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Once a newspaper touches a story, the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists.
Norman Mailer Kent Online - the website of a local Kent newspaper - ran a story on Saturday 11th April about a girl (Georgina Williams) that appeared to have committed suicide: 'Teenagers death remains a mystery'. The story as reported by Kent Online is worth examining in detail, so lets take some information from it: A heartbroken family left an inquest with no clear answer why their 14-year-old daughter was found hanged in her own bedroom. Georgina Williams, of St Margaret’s, was described as a happy, normal, teenager who had no serious problems in her life. Deputy coroner Christine Freedman, recording an open verdict, ruled that there was no evidence to conclude that it was suicide. She told the hearing at Ashford last Thursday : "This is a tragic case of a young girl who appears to have died as a result of hanging herself. "I have found nothing that could really give a clue as to why this might have happened " So, the Deputy coroner states that there was 'no evidence to conclude that it was suicide' and can find 'nothing that could really give a clue as to why this might have happened'.
Ok, moving on: Dover Grammar schoolgirl Georgina, of Station Road, St Margaret’s was found hanging by a belt from the rail of her bunk bed at about 6.50am on July 18 last year. Her father David said the night before she had gone to a production at Astor secondary school. He said: "She came home and waltzed into the house as normal with a smile on her face. There was nothing to suggest there was anything bothering her at all." He said that Georgina, who had two sisters, was a "loving child" who would confide in her parents if she had problems, had a good extended family to talk to and a huge circle of friends. So the father of Georgina Williams states that she seemed happy and that she had a wide circle of friends in which to talk to. The police - in the form of Det Sgt Michael Jones - agreed with the father and could shed no more light on the matter. However, there is one thing that the inquest had heard that might get the tabloids interested: some time before her death Georgina had had a row with two Astor schoolgirls who had gone to confront her at her school..But that didn’t happen because staff intervened and Georgina believed the quarrel was finished, the inquest heard. So, this information was considered but then dismissed, hence all of the previous details given in the article and the father's conclusion given in the final sentence of the article: Mr Willams told the inquest that he did not believe Georgina would have wanted to take her own life and said after the hearing: "We feel it was just a tragic accident." So, the verdict of the inquest, the family of the Georgina Williams and the police all point towards a tragic accident with no identifiable cause, so how would the tabloids responsibly report this news story? The Daily Mail: Grammar schoolgirl, 14, found hanged after row with pupils from nearby comprehensive. Naturally the Daily Mail make the story revolve around class conflict and clearly create a link between the 'row' with two girls from another school, even though this was clearly dismissed as a factor by all parties involved. The Daily Mail opens with: A girl at a top grammar school was found hanged amid fears she was bullied by pupils from a nearby comprehensive. Georgina Williams, 14, was discovered in her bedroom by her parents at their £750,000 home in Dover following a feud with a group of girls said to be 'after her'. The Daily Mail reveals once again its obsession with class, it feels necessary to say she attended a 'top grammar school' which is then clearly juxtaposed with the 'nearby comprehensive' - so the Daily Mail clearly picks a side in the opening paragraph as well as the headline. Further unnecessary details include the value of the home in which she was found dead, again cementing the idea that a respectable upper-middle-class girl has been hounded to death by feral comprehensive children. However, the interesting details are that there are 'fears she was bullied' by comprehensive students, the inquest and father of Georgina Williams had concluded that any fears were not founded, and in fact that no 'row' had actually taken place. So where is the Mail getting its evidence from? Their source is the reliable and neutral news source: Bebo: Messages posted by friends on the social networking website Bebo suggested Georgina may have been intimidated and upset in the run-up to her death. So, suggestions on a Bebo page have led the Daily Mail to write a headline and article that clearly links the comprehensive students with the death of Georgina Williams - what responsible journalism. However, it does not end there. The comments that the Mail refers to were written before the inquest, so therefore any suggestions made by those commenting has already been discounted by all involved. Furthermore, the Daily Mail even distorts the comments from Bebo to strengthen their argument. For example, the first comment quoted by the Daily Mail is said to be from one of 'Georgina's friends' , yet reading the comment in full it is clear that the person posting the comment barely knows Georgina: i didnt really know you but i know that my friend did and i hope the girls that did this to you get what they deserve!! The part highlighted in bold is what