43. How the 'no English food on my holiday' woman was stitched up by the local and national press alike...

Why did one local story about a dissatisfied holidaymaker get reported all over the country and end up as national news?

Susan Edwards, 69, lives in the Westerhope area of Newcastle. Why then does my local news site, the EDP, based in Norwich, think that I’m interested in her complaint that her all-inclusive holiday to Corfu didn’t have any “English food”? Because Susan is an angry person in a local newspaper and when one of their stories has a clickable hook, it’s quickly picked up by every other news sites.

Edwards’ brief ascent into the attentions of the national press began yesterday with a story published by Chronicle Live, the Newcastle Chronicle website, headlined Newcastle holidaymaker's 'nightmare' Corfu hotel stay where there was 'no English food and water cost €1.50'. It begins:

A holidaymaker said she refuses to book with TUI again after a "nightmare" all-inclusive trip to Corfu, where there was "no English food" or hotel entertainment. Susan Edwards set off on a seven-night holiday to the Greek island on May 12.

The story is illustrated with a main image of a grim-faced Edwards holding up her phone showing the TUI website as well as a series of pictures of the buffet food offered during her holiday. While the original Chronicle Live report has a veneer of sympathy for Edwards and her family, it’s pretty clear that the story only exists to elicit mockery of her from other readers — look at this woman complaining that “there was no hot bacon or sausage” at breakfast; laugh at her disgust that they only got chips on one day of the week they spent there.

Is it a little ignorant to go to Greece and be surprised when you’re served rice, fish, salads, and kebabs? Yes, patently. But does Edwards deserve to be mocked across the whole of the British press for it? No. She’s just a random woman complaining about her all-inclusive holiday. It’s not news, it’s an opportunity for a hate read and some guilt-free sneering.

That’s why the Newsquest-owned EDP’s copy-and-paste retread of the Chronicle Live story is headlined Mum's 'nightmare' Corfu holiday with 'no English food' and published by one of the title’s trending news reporters — they’ve seen people sharing the tale and decided to hoover up some of the traffic. Of course, other local news sites, which like Chronicle Live are owned by Reach, got in on the act:

TUI holidaymaker's 'nightmare' Corfu trip with 'no English food and €1.50 for water' (Nottingham Post)

'The hotel had no bacon, no sausage and we only got chips one day - I was sick to death of looking at rice' (Manchester Evening News) ]

TUI customer's 'nightmare' all-inclusive hotel stay where 'there was no English food' (Liverpool Echo)

And seeing that the tale was getting traction on the local sites, Reach’s national titles, The Daily Mirror and The Daily Express joined in too:

TUI customer refuses to book again after 'nightmare' Corfu trip with 'no English food' (The Daily Express)

Tourist's 'nightmare' as Corfu hotel 'had no English food' and not enough chips (The Daily Mirror)

For all of those Reach retreads of the first story, the original writer Nicole Goodwin is on the byline. It’s the journalistic equivalent of the scene in The Simpsons where Duff, Duff Lite, and Duff Dry barrels are filled from branches of the same pipe. Whatever the branding, Reach will pump out the same cheap stories.

Of course, once the Mirror had rehashed the story, The Sun had to pick it up, giving it one of its classicly overblown headlines — Brit gran’s holiday ‘hell’ as she moans Corfu resort ‘didn’t have any English food’. The copy gets the same translation into The Sun’s trademark brand of tabloidese:

A BRITISH gran's dream holiday to Corfu fell flat because her all-inclusive resort "didn't have any English food" on offer.

Susan Edwards, 69, from Westerhope, Newcastle upon Tyne, vowed she'll never book with TUI again after being less than impressed with the grub on offer.

Today, The Daily Mail, which has been notorious for picking up stories late since the heyday of Paul ‘Day Later’ Dacre, has got in on the act. It’s retread, headlined British tourist says Corfu holiday was a 'nightmare' because there was 'no English food', manages to avoid mentioning the original source at all.

Now that Edwards’ complaints have reached the national press, the hotel has ‘hit back’, giving quotes to The Sun and the Mail accusing her of being “intent to fabricate complaints in pursuit of financial compensation” and alleging that “other hotels have since contacted us to confirm similar behaviour and tactics from the same individual”. Edwards doesn’t appear to have been offered a right to reply.

In isolation, Susan Edwards’ brief experience as a figure of national mockery doesn’t matter much, but it’s an example of a pernicious tendency in the British press. There is no way that her complaints should have been a local story let alone a national one. She’s been used for a cheap laugh, lured into the exercise by the impression that the local paper was on her side. Everyone involved other than Edwards knew that she was the butt of the joke.

This case could be a public information campaign dedicated to why you should think very carefully before you tell your story to a journalist. In the chapter in my new book, Breaking, on what happens when you become the news, I look at a range of examples of how coverage of your experiences can rapidly diverge from what you expected. Of course, getting attention to your plight or a cause you care about can be brilliant but it’s all too easy to discover that you don’t recognise the person you appear to be in the press. Perhaps Edwards is revelling in the attention but somehow I doubt it.

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In the run-up to my book, Breaking: How the Media Works, When it Doesn’t, and Why it Matters, out on June 12, I’m publishing an edition of this newsletter every day (mostly excluding weekends and bank holidays). This is number 43 of 50.

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