How to Respond to Media Myths

This is a cross-post on The Sun - Tabloid Lies, Express Watch and Mail Watch.

When you read the Sun, Daily Mail and the Express over a long-enough period of time, you start to notice a few things.

One thing that crops up regularly are hysterical ranting posts over a few small topics, including the following:

• It's Political Correctness/'Elf-and-Safety gawn maaaddd!!!;
• Scandal as the NHS refuses treatment!!!!!/New miracle cure for [insert scary medical condition here] - this is a particular favourite of the Mail which appears to be on a quest to categorise everything into either causing or curing cancer;
• Eurocrats are trying to control our way of life!!!!;
• Immigrants taking over and guess who's paying?!!!!

We've noticed that a lot of these scare stories could be stopped by a little research, which we accept that pressed-for-time tabloid journalists, for whatever reason, are unable to do.

Therefore, in the spirit of co-operation, we've decided to help them out by listing great sources of information, thereby saving them valuable time:

• Health and Safety Executive - "Myth of the Month" - a useful site for any claims which are made about bizarre actions taken or prevented in the name of preventing accident;
• NHS Choices - Behind the Headlines - a very good site for any "miracle cure" stories;
• National Institute of Clinical Excellence - evidence-based guidelines on various health topics, which go a long way to help the NHS what medicines and treatments should and shouldn't be funded by the taxpayer;
• News from the European Commission in the UK - news on how the Eurocrats aren't necessarily trying to dictate how we live;

There are also a variety of websites which can be used for any "Bloody Foreigners! Coming over 'ere! Takin' our jobs! Takin' our wimmin!" stories*:

• The Refugee Council - The Truth About Asylum;
• National Assembly Against Racism - Mythbusting Guide (PDF); and also
• Mediawise's guide to the use of correct terminology. 

There are also more general fact-checking sites**:

• Fullfact.org; and 
• Channel 4's FactCheck Blog

Of course, any and all of these lists could also be used by anyone else who wants to know more about the articles which the Sun, Daily Mail and/or the Express publish.

If anyone has any other suggestions as what other sources our tabloid journalists could use, just leave them in the comments.

* Thanks to Tabloid Watch for these particular links
** Thanks to Bloggerheads for these suggestions

Repeated corrections.

The Sun, probably due to Dominic Mohan taking over as editor, seems to be going through one of its periodical fits of declaring that everything wrong with everything is either the fault of political correctness and/or health and safety. Hence today it's time to turn on those bastards in the public services that look after their own safety first rather than those they're called out to help. I can't comment on the first three examples the paper highlights in its editorial, but it really should have known better than to use the tragic death of Jordon Lyons as a stick to beat police community support officers with:

Two police support officers just stood watching as a 10-year-old boy drowned, claiming they didn't have the correct training.

The Sun had to correct their original report after Greater Manchester Police complained to the PCC:

Mr David Whatton, Assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, complained that the newspaper inaccurately suggested that Police Community Support Officers had stood by while Jordon Lyons drowned and did nothing to help.

Resolution:

The complaint was resolved when the newspaper published the following apology:
“Our reports on the inquest of Jordon Lyon who drowned trying to rescue his sister (September 2007) stated two Police Community Support Officers from Greater Manchester Police stood by and did nothing. We wish to clarify the two PCSOs arrived after Jordon disappeared under water and they summoned help and directed other emergency services to the scene. We apologise for any distress our report may have caused.”

Not only then had the boy likely already drowned when they had arrived, but they summoned further help, with the police themselves arriving within minutes of the support team arriving, far from "doing nothing" or "standing watching", as the Sun puts it today.

I'm sure the PCC will come down on the Sun like a ton of bricks for repeating something it's already had to correct, or err, it'll probably just do naff all as usual.

Street of Shame pt. 95.

Here's this week's entries in Private Eye (1243) concerning the Sun: