Why aren't there angry posts about Tim Matthews admitting he made up Dominic Cummings sighting?

[NotEverythingIsBlackandWhite]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8372911/Boris-puts-Dominic-Cummings-chance-one-witness-admits-sighting-aide.html

Tim Matthews has admitted he made up a sighting of Dominic Cummings at Barnard Castle for a joke. It wasn't a very funny joke. I haven't heard anyone laughing about and why has it taken until now to admit it was a lie?

But that isn't the bigger picture Waspnest - the picture you are painting doesn't at all compare with the Cummings scandal because in your hypothetical issue the incriminated neighbour hasn't actually done anything wrong and Dimwit Cummings definitely has.

I am well aware of the problems of fake news and using doctored 'evidence' to smear - it is one of Cummings and co favourite methods as demonstrated by smears against Labour during the GE campaign. So he/they can hardly bleat about being hoist with their own petard but in this case the petard wasn't even required - the case against him is based on his own actions and his own account.

I'm sure you can see that so excuse me if i'm a bit about your intentions in bashing on with the argument

“Say there were two neighbours, one goes to the police and says that his neighbour has been regularly having family parties at his house at the height of lockdown and he has cctv footage showing loads of people traipsing into the house. Turns out the neighbour has used old footage and tried to alter the date to incriminate neighbour. When this comes out the dodgy neighbour says it was all a joke and he didn't mean to get anyone into trouble.”

Except the equivalent would be that multiple neighbours reported the parties... and only the one with CCTV was a lie...

Oh and then the government spent loads of time saying that particular neighbour was fine to have parties anyway, just no-one else is.

Did more than one person report the second trip?

I haven't seen a post saying it's OK, only saying that it is a minor issue compared with the Cummings scandal and therefore, to answer the original OP question, that is why there is no equivalent outrage.

Who knows or cares? He owned up to it with the most ridiculous excuse he could dream up.

Flies and Pies and I'm suspicious of your intentions of trying to shut down perfectly reasonable discussion about a member of the public who has tried to shit stir. You don't state your own opinions, you just try discredit the views of others by casting aspersions on their motives.

If you want to live in a society where people think it's fine to make up lies for the press for a joke fine, I'm not.

You don't state your own opinions, you just try discredit the views of others by casting aspersions on their motives.

I've stated my opinion in every post i've made in response to you! I don't believe there is any equivalence between the actions of Cummings and Matthews and I don't believe Matthews actions are particularly significant in a sea of fake news - how much clearer do you want me to be?

It's not shutting you down to say that I find your obtuse persistence and your use of a non-comparable example a bit suspect - that's also my opinion.

If you want to live in a society where people think it's fine to make up lies for the press for a joke fine, I'm not

She hasn’t said that at all.

And I find it odd that you can't see the bigger picture here. Take Cummings out of the equation. Say there were two neighbours, one goes to the police and says that his neighbour has been regularly having family parties at his house at the height of lockdown and he has cctv footage showing loads of people traipsing into the house. Turns out the neighbour has used old footage and tried to alter the date to incriminate neighbour. When this comes out the dodgy neighbour says it was all a joke and he didn't mean to get anyone into trouble.

But that didn't happen. The report was made to a newspaper who then checked the details with Cummings.

If you want to live in a society where people think it's fine to make up lies for the press for a joke fine, I'm not

The story was only printed because despite multiple opportunities, Cummings did not correct the story.

I don't believe there's any equivalence either. I think they are two issues and I don't know why people cannot treat them as two different issues.

My frustration is that some people are saying well the Cummings thing is a big issue and this is (by comparison) a smaller one. I think they're both big issues and I think the involvement of Dominic Cummings has clouded views on the second issue. (Too many uses of the word 'issue' I know)

My annoyance with you is because you seem to think I have some ulterior motive in arguing about this when all I'm doing is acting like a dog with a bone like thousands of people all over this site. Anyway I'm hiding this thread, I have many flaws but acting like some sneaky shit stirrer isn't one of them and being accused of that makes me fucking furious so I'm out.

My annoyance with you is because you seem to think I have some ulterior motive in arguing about this when all I'm doing is acting like a dog with a bone like thousands of people all over this site

Dog with a bone is something I understand!

My problem with your posts is that you don't seem to be taking in or responding to any of the points raised by other posters while chomping on that bone. I've found that type of posting does usually indicate an underlying agenda but I apologise for upsetting you.

No one should be allowed to make stuff up.

What he did was stupid and also unkind.

But it doesn't detract from what Cummings did or the story.

Cummings did wrong. Him and Boris eroded trust because when story broke they denied allegations which were true.
And he admitted once evidence was produced it was true.

Just because some idiot decided to make up another sighting that doesn't change it. And doesn't make the true allegations false.

What Matthews did was undermine what the papers investigated. And the MSM perhaps should have verified this information before printing it.

2 wrongs don't make a right.

But they did verify their story... Matthews did make those claims did have his evidence.

The wording of their reports was, as ever, careful to avoid an actual statement that could lead to them being challenged.

Because the whole Dominic Cummings row was fuelled by anti Brexit people hoping to derail the process

@Growingboys

Because the whole Dominic Cummings row was fuelled by anti Brexit people hoping to derail the process

No it wasn’t.

Growing Boys - Because the whole Dominic Cummings row was fuelled by anti Brexit people hoping to derail the process

Or perhaps it was because people have been living through life and death moments at distance from their families and were upset and angered by the reckless actions of Cummings moving around the country while symptomatic, exposing healthcare workers in another area (when he was well aware of the evidence that people visiting second homes had spread the disease through Italy). Next his boss lied about his movements to the public. He then explained further movements in the North East over Easter (when Government instructions forbid non-essential journeys) with some absolute guff about driving to test his eyesight & only admitted to this because he had been spotted. He then failed to offer any apology or to resign as other government advisors had been expected to do for failing to follow guidelines and damaging public trust in government rules.
Growing boys - are you 100% confident it was nowt to do with any of this? No-one's that daft!

False allegations are serious though, it also makes it hard to decipher or trust the truth. Women that falsely claim they are raped for example makes others who are telling the truth worried they wont be believed and its harder for them as a result. He we have a different scenario, but basically the one false allegation automatically makes you question the others as well. Tim Matthews definitley should face some sort of consequence for this to deter others from doing similar and allowing people with genuine and truthful reports to come forward.

He we have a different scenario, but basically the one false allegation automatically makes you question the others as well.

But it doesn't because the other allegations were confirmed by Cummings, resulting in further and greater fury on the part of a public who had stuck to those rules.