Loose Women - An Apology To Ched Evans

[andy-hughes]

Following comments on Loose Women by Gloria Hunniford about Ched Evans, ITV have issued an apology - and Ms. Hunniford is reported to be incandescent with rage, although ITV deny this.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3857342/Gloria-Hunniford-left-humiliated-ITV-says-sorry-Ched-Evans-sex-education-jibe.html


Personally, I think ITV were wrong to apologise - what does anyone else think?

[Gromit]

Yes ITV were right to do it.
Evans was found not guilty of rape.
We may not like the morals of everyone involved in the incident, but slack morals do not justify persecution of the cleared man.
Hunniford misrepresented the facts of the case, so that should be corrected, even if a threat of legal action persauded them to apologise.

[naomi24]

andy-hughes, //Do you think Gloria Hunniford was wrong to say what she said - and should she have apologised?//

Yes, I do think she was wrong to say what she said. As for apologising, apologies only mean something if they are genuine and not given simply for the sake of appearance or because general consensus demands it.

Pixie, // Gloria Hunniford said footballer was the 'last person that she would send her grandchildren to for sex education'//

Yes, she did, but does it follow that a moment of stupidity equates to innate immorality and ignorance? Someone on the other thread said that, under the influence of alcohol, she’d made bad choices, and if we’re honest, many of us could say the same, so I presume Gloria Hunniford would say the same about us. That was a horrible thing to say.

[ummmm]

At the time she was only giving her opinion on what was being reported.

[pixie374]

Well, I wouldn't send mine to him either! - she's entitled to think that.

[Gromit]

Umm/pixie,
You are both missing the point. She can have an opinion on Evans (someone she has never met) and the apology was not for that opinion.
She got the facts of the case (on which she based her opinion) wrong. It is for broadcasting incorrect information that ITV have apologised to the Evans family.

[pixie374]

That's exactly what I have said, gromit

[naomi24]

Pixie, //she's entitled to think that. //

She is indeed - but she's not entitled to broadcast it if it's wrong.

[jackthehat]

I suppose it is one of the dangers of having a live broadcast of a programme which takes it content from current news.

Hunniford (and by extension ITV) may have not been 'precise' in their summation of events, although the intention behind the words was apparent, but I hardly think it does Evans much credit to threaten to sue given the greater damage to his reputation he caused himself...

[pixie374]

That's her opinion, it can't be wrong.

[Gromit]

Pixie,
It is not the opinion that ITV have apologised for.

Whether her opinion is right or wrong doesn't matter.
But if Hunniford is going to sum up the case, she has to get the facts right, and she didn't.

[naomi24]

Pixie, yes, it can be wrong. She is basing her opinion on nothing more than one stupid decision. She doesn't know the man.

[pixie374]

Yes, divebuddy. She misrepresented that- which was apologised for. Saying she wouldn't send her grandchildren to him for sex education- is her opinion which she is entitled to think and say.

[pixie374]

She can base her opinion on whatever she likes, naomi. There is a difference here between her personal opinion, which is fine and misrepresenting that the woman was totally drunk- which isn't fine.

[Gromit]

// Jeremy Corbyn eats babies for breakfast. // - An incorrect statement
// He will not be Prime Minister. // - An opinion (which may or may not be true)

[naomi24]

Pixie, yes, she can base her opinions on whatever she likes – but that doesn’t give her free rein to publicly malign a man’s character.

[pixie374]

It does actually- he would have to prove that she would send her grandchildren to him to say that's wrong. The bit she shouldn't have said was about the drunkenness. That wasn't opinion- that was misrepresentation.

[-Talbot-]

I haven't followed the case and only know information garnered fron here ... but the whole thing is a farce.

It would have been far better if the police had just given this woman a crime number for her handbag. From what I have read Evans was just A.N Other and she didn't seem to have a problem with that until the police made it a problem. Her stolen handbag should have been the small price she paid for casual luck, instead her life (and that of Evan's) is in tatters.