies site here, or follow me on Twitter. Email me if you like - antonvowl at live dot co dot uk
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June 8th, 2010 - 18:46
anything in any of the papers needs to be taken with a large pinch, well a small bucket of salt, ever seen a story on something you actually know a lot about but when you see the medias version you think, hold on one minute, that is absolutely nothing like it is in real life,then again if there was no problem about immigrants and flags, christmas trees, crosses and rosary beads, religion in general etc etc because of pc then stories like that would gain no traction whatsoever
June 8th, 2010 - 19:09
What a surprise! I remember thinking something didn’t quite ring true in the original story.
June 8th, 2010 - 19:11
I look forward to the Face Book group ‘IM GONNA FLY THE ENGLISH FALG ON POLLISH BUSES!’
June 8th, 2010 - 19:38
perhaps a bit of checking could have saved an awful lot of blushes all round
I suspect that the subspecies Hackus dacreanus has evolved a bit beyond the blush reflex.
June 8th, 2010 - 19:41
At the risk of going over much-covered ground, or being accused of mounting an “attack on the woman”, this is not a case of somebody either making a “mistake” or doing a “daft thing”; instead, it is a case of someone with a proven history of dishonest and acquisitive behaviour willingly going public and agreeing to be photographed for the national press several days after an incident that was, we now suspect, fabricated. She provided descriptions of the driver and the person to whom she reported the complaint, neither of which checked out.
If there is one thing that has been crucial throughout 25 and more years as a criminal defence lawyer it is that the most important question of all is “Where is the corroboration?” Without it, your case does not get off the ground.
Thus, I direct my ire once more at lazy journalists who see a story that fits their chosen worldview, and then proceed neither to investigate the tale or its teller. Had witnesses supported the allegation, the woman’s previous convictions would have been irrelevant. Had she been of good character and simply unable to verify details, then I might have been more sympathetic (if, of course, there was at least a smidgen of corroboration). To print an inflammatory piece that could have resulted in damage to buses and injury to drivers, based on the wholly unsupported word of a proven liar is utterly shameful.
June 9th, 2010 - 09:21
I sent you these links on twitter but they should be here really.
http://bit.ly/9PJ3Cm
http://bit.ly/aTeHbu
http://bit.ly/axR2wc
http://bit.ly/cHuMCy
You see from the fact ages and names match up that she has a history of making this stuff up.
June 9th, 2010 - 10:16
It’s pretty shoddy that the lede of the story is “has been branded a liar”, since that implies “someone with an axe to grind says she’s a liar”, rather than “all the evidence shows she’s a liar”. Still, better than nothing I guess.
June 9th, 2010 - 10:29
While a witch-hunt would be unpleasant, I see no reason not to point a finger at fabricated, xenophobic shit-stirring. Given the amount of misdirected (and/or completely unneccesary) ire from the media these days (eg. The Stephen Gately debacle), it’s kind of nice to see someone getting called out for being a twat who actually deserves it.
If that makes the Mail look hyprocritical in the process… well, it wouldn’t be the first time.