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Have just seen a piece I wrote for the Times about the first 10 years of MN in print and am pretty miffed about the editing. Wanted to clarify to Mumsnetters that the stuff about Biscuitgate wasn't written by me!
Here's the mail I've just sent to them:
I've just seen my piece on the website and am to be frank dismayed. I can live with the fact that it's been chopped in half - I'd rather have been asked to have done it myself but I do understand that these things happen.
What is completely unacceptable, and puts me in an incredibly difficult position, is the addition to my copy without any consultation, of something that I didn't write and never would have written:
"Equally entertaining was when Gordon Brown dodged Mumsnetters? questions about his favourite biscuits. He was forced to admit a day later to the world?s press that he liked chocolatey ones (and sent our offices six boxes of his favourite variety)."
I didn't find Biscuitgate "entertaining" because Gordon Brown didn't "dogde' Mumsnetters' questions, rather he didn't see them. Your addition is both misleading and untrue and I can't tell you how irritating it is to see it in print under my byline. I've worked as journalist for the Times and I really can't believe that you've added words to my piece that described how I felt about an event, without even talking to me about it.
Please can you take this out of the copy on the Times website asap.
Justine