A Tale of Two Headlines, Abused to Death, or Tragic Accident?

by Chuck Ness

On July 10, at 6:39 ET, the BBC ran a story with a headline that stated, "Pony 'beaten' into Hampshire lake dies".I am sure millions around the world had the same reaction as I did when I first read the accounts as reported by the BBC. We really do owe a debt of gratitude to the nameless reporter who informed us of this heinous act. Well, that is what many must have thought as they read the story first thing Monday Morning before they headed off to work. Then again, what if the reporter was telling a tale that was wrong? What if the "facts" reported to the world early Monday morning are totally different from what actually happened?

Well the truth of the matter is actually 180 degrees opposed to what the nameless reporter stated in his story. The truth is that I would not even have a story if it were not for the BBC's correcting its nameless reporter's misguided lies. That's right, 27 hours after the BBC allowed a lie to be posted on its news site, the truth came out. That's better than the Daily Mail which still stands by its misleading story. The incident was not an act of animal cruelty as was reported. It was, in fact, a tragic accident that almost took the life of a man who attempted to save the horse from drowning. So 27 hours after the lie was allowed to circle the globe, the BBC ran this story, "Man kicked helping drowning pony in Hampshire".

(Army Divers and Hampshire Fire and Rescue workers recovered the pony's body from the lake)

In what can only be described as an attempt to drum up anger against the way horses are treated by those who use horses as they have been used for thousands of years, a reporter wrote a purposely incorrect story about a tragedy. It's said, thanks to the internet, that a lie can circle the globe twice before truth can even get it's shoes on. In this case, the lie also had a 27-hour head start before truth had a chance to even pick up its shoes. Oh I know, many of those who defend the MSM will say,

"Hey at least they corrected the story by telling the truth."

Oh yeah? Maybe you will also notice that they never removed the false story, and they even posted a link at the bottom of the true version to the false version, yet they never linked the truth to the misleading story. Why is this such a big issue besides the obvious? Well, if you do a simple Google search with the headlines in quotes, you will see that the false version of the story has been repeated, 143 times. (by the time many read this I am sure that number will increase tenfold) That means that over 100 outlets have picked up on the false report. So how many times has the true version been picked up? Once.That's right, only once has the story been reproduced on the web. So other than the original BBC story, only one other site has run with the true version of what happened. As usual, the MSM refuses to promote the truth, but relishes spreading a lie, or at least a half truth at best.

Click on image above to use interactive
google map of Lake Hawley

Now I realize that there will be those who will still claim that my whole article is a bunch of crap because even with both versions it seems that the horse in question was abused and that the reporter was probably closer to the truth in the first version. So I decided to ask a friend of mine to do some investigative reporting into the matter for me. The information that follows was passed on to me by Toby Jones, and it is much closer to the truth than the stories written by the reporter at the BBC.

I was able to contact an employee at the Hawley Lakes Sailing Club in Hampshire England via phone. Sadly, no one was willing to go on record.  However, what I am writing is what I learned in my conversation with certain individuals involved with the Sailing Club. I must admit that telephones are great investigative tools, but long distance to England is expensive, so my conversation was brief. I tried to ascertain if the men were Gypsies, but no one would commit to that. I learned that the horse handlers and the boys with them were chased away after the incident, and that is why they were not present when authorities arrived. When I told the employee I knew from reading the comments to the  Daily Mail story that one of their sailing trainers was the person who pulled the injured swimmer from the lake, he explained that the trainer jumped out of his boat into the water to save the man after the horse he attempted to save kicked him in the head. When I did get a chance to speak with the trainer, he said that he saw a couple of horses taken into the water to cool off after a hot ride. He wanted me to understand that it was a common practice to do so every time a horse is overheated from being ridden. The trainer is convinced that the handlers of the horses did nothing sinister, and that the whole incident was a tragic accident. Then he went on to say, "I admit the owners of the pony are guilty of stupidity for not sticking around the scene of an accident and for not being very compassionate, but they are certainly not guilty of deliberately trying to drown their ponies, as the media is trying to make everyone believe. Besides, they were chased away by the people on the shoreline, I guess someone should have stayed to answer questions, but they were very afraid of the crowd that was gathering and yelling at them." (I changed the British slang used by the gentlemen I spoke to into American English for better clarification) by Toby Jones

Many of us realize that the majority of what the MSM does today is to push agendas instead of reporting the truth. When I think about who may be telling the truth of this story, I lean toward believing those at the Sailing Club, who have nothing to gain by not being truthful.  However, we know what the media gains by misleading the public. See, they could have printed what the trainer told them.  After all, Toby was informed by the trainer that he also spoke to the media, but obviously the reporter decided not to use what the trainer told him. After all, that information would not fit their template, would it?

