Thread 5: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[DisappointedReader]

The Observer The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...

Second article in the Observer
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-whats-in-the-book-and-what-the-observer-has-found

Third item in the Observer
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-the-truth-behind-the-blockbuster-book-video

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Thread 2 Thread 2. To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film? | Mumsnet

Thread 3 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5369425-thread-3-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Thread 4 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5370609-thread-4-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement Raynor Winn

They were deliberately swerving it feels & they cert don’t make the pharmacy a priority & yet they mention it as important? I.know illnesses don’t neatly present but he’s in such robust rude health doing front crawl & holding weighted tents above his head one minute…He has triathlete fitness & then these very rare asides…Maybe just represents their own confusion…

Best source?? For what? A journalist can google too, you know. There is nothing on this thread that won’t already have come up on day 1 of investigating this story (and a great deal of unwarranted speculation, particularly regarding the doctor). People have the right to discuss all they like but the idea that a well respected investigative journalist is now using a Mumsnet thread as a source is frankly laughable.

I would imagine they’ve saved everything that was in the public domain- including all the insta

they will have crawled through her statement to pick out the inconsistencies and they will have dug out any documents they can link

they will have had people contact them and will be investigating accuracy of that

if they needed to read a thread on Mumsnet to see the medical timeline is off the she’s not a very good journalist!!! (And I think she is)

You’d be surprised. Almost cert they’ll be looking. Some posts very sound & insightful & amongst them some other journos positing etc plus.

She’s an excellent journalist.

She hit back furiously Wednesday, issuing a lengthy statement partnered with hard medical evidence of Moth Winn’s CBD, while calling The Observer report “grotesquely unfair, highly misleading and [seeking] to systematically pick apart my life.” From Deadline.

Calling those letters hard medical evidence' indicates either that the writer had not read them or has a lack of critical thinking.

I'll tell you what's disappeared - Iceland. She had some posts about Iceland (I looked earlier this week), now they've gone.

Perhaps because the dates didn't bear out?

I am a journalist. What does “sound and insightful” mean? Providing hard evidence of something worthy of a follow up? Because I see nothing of that. A follow up to this story would require considerable new evidence, and new people to come forward with significant new information. That takes time, tact, extensive legal scrutiny before it can be got over the line.

Chloe H and the Observer have a lot invested in this, even reputationally. I imagine they were all over every possible publically available source of info before the story broke.

Sorry should have said it’s the best source for speculation. There’s definitely a hive mind at work here, but Reddit, Tattle, and other gossip-friendly spaces have gone noticeably quiet on the subject. That said the Daily Mail positively feeds on MN - virtually daily.

Sorry - I meant I think she is a good journalist - doesn’t read that way!

Raynor herself has provided the new evidence. By posting those medical letters. With their dates intact.

Best source for speculation?? You think investigative journalists need sources for speculation??

the DM is all over Mumsnet to churn out clickbait content which they can use precisely because it is anonymous and public. As a journalist does that make me proud? God no, it’s vile. But no one has to post here on a public forum. It is very very different from using it as a source for this (or any other public interest) story.

There's two there from Feb 2017, still.

Absolutely. I think what's been particularly disappointing is how this story has shown how little digging journalists actually to do to report and follow up a story. Aside from the original Observer piece, I've been underwhelmed by the other coverage. The Channel 4 piece last night was laughable. Why has no media outlet raised the glaringly obvious inconsistency between the 2015 TENTATIVE diagnosis of MILD CBS vs the claimed 2013 "my husband has terminal CBD", which sold millions of books!?

There’s always an angle you might not have considered/something you’ve missed even with very sound research. Facts & opinions can spark ideas re: follow up. Totally agree with you though & nothing half arsed will be cobbled together last minute. I have personally found it interesting to see other Hemmings family members now commenting.

Pro AI tools can now ingest the raw data from sprawling online threads and attempt to make sense of the noise offering summaries and surfacing key patterns. Some users even live near the village in France and have shared on-the-ground insights, piecing together clues from various accounts.

For very little effort, it’s worth a look. It adds colour and context especially from what appears to be a largely female, often outraged readership, including those with similar illnesses reacting to the revelations. And who knows? It might spark further digging, or at least point you to where the next layer of the story might lie.

In her interview Ros Hemmings said that the reason she's spoken out is that she hoped others who had been conned by the Walkers would come forward.

Hopefully they are doing so, and providing further evidence of Sally and Tim's wrongdoing.

Yes they’ve all fed off the Observer story, each adding their own spin to it. No other publication seems to have picked up the ball and run with it. Possibly because there’s not much more to say, or perhaps simply not enough people are interested or both.

Because following up a story is different from initially reporting it. It’s not instant, not everyone will have the contacts, many people who spoke to The Obs will not want to talk to anyone else now (reasonably so).

I suspect also that there is a hesitancy to go in heavy handed over inconsistencies in diagnosis dates etc because as a line, “man with debilitating condition isn’t as sick as maybe you thought but definitely still is sick” is not exactly the gotcha you might think. Many people might feel very sorry for him and view speculation over the exact nature of his condition to be extremely distasteful. The publisher too probably has/ feels a duty of care too. Both towards Moth (who is not after all the author) and towards whatshername. You can rightly say yes, she lied, yes, she’s been found out etc. that doesn’t change the duty of care towards her if she is now suffering a mental health crisis, say.

again, I reiterate I am not defending her. I’m just saying if, say, she’s told the publishers she feels suicidal - what would you have them do? The press is damned if it does, damned it it doesn’t.

Absolutely this. I'd love to have a snoop through their WA messages.

Much as I'm a fan ofJason I do wonder if he regrets being so hammy open now about how highly he thought of them.

For some reason right from the days of Scully, Gillian has always struck me as someone you don't want to piss off. So I would image Sally Walker might be a wee bit uncomfortable around her now.

Just as well I'm not an investigative journalist 😳

Well the PR playbook for celebs is to say they thought about taking their own life and that they’ve recently been diagnosed with an ND

I agree. I’m wondering whether the nephew who posted on LinkedIn has now spoken to the Observer. I think there’ll be more to come about this - whether that’s in this Sunday’s Observer or in the weeks and months to come.

I think they will need quite a lot of proof for anything new, and that will take time.
And - to be fair - the Mail did run the new story of her falling out with the cider farm people.

But a huge slew of other organisations have discussed it: a substantial chunk of Radio 4, The Rest is Entertainment and every newspaper has run opinion pieces as well as reporting. If this were a positive story and I was doing the PR for it, I'd call it a massive win (getting onto Today is about as good as it gets).