I am having a “conversation” on Facebook with someone who is claiming that the picture of the lad in Leeds A+E is a fake. A set up to discredit Johnson.

Have I been had?

BBC report

No, it’s a genuine story
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/dec/09/tories-accused-lying-distract-photo-boy-hospital-floor

Yes you have been had

Do you need to ask?

It’s not like Corbyn on the train…

the claim that it is fake news is fake news…

Have I been had?

No, he has. The notion that it was a set-up is, oddly enough, a Tory lie.

Even if the photo was fake ( which, let’s be clear it wasn’t) then Johnson’s reaction to it was genuine and that’s the horrifying thing  here.

It’s a wonder that he never flicked out a reptilian tongue and declared that the kid looked delicioussssssssss.

It is not a fake. Tweet from editor of Yorkshire Post:

I have responded in good faith to Margaret. I do hope we are not too late to help people like her, so unfairly manipluated and discombobulated by cynical social media messaging driven by dark forces. pic.twitter.com/VNhe89dZxz

— James Mitchinson (@JayMitchinson) December 10, 2019

There’s not even a hospital called the Leeds General Infirmary. I read that on Facebook.

The notion that it was a set-up is, oddly enough, a Tory lie.

The provenance of the lie is not clear. It does potentially benefit the Tories, and whoever else benefits from five more years of their government.

Good response by the editor there. I would like to think that others in similar roles to his would do the same thing, but I have severe doubts.

I suspect that it will not make a jot of difference. The damage has already been done.

Seems there are hundreds of people on Facebook who are “good friends” of that senior nursing sister.

Even if the photo was fake ( which, let’s be clear it wasn’t)

Even if that photo was a fake there are thousands of these DAILY…. and ANYONE can walk into a hospital and see this in REAL LIFE…

To clarify I meant you have been had by your chum

Pic is real and fair play to the parents for not wading in on the discussion

There’s been a bit of confusion because of two reported incidents involving LGI.

1) The one about the boy, the photo, and BoZo naffing someone’s phone is very much true.
2) The one about Matt Hammond’s aide getting punched isn’t – https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/09/matt-hancock-aide-altercation-hospital-campaign-visit

It’s obvious to anyone paying attention that the Conservatives employ teams of people to spread misinformation/ troll/ counterclaim bad press via social media campaign (they’ve admitted they do exactly that) and it forms an important tool to massage public opinion in their favour just as it has done in other populist campaigns across the globe- I’m sure all parties do it but Tory Bar Stewards appear most efficient.  I bet there’s specific strategies set out to implement in the event of a major gaffe such as the Boris PhonegrabGate, and thats what we saw yesterday. To be clear, all evidence points to the photo being genuine, what’s interesting is the tactics used to deflect from the story. It clearly works as the masses absorb the fake news spin and regurgitate and the whole story gets obfuscated within a parade of lies and counterclaim…even so-called journalists have questioned whether the photo was real based on twitter research…Classic Dom.

Some proper investigation needs doing into Social media campaigns, it’s undermining everything. Yesterday may stand out as a day that that sums up this election.

Doesnt matter now.

the lie that it’s fake is out there. The dimmer wing of the tory acolytes will believe it. If you tell them they’re wrong, you’ll be accused of spreading fake news.

We really are absolutely screwed 🙁

For anyone interested…brilliantly sums it up..

https://bylinetimes.com/2019/12/10/trolls-sock-puppets-and-useful-idiots-an-anatomy-of-an-election-disinformation-campaign/

From the original article.

Jack – who was using an oxygen mask while laid on the floor – was diagnosed with Influenza A and Tonsillitis by doctors.

So a cold and a sore throat ?

Yorkshire Evening Post

So a cold and a sore throat ?

Apologies if I think this comment is insinuating something that it’s not, but anyway, the ambulance that took him to A&E was called by the GP.

Well, flu is potentially deadly (I knew a woman in her 30s who died from it) so a big bit more than a cold

Had my Tory mate pop around at lunchtime… he repeated the story about the photo being fabricated… and went on to tell me about the health secretary being mobbed and punched.

