That's odd, because I followed the twitter exchanges and didn't see anyone posting anything abusive towards her. If you run a twitter search for someone's username, you should get all tweets sent to them and this didn't throw up any abuse either. However, I'm certainly no Twitter expert and I suspect my search results wouldn't include any tweets sent from protected accounts,. Still, I do have to wonder just how much 'abuse' Ms Bannister has actually received from Wycombe fans. She's clearly not one for going after the facts!
I was debating sending a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission, but I doubt they'd do anything and it'd probably be overkill on my part. It might potentially cause a minor headache for the reporter and/or paper, but that's maybe not the best motivation to do it. (Or is it?)
I've gone ahead with reporting the handling of the story to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (apparently the Press Complaints Commission ceased to be back in 2014!) although my computer is playing up a bit right now so need to check the complaint actually went through.
Good work @Jonny_King and thank you. For some reason this story really got me annoyed. I wonder if there is a way of sueing the lady making the allegations and the news reporter certainly needs as many complaints as can be mustered.
It can't be right that someone can make these allegations and just walk away.
Well done @Jonny_King I share your irritation As a club we don't have a great deal of money or a massive fan base but we do have reputation for good fan behaviour.
The reporter published this woman's allegations without even attempting to find supporting evidence.
Did it occur to her that after losing a semifinal of the Checkatrade trophy two fans might have something better to do than drive SIX miles away in the wrong direction and ambush a random passerby.
I recall the accusing auntie posting on twitter that the 'crime' had been reported to the police. More lies methinks
Thanks. There's definitely something fishy about whether or not this was actually reported to the police. It strikes me as odd that the aunt could be angry enough about the attack to make public accusations and get the local press involved, but seemingly not angry enough to report the crime to the police and possibly catch the man responsible.
It's possible that the crime was reported and WM police have just done a pisspoor job of recording it, but they certainly seemed efficient enough when I contacted them.
Good work @Jonny_King. Whatever happened the gash on his head looked pretty serious so I'd have thought if it was reported, it would've been logged.
I notice that Aunty bigmouth locked her twitter account soon after her revelations, but fair play to her for finding the time to try and strike up a twitter conversation with Gary Barlow while tending to the poor lad's wound!
For goodness sake. Suing?! What planet are you on? How has that article done any material damage to WWFC? Did it name any supposed perpetrators? Did it do you any damage personally?
What we have is a young, inexperienced reporter doing what, sadly, most local paper reporters do these days, which is take any allegations that surface on Twitter and turn them into an online story, feeding the beast. There's no doubt someone on Twitter who accused Wycombe fans of beating a Coventry fan, who then gave a statement to the journalist, so she was entitled to write her article. Should she have got a statement from WWFC before publishing? Certainly. Should she have spoken to the police and recorded that they had no log of the incident? Yes, absolutely she should. Should a news editor have checked these things and prevented publication until that was the case? Yes, frankly.
The fact they didn't is a sad indictment of the state of the local press these days, where a low bar for news is combined with a sensationalist headline and posted online quickly. It's called clickbait journalism and is horribly depressing. It's caused by the industry having absolutely no money because readers no longer buy newspapers, companies no longer advertise in papers and no one has worked out how to make a profit out of the news online. So the journalists employed get younger and less experienced as that's all papers can afford.
The solution isn't in threatening to sue. Not only do you sound ridiculous but the money a paper would waste beating you in arbitration would probably mean sacrificing another journalist. And so the product gets even worse.
We've all seen what's happened to the BFP over the years. It's not alone in having declined. If you want a vibrant local press continue to buy your local paper, don't have an ad-blocker stopping access to advertising on its website, and cut young journalists a break. It's a stressful and depressing enough industry as it is these days.
All true @aloysius but i'd argue it's stressful and depressing (and increasingly unpopular) because local papers are happy to print stories they find on Twitter.
So I'd like to say I agree with @aloysius , we have no grounds to sue.
However, it would be good to get something published in response, and maybe even pressure them into admitting their is no real basis for running the story.
