Lies,
Lies and Fake News
We all think that
President Trump invented fake news but anyone who has had anything reported in
the press will be aware that nothing gets in the way of a story, even the
truth. The Westmorland Gazette edition on Thursday, November 4th 2010,
was no exception to this as apparently you can bend the truth to fit anything
you wish. Here is a photo of a caver SRT-ing up a pitch, which according to the
caption is Andy Whitney. Wrong! It is actually Hugh St.Lawrence doing the hard
work. It also reports that the location is the Arson Shaft, that the
aficionados of the Ease Gill System know is in the Magic Roundabout, but this
picture doesn’t show that as it is really Trapdoor Pot over by Boggarts which
is nowhere near Ease Gill.
Now for the big booboo,
the photograph was attributed to me and as everyone knows I wouldn’t have taken
such a poor photo (just kidding) but
was in fact taken by Andy Whitney who was suitably incensed.
They hadn’t asked for his permission
to use his photo or else they would have been properly informed of its
position and subject. The article was all about bats in the Yorkshire Dales but
as all of you know, Ease Gill although a major roost for bats, was definitely
not in the Yorkshire Dales but mostly in Cumbria and Lancashire at the time of
writing.
So be careful when
answering questions from the press - they will distort, embellish and
down-right lie to get a good story to justify their wages.
Ray Duffy
