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Via Mailwatch I've been very confused by a Daily Mail scare story on the 'Swine flu pandemic' that is about to engulf the world. The headline seems pretty straightforward: Obama's swine flu scare after shaking hands with archaeologist who died 24 hours later. The opening line makes it even clearer:
A man who shook Barack Obama's hand in Mexico died the next day from symptoms similar to those of swine flu. Yet, underneath a photo of the man (Felipe Solis) the caption clearly states: Archaeologist Felipe Solis, who took President Obama on a tour of the National Anthropology Museum on April 16. A week later he died of pneumonia So, he died a week later, of pneumonia, not '24 hours later' from 'symptoms similiar to those of swine flu'. So that has cleared that up then.
Wait. What is this? Another picture - this time of Barack Obama with the caption underneath: Health fears: American President Barack Obama shook hands with Felipe Solis, who died the following day from flu-like symptoms David Gardner actually gets paid to write these articles, yet he can't seem to distinguish between one simple fact: when someone died. It is not as if we are talking about a matter of hours, but a difference between one day and seven. To make matters worse, the two paragraphs that immediately follow the Obama picture and caption clearly state: Mr Solis had taken Mr Obama on a tour of the museum on April 16, a week before his death. Mexican health boss Jose Cordova, however, said Mr Solis was already ill and his death was unrelated to swine flu. So the headline is a complete lie, the introductory paragraph is a complete lie. David Gardner doesn't even attempt to hide the lie, he just dispels it, then states it again, then dispels it again. Does he really think his readers are incapable of reading past the first paragraph? Actually, he may have a point there. Update As JC points out in a comment below, the headline has now changed to: Obama's swine flu scare after shaking hands with archaeologist who died a week later. But, brilliantly, the caption underneath the picture of Obama still states that the man died the 'following day.' How does David Gardner get paid for this shite? Luckily, others still have the original headline and this link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1173672/Obamas-swine-flu-scare-shaking-hands-archaeologist-died-24-hours-later.html still takes you to the same article, but the 24 hour claim in the link changes to http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1173672/Obamas-swine-flu-scare-shaking-hands-archaeologist-died-week-later.html. Google search results also confirm the original headline and leading line (second link down is original): 
If you read the Mailwatch forums you will know that the Mail correct the lies they print in headlines all the time, but never actually acknowledge any wrong doing. in this instance the fact that the lie is still repeated underneath the picture of Obama just sums up the journalistic and editorial integrity of this shitrag. |
You can stick this link into your browser, or click the link above and still get to the same article, but the link changes to: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1173672/Obamas-swine-flu-scare-shaking-hands-archaeologist-died-week-later.html
The fact that both links work shows that the headline has been changed. The article states: 'Last updated at 3:49 PM on 28th April 2009'.
Other people have the original article: here. A Google search also brings up the original headline and link as well.
The Daily Mail are always sneakily changing headlines without any admittance that they were wrong in the first place.