We should however also be prepared to be wrong; we may find, if we prod and poke this issue, that a few rogue Wycombe fans did indeed do this. Let's not get too high and mighty yet.
And if Wycombe fans did do it they should face the full face of the law. I'm not sure I want to travel to away games knowing there are people capable of that type of attack.
All I want is that the story is followed through and at present it just seems to be totally based on a single Twitter post with no police involvement and no journalism of any note at all.
I know we live in a world where Twitter news is commonplace but it doesn't make it right and we should contest stories like this fully.
@aloysius to be fair threatening to sue was only mentioned in passing...the issue surely is truth or alternative facts and the last thing we need is having to have more coppers if we play Coventry again because they want revenge for a completely made up event that some of their fans decide to revisit. I think all anyone has talked about on here is getting some sort of retraction. There's nothing wrong with a young reporter and a paper being made to realise their mistake is there?
To be honest, any PR consultant asked to advise on this matter would advise you to leave it there, I'm afraid.
The story has appeared in the paper and cannot be "unappeared". Vast majority of people who read the story in Coventry will have forgotten it by now, those who haven't have formed their opinion. Resurrecting the negative story (even if it was a retraction (which it wouldn't be)) just reinforces the message to those that read the story that something happened and gives those who didn't read the story (or have forgotten it) a new opportunity to read that something bad happened.
Remember all the paper reported was that a coventry resident alleges that her nephew was attacked by a wwfc supporter. It is true that the resident alleges that. it doesn't confirm that is definately what happened (it probably didn't)
Sloppy journalism (but as somebody says above, resources in local journalism are so low now, probably as expected). But best regretfully to move on and let it lie.
Comments
That's odd, because I followed the twitter exchanges and didn't see anyone posting anything abusive towards her. If you run a twitter search for someone's username, you should get all tweets sent to them and this didn't throw up any abuse either. However, I'm certainly no Twitter expert and I suspect my search results wouldn't include any tweets sent from protected accounts,. Still, I do have to wonder just how much 'abuse' Ms Bannister has actually received from Wycombe fans. She's clearly not one for going after the facts!
I was debating sending a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission, but I doubt they'd do anything and it'd probably be overkill on my part. It might potentially cause a minor headache for the reporter and/or paper, but that's maybe not the best motivation to do it. (Or is it?)
Anything that irritates them and makes them think twice about lying in the future is always worth it @Jonny_King
Good point!
I suspect that, because she (or the 'paper) publish her mobile phone number, the "good deal" may have related mainly to phone calls.
I meant "a lot" not "good deal". I think the former was the term she used.
Ah, I see.
I've gone ahead with reporting the handling of the story to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (apparently the Press Complaints Commission ceased to be back in 2014!) although my computer is playing up a bit right now so need to check the complaint actually went through.
Good work @Jonny_King and thank you. For some reason this story really got me annoyed. I wonder if there is a way of sueing the lady making the allegations and the news reporter certainly needs as many complaints as can be mustered.
It can't be right that someone can make these allegations and just walk away.
Well done @Jonny_King I share your irritation As a club we don't have a great deal of money or a massive fan base but we do have reputation for good fan behaviour.
The reporter published this woman's allegations without even attempting to find supporting evidence.
Did it occur to her that after losing a semifinal of the Checkatrade trophy two fans might have something better to do than drive SIX miles away in the wrong direction and ambush a random passerby.
I recall the accusing auntie posting on twitter that the 'crime' had been reported to the police. More lies methinks
Thanks. There's definitely something fishy about whether or not this was actually reported to the police. It strikes me as odd that the aunt could be angry enough about the attack to make public accusations and get the local press involved, but seemingly not angry enough to report the crime to the police and possibly catch the man responsible.
It's possible that the crime was reported and WM police have just done a pisspoor job of recording it, but they certainly seemed efficient enough when I contacted them.
Good work @Jonny_King. Whatever happened the gash on his head looked pretty serious so I'd have thought if it was reported, it would've been logged.