The lies are half way around the world before…

So a cold and a sore throat ?

And suspected pneumonia before finally receiving that diagnosis, as it says right there in the URL.

Flu and tonsillitis isn’t just “a cold and a sore throat.” Either of those could be life-threatening at that age. Tonsillitis almost killed me as a kid.

Shouldn’t you be showing some Christian values about now or something? Sheesh.

This site never fills to amaze me,lots of people pretend to be so worthy and intelligent but scratch that away and they are just horrendous people.

I am not that familar with A&E but I presume it goes something like waiting room – examination/treatment room – bed in A&E for emergency treatment or overnight – bed in ward for after care/follow up treatment.

I took the story as being there was no day bed in the examination/treatment room, not that the kid was overnighting on the floor in an emergency room or a ward.

It’s always bloody rammed in there and takes ages. I once fell asleep in the childrens A&E at LGI,  nobody took a photo of me!

I’d just like to point out that I was there as my son was I’ll, not just looking for a bed on a Saturday night night….

It’s always bloody rammed in there and takes ages.

Wonder why that could be…

Wonder why that could be…

[outofbreath]because labour have only promised to spend an extra £3bn. heartless bastards[/outofbreath]

Further plot twist: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/dec/10/woman-says-account-hacked-to-post-fake-story-about-hospital-boy

Hard to tell what’s real these days? Is STW real, or is it just a dsitraction invented by Dominic Cummings? Are you lot real or just bots programmed to write “there’s a magazine?” and other stock phrases at random? Am I real?

Wonder why that could be…

Coz people falling off bikes?

Are you lot real or just bots programmed to write “there’s a magazine?” and other stock phrases at random? Am I real?

Joe Cocker is dead?

not just looking for a bed on a Saturday night night….

Narcolepsy is a real problem. Finish your post when you wake up. 🙂

“I was hacked. I am not a nurse and I certainly don’t know anyone in Leeds,” said the woman, whose name the Guardian is withholding because she says she has received death threats. “I’ve had to delete everything as I have had death threats to myself and my children.”

Charming. I wonder if the perpetrators also have accounts on here.

You seem unusually combative for such a new poster, Ben. It normally takes at least six months before bonhomie turns to rancour. Obviously the site owners are experimenting with ways to accelerate the process. 🙂

I have a lot of time on my hands now I’m an out of work racist.

Careful you don’t get mixed up between tabs and copy and paste a massive foam-flecked rant onto your covering letters by mistake. 🙂

So if ‘they’ are now hacking Facebook/ Twitter accounts in order to spread misinformation then this is taking an even darker turn…is this SockPuppetry++ direct from the Troll factory?

Further plot twist: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/dec/10/woman-says-account-hacked-to-post-fake-story-about-hospital-boy

This was a commonly shared facebook post claiming to be from a nurse in the hospital saying the no bed thing was bullshit. Whether the person in that link is telling the truth about being hacked doesn’t really matter. the post was being shared everywhere, with others passing it off as there own, bits being added to it etc.

Had my Tory mate pop around at lunchtime…

I trust you put him right?

So if ‘they’ are now hacking Facebook/ Twitter accounts

Way back when, before facebook, the online games used to have account farms run by third parties, for a pittance you could buy an account, often loaded up with stuff you would otherwise spend days or weeks collecting. Tremendously useful if you were playing World of Warcraft and couldn’t be varsed to run through thirty yawnsome introductory missions before you accrued a Shiny Sword of +5.

The account farms just work for a different, darker paymaster now.

Doesnt matter now.

Exactly. And most likely won’t in the future. At least not in any of our lifetimes. The pendulum swings slowly. Lies travel almost instantly around the world, long before the truth can even get it’s boots on. Populism and hyper-tabloidism* is most likely the future for as long as it makes a difference. At least for anyone currently much older than 20 yrs. How such widespread (and instant) instability of information/propaganda shall fare/be solved going forward is beyond my ken.

*Tabloidism + ‘social-media‘** + ‘conspiracy-culture‘

**(unintentionally ironic misnomer of the century)