the Daily Mail has inserted into its article, they leave out the 'i didnt really know you' part because the comment is supposedly from a friend, the implication being that the friends would really know what happened, thus giving the article more credibility. The other comments are buried amongst hundreds and I haven't the patience to find them. The significance of taking comments from Bebo is clear: it creates a clear impression that Georgina Williams was bullied and that she committed suicide because of this. Now, the inquest has clearly rubbished such claims, but the Daily Mail article thrives on suggestions, rumors and gossip surrounding Georgina's death to create the impression that Georgina Williams committed suicide as a result of bullying - and it works. Visit Georgina Williams' Bebo memorial page and it is overrun with comments from people who did not know Georgina, do not live within hundreds of miles of Georgina all stating ' I didn't know you, but I read in the paper how you were bullied into killing yourself' etc etc. A large amount of people believe what they read in newspapers, they take away the impression being given irrespective of the facts. The Daily Mail article clearly states that: both police and Georgina's family said there had not appeared to be any signs of serious problems. But this does not stop them from making further implications based on the unreliable Bebo comments: While the inquest did not hear any evidence of bullying, one of the messages posted by Georgina's friends on Bebo read: 'I hope the girls that did this to you get what they deserve!!' The language used here is interesting, the inquest is said to not have not 'hear[d] any evidence of bullying' which seems to imply that they were not listening to evidence that was available. If the Daily Mail had stated ' no evidence was put forward to the inquest supporting the idea that she had been bullied' it would be clear that the inquest had dealt with all the evidence put forward. The way it is actually written makes it sound as if the inquest has ignored the evidence of any bullying as put forward by the Bebo commentators. The Daily Mail is therefore able to trump fact with unsubstantiated rumors posted by children in the period of time following the death of a fellow student. The Daily Mail are not reporting news, they are indulging in scaremongering gossip dressed up as investigative journalism - as if digging around a Bebo page could provide answers that the inquest could not. What is perhaps more worrying is that although the article clearly concludes: Speaking after the inquest yesterday, Mr Williams, who has two other daughters, said: 'I don't believe for one minute that she intended to take her own life. 'I think she was probably mucking around in her room, doing daft things like teenagers do sometimes, and had an accident. 'But we will never know. 'Sometimes teenagers write silly things that they don't mean on these social networking sites, but when the police investigated her computer they found absolutely nothing that suggested she was depressed.' Recording an open verdict, coroner Christine Freedman said: 'This is a tragic case of a young girl who appears to have died as a result of hanging herself. 'We cannot know what was on her mind at the time. It's possible she took an impulsive decision, or maybe she was seeking attention. We simply do not know. 'I am not satisfied Georgina intended to take her own life, so I will record an open verdict.' Yet the recent posts on Bebo make it clear that this has not been understood by all readers: 
What is also clear from the Bebo comments is that the vast majority don't mention which paper they read the story in, but they all conclude that bullies caused the death of Georgina Williams. The reason is clear: The Daily Mirror: Teen found hanged after school clash: A pupil at a top girls' grammar school was found hanged after falling out with girls from a nearby comprehensive, an inquest heard yesterday. The Sun: Teen hangs herself over schools' feud: A GIRL at a top grammar school hanged herself after falling out with pupils from a rival comprehensive where her mother taught. The Telegraph: Grammar pupil found hanged after 'row with rival comprehensive': A 14-year-old pupil at Dover Grammar School for Girls in Kent found hanged in her bedroom had earlier fallen out with girls from a nearby comprehensive, an inquest heard. The Daily Express: GRAMMAR SCHOOL GIRL FOUND HANGED AFTER A QUARREL WITH RIVAL PUPILS: A GRAMMAR school girl was found hanged in her bedroom after falling out with girls from a nearby comprehensive. All of these newspapers have a misleading headline, or deliberately lie about the death of Georgina Williams. These newspaper articles are all taken from the first 4 pages of Google search results for 'Georgina Williams' - the truth about her death is therefore obscured by these newspapers for anybody using Google as a search tool. As a result of the deliberately misleading headlines and articles the memorial page for Georgina Williams is overrun with people posting factually incorrect comments about her death. The truth has been forgotten and anger has been created against the comprehensive school and some of its pupils have been accused of killing Georgina Williams. The inquest makes it clear that none of this is true. |
And because of these so call friends of hers she is dont have her life anymore!
Rest in peace Georgina bestfriends always I promise! xx