I notice that Aunty bigmouth locked her twitter account soon after her revelations, but fair play to her for finding the time to try and strike up a twitter conversation with Gary Barlow while tending to the poor lad's wound!
Perhaps she thought the boy needed a sedative and Gary Barlow sprung to mind
For goodness sake. Suing?! What planet are you on? How has that article done any material damage to WWFC? Did it name any supposed perpetrators? Did it do you any damage personally?
What we have is a young, inexperienced reporter doing what, sadly, most local paper reporters do these days, which is take any allegations that surface on Twitter and turn them into an online story, feeding the beast. There's no doubt someone on Twitter who accused Wycombe fans of beating a Coventry fan, who then gave a statement to the journalist, so she was entitled to write her article. Should she have got a statement from WWFC before publishing? Certainly. Should she have spoken to the police and recorded that they had no log of the incident? Yes, absolutely she should. Should a news editor have checked these things and prevented publication until that was the case? Yes, frankly.
The fact they didn't is a sad indictment of the state of the local press these days, where a low bar for news is combined with a sensationalist headline and posted online quickly. It's called clickbait journalism and is horribly depressing. It's caused by the industry having absolutely no money because readers no longer buy newspapers, companies no longer advertise in papers and no one has worked out how to make a profit out of the news online. So the journalists employed get younger and less experienced as that's all papers can afford.
The solution isn't in threatening to sue. Not only do you sound ridiculous but the money a paper would waste beating you in arbitration would probably mean sacrificing another journalist. And so the product gets even worse.
We've all seen what's happened to the BFP over the years. It's not alone in having declined. If you want a vibrant local press continue to buy your local paper, don't have an ad-blocker stopping access to advertising on its website, and cut young journalists a break. It's a stressful and depressing enough industry as it is these days.
All true @aloysius but i'd argue it's stressful and depressing (and increasingly unpopular) because local papers are happy to print stories they find on Twitter.
So I'd like to say I agree with @aloysius , we have no grounds to sue.
However, it would be good to get something published in response, and maybe even pressure them into admitting their is no real basis for running the story.
We should however also be prepared to be wrong; we may find, if we prod and poke this issue, that a few rogue Wycombe fans did indeed do this. Let's not get too high and mighty yet.
And if Wycombe fans did do it they should face the full face of the law. I'm not sure I want to travel to away games knowing there are people capable of that type of attack.
All I want is that the story is followed through and at present it just seems to be totally based on a single Twitter post with no police involvement and no journalism of any note at all.
I know we live in a world where Twitter news is commonplace but it doesn't make it right and we should contest stories like this fully.
@aloysius to be fair threatening to sue was only mentioned in passing...the issue surely is truth or alternative facts and the last thing we need is having to have more coppers if we play Coventry again because they want revenge for a completely made up event that some of their fans decide to revisit. I think all anyone has talked about on here is getting some sort of retraction. There's nothing wrong with a young reporter and a paper being made to realise their mistake is there?
To be honest, any PR consultant asked to advise on this matter would advise you to leave it there, I'm afraid.
The story has appeared in the paper and cannot be "unappeared". Vast majority of people who read the story in Coventry will have forgotten it by now, those who haven't have formed their opinion. Resurrecting the negative story (even if it was a retraction (which it wouldn't be)) just reinforces the message to those that read the story that something happened and gives those who didn't read the story (or have forgotten it) a new opportunity to read that something bad happened.
Remember all the paper reported was that a coventry resident alleges that her nephew was attacked by a wwfc supporter. It is true that the resident alleges that. it doesn't confirm that is definately what happened (it probably didn't)
Sloppy journalism (but as somebody says above, resources in local journalism are so low now, probably as expected). But best regretfully to move on and let it lie.
Glad that's settled then
Well done Jonny. You are a credit to WWFC and the Gasroom.
What you don't want to happen, is to end up with a phenomenon named after you and a wikipedia page devoted to it...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect