Police called to National Theatre to deal with gender critical feminists sitting on chairs

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

twitter.com/DadRogd/status/1147181198231429124 has picture of the unfortunate police officer sent to investigate.

Earlier in his tweet thread he says:

National Theatre Green Room bar just refused to serve us. Their grounds? Allegedly, we are a political group with views a member of staff finds offensive. So they offend a dozen customers instead.

Problem is apparently with t-shirt worn by Anne Ruzylo sporting a dictionary definition of a lesbian. As someone else has pointed out the NT is in breach of the Equality Act, given that sexual orientation and sex are both protected characteristics. I wonder how this will play out.

If you look at Anne's twitter feed now you will find that Vanessa Thorpe did not use the incorrect twitter account. Saying that she did so on purpose is libellous.

She did. It looks the same but the I is a capital i not a little L, try and follow it and see what happens.

Here's Vanessa contacting the fake Anne (who has five tweets and seven followers)

twitter.com/vanessathorpe/status/1147597384920240128

Funny, if I go Thorpe's feed and click on the twitter handle that she uses to try and get in contact with Anne, it is a fake account. When Anne responds, it is really Anne. So very very clearly Thorpe's doesn't check if a twitter handle is correct, as the wrong ones lands you on a handle that says TWAW in capital letters in the bio. How much more info do you need that that is not Anne?

Right I've done that and see what you mean. However, I stand by the fact that this is pure speculation that it was done on purpose.

@ThePurported

"Ruth Hunt, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"

I am always reminded of the final scene of Bridge of the River Kwai at this point. That moment where the Alec Guinness character realises how complicit he has been.
Thing is, will Hunt ever admit it?
(or will we have to do a Mhairi Black and call her a Jeremy Hunt?)

tobee, if you look at Vanessa Thorpe's Twitter account you'll see that you are mistaken.

twitter.com/vanessathorpe/status/1147462012194234368

That links to the fake Anne Ruzylo account.

Weird right? Because the journalist reported on what Anne Ruzylo actually said on her proper Twitter account. So the journalist must have had access to that account. And yet didn't use it to contact Anne.

It may be a mistake, but it's a weird mistake to make, Vanessa could definitely have tried harder.

"The Observer Newsdesk thought it important to report the incident - unpopular decision for some on both sides, but still"

Vanessa, how about you stop this nonsense about 'sides' and just get on with reporting the facts?

tobee
It might but really how hard is it to google Anne Ruzylo twitter?

However, I stand by the fact that this is pure speculation that it was done on purpose.

Maybe so, but its suspect as hell given the circumstances. It will be one huge coincidence if it was not on purpose, given she quoted the tweet and knew the real handle, yet still managed to tweet a fake account for annes side of it

I really hope this goes to court.

It's a fake account. Any fucking idiot would have realised that. Vanessa didn't. Vanessa should have her NUJ membership stripped from her for writing a whole article which is 95% made up

Thing is, will Hunt ever admit it?

If she can secure another cushty job or a parliamentary candidate spot with Labour before shit really hits the fan - hell no. I'll be watching with interest, apparently politics is on the cards for her.

"It might but really how hard is it to google Anne Ruzylo twitter?"

Not difficult at all when you've actually just accessed the real Anne Ruzylo Twitter account to quote exactly the the tweet featured in your report. That you've just written.

Shoddy reporting all round really.

When it is in someone's interests to lie, you should not take them at their word. Journalism 101 really innit?

But I'm sure Vanessa will make a correction now that the lies have been brought to her attention.

She sounds a bit annoyed at being stitched up by the National Theatre. That's her fault of course, but she can pursue the story properly now.

But the journalist didn't know Anne Ruzylo's twitter handle. Despite the journalist writing about Anne Ruzylo's tweet and quoting it verbatim in the article.

Odd.

Yeah, that's... awkward.

I still think it was an easy mistake to make if you copied the twitter rather than clicked on a link (sloppy or not). Presumably, that is why the fake account was set up the way it was.

I think people are running with the fact that has been done "on purpose" because the Guardian/Observer is not generally considered gc. I think that management would have had to be persuaded to include the news piece at all. I think the article is an unbiased bit of news reporting but that the cock up with the link undermines it.

I can totally see why people would speculate that Vanessa did it on purpose, but where's the proof? Unfortunately this argument about the twitter handle distracts from the story.

Exceptionally lazy.

1. Anne was not the only one present. Numerous Twitter and FB accounts were talking about being part of the group. The journalist could have contacted any or all of them.

2. A quick look at that profile would have shown it to be fake. How the journalist could possibly quote a tweet from the correct account but address her inquiry to the wrong one is a complete mystery.

When I want to contact a person online that I don't know, I always double check I have the right one by quickly looking at their previous posts.

And here's the other thing:

The fake account is sargesaIute that is

sierra-alpha-romeo-golf-echo-sierra-alpha-Capital india-uniform-tango-echo

It reads of course as sargesalute with a small l for lima (or others wouldn't be fooled by it).

So, either you find the tweet you're quoting, note the Twitter handle and type it in - in which case you write to the saluting sarge, (because introducing a deliberate misspelling of sargesaiute with a Capital i makes no sense).

Or you click directly on the handle that posted the tweet you're quoting.

You could also search for the person you seek to get a statement from. In which case you enter "Anne Ruzylo" into the Twitter search field. Which again leads directly to the correct account.

So how can a journalist worthy of that name address an urgent inquiry to the wrong account in this case?

Sorry, bold fail

sierra - alpha - romeo - golf - echo - sierra - alpha - Capital india - uniform - tango - echo

This is stinking more and more of shit by the minute.

Maybe not a bad thing in the long run, though?

The National Theatre are stuck with their initial story now.

If a journalist had called the National Theatre and informed them that the group claimed that they had no placards and had video evidence to support it, the NT would have tried another lie instead. Or offered some placatory bollocks instead.

But the NT have left themselves with nowhere to go now. The NT have made themselves the story now.

Just like the NSPCC did over the Bergdorf debacle.

Agreed that the mistake was, at best, unfortunate.

Lazy or just an overworked member of staff? Given the story as her Twitter says this afternoon?The Observer has cut staff to the bare bones

But I think it's easy in the current climate to look for conspiracy where there is no proof that there is one. I also think TRA are hoping to make everyone paranoid. Another reason to set up the fake Twitter.

Cross post with Popchyk.

I'm certainly glad that the story is being covered by the mainstream press. As pp say:- sunlight.

I can totally see why people would speculate that Vanessa did it on purpose, but where's the proof?

How on earth would there ever be actual proof of such a thing? Theres plenty of 'circumstancial evidence' that its on purpose though. I agree its speculatin still as there would never be physical proof of someones mindset as thats quite impssible, but circumstances kind of make it almost impossible to believe it was a genuine mistake. Even moreso when she appears to fail to even note the mistake, while quoting the fake account in a reply to the real Anne.

Either it was on purpose, or this journalist is rather dim, is my conclusion tbh.

If a journalist had called the National Theatre and informed them that the group claimed that they had no placards and had video evidence to support it, the NT would have tried another lie instead. Or offered some placatory bollocks instead.
Interesting point. Their original statment of basically..a lesbian being openly lesbian with a shirt on saying lesbian made a member of staff feel unsafe simply by existing, so we refused to serve her as the staff member was lesbophobic..is out there too. Then this obvious lie, to try and cover up their huge fuckup of admitting to breaching the Equality act for both sexuality and sex I think.

My guess is what's happened is that the NT press office, dealing with a fuck-up that they made worse, wanted to get a spun version into the press that was "stunning and brave vs evil bigots". They chose Vanessa Thorpe who, as arts and media correspondent, wasn't going to go hard on the details, and it went from there.

A neat approach in theory but it's now making the NT look like a bunch of duplicitous arses.