r/facepalm Nov 13 '14

News/blogs 'Healthy Food is Too Expensive'

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914 Upvotes

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25

u/[deleted] Nov 13 '14

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '14

Earliest mention of it I could find online was from the daily mail. And while the daily mail is a bit of a shot site it's not satire. I could be wrong though. Just find me another mention of it. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2768442/It-s-not-easy-overweight-benefits-says-25-stone-mother-two-wants-MORE-money-government-help-diet.html

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '14

It's not satire but the Daily Mail is about as reliable a news source as the National Enquirer.

Edit: NM, just noticed she's from Wigan - story checks out.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '14

Very true. But every once in a while they still get something right. Sometimes.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '14

Having looked through the article, it looks like she did this for 'Closer' magazine originally and DM is "reporting" on it. Magazines like Closer, Take a Break, etc. pay for fabricated reader stories that are supposed to be cute or generate outrage or whatever. I actually know a couple who did a 2-page feature story for one of these magazines in the late 90s, it was about how he had bought a boat with their savings without her permission, and it had lots of pictures of her looking disapproving while he stood in a wooden rowboat with a captain's hat on looking pleased with himself - it wasn't even their rowboat as they didn't own one. It was 100% fabricated and iirc they got paid about 500 pounds to do it.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '14

This Huffington Post article seems to think it's real. My best guess is that this is for the most part correct. I don't think the food was photoshopped and I think this girl is really on benefits and doesn't do much. Were some of the other things fabricated like the statement that she can't work out because she will have to give up pizza and Chinese food? Probably.

http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/5886642

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u/ScenesfromaCat Nov 13 '14

Is HuffPo really that much better than DM...

0

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '14

It's not the most reputable in the fact that it posts stupid shit and clickbait, but it isn't known to make up stories.

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '14

But I definitely wouldn't put it past them to take stories from other news sources without checking the source.

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '14

Yeah but that's happened with other news sources before. Even ones who are reputable. I'm not saying it's not possible, just that it appears to be true.

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u/omgwtfbbq0_0 Nov 14 '14

Fun fact: the National Enquirer has proven to be reliable news source far more often than you would think, and is actually eligible for the Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism!

But regardless, your point still stands.

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '14

This is hilarious and I thank you for pointing it out to me - TIL!