The MSM, whether it be in America, Britain, Australia, or Germany, has for many years been trying to push an agenda, and lately that agenda is against anyone who may harm an animal, even if that action was in the course of hunting, or unintentional, as I believe was the death of this pony. I am waiting with bated breath for the BBC to do a report one day on fox hunting, while posting the following headline that screams,

"Sinister Looking Mob in Red Jackets Deliberately Run Down
and Kill Innocent Fox, While Horrified Families Look On"

I agree that my example is a hunting incident, and the story about the pony is a tragic accident, but when it comes to the media today, can you honestly say that you believe they see a difference between the two situations? It is truly sad that unpaid and unheralded reporters, like myself and a millions of other bloggers around the world, have to do what the old dinosaur media used to do. However, we are more than up to the task.

Below are excerpts from both versions of the story for you to compare for yourself. As you read both versions of the story, you will notice that in the correct version, after the writer was probably forced to write a true version, that he/she still editorializes the idea that something is obviously amiss, injecting conjecture into a news story. Yet nowhere in the original false version did the writer ever question if the whole incident may have been an accident. Oh yeah, I'm keeping a full HTML version of both reports just in case they attempt to remove the evidence of their lies somewhere down the road.

The next time some leftist tells you that the MSM is not biased against the truth, maybe you should send them this report that has uncovered their naked lies by catching the blood of truth all over their hands.

10 July 2011, Last updated at 06:39 ET Pony 'beaten' into Hampshire lake dies A pony harnessed to a trap died after it was forced into a Hampshire lake by a dozen people, the RSPCA has said. A member of the public who tried to rescue the animal from Hawley Lake on Saturday afternoon was taken to hospital after the pony kicked out. The animal was dragged down into the lake by its trap as it tried to swim. Police also think an attempt was made to push a second pony into the water. Officers and the RSPCA are trying to establish a motive. An RSPCA spokesperson said the group had lined up three ponies and encouraged them into the water. One went in but when it tried to run free it was beaten back into the lake, he added.Pony microchipped Ministry of Defence divers and Hampshire fire service recovered the carcass. The RSPCA said it was believed the group had brought the ponies to the lake. The one that died was microchipped, but had recently been sold at market and the chip had not been updated. The group was seen driving the surviving ponies along Minley Road in the direction of Yateley. The injured man, a 21-year-old from Farnborough, was taken to Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey for treatment for a blow to the head and bruising. (Excerpt) Cont reading at BBC.com.....

11 July 2011, Last updated at 09:27 ET Man kicked helping drowning pony in Hampshire A man who tried to rescue a drowning pony from a Hampshire lake described being kicked in the head by the animal. Luke Young from Farnborough took off his clothes and jumped into Hawley Lake on Saturday with the pony, which was harnessed to a trap. Mr Young said: "I didn't really assess the situation properly. I went behind it to try and give it a shove and it booted me in the head." Hampshire police said the pony's death may have been a "tragic accident".'In danger' It was initially thought the animal had been pushed into the lake deliberately. Mr Young, 21, said: "One of the fellas tried going in to get it but it was already too far out so he sort of gave up and went back out. "I just threw the phone to my girlfriend and I ran around, took my trousers and top off and dived in. I just wanted to try and rescue the animal. "I dived in and tried grabbing the horse by the bit in its mouth and at that point didn't realise the chariot had gone down with it." After being kicked in the head, Mr Young said he was knocked under the water. "I knew I was in danger. As I moved away it booted me again in the ribs and I managed to swim up," he said. Mr Young was taken to hospital to Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey for treatment for a blow to the head and bruising................... .............................. "One of the horses tried to get out and the people with the horses and traps wouldn't allow it to get out of the water so it tried to swim across to the other side of the lake and because it was still attached to the trap it was dragged down by the trap and unfortunately drowned. "Most witness reports suggest that the horse was pushed into the water and wasn't allowed to get out of the water. "We've also heard from at least one of the witnesses who say the horses were being exercised in the water and one got into difficulty and the people were trying to rescue it. Animal microchipped "It's very difficult to know at the moment, so what we want to do is find out from the people who were with the ponies what actually happened. We will need to hear their version of events. "Either way, something very strange and extremely shocking has gone on that has allowed this pony to suffer and drown. "We know that the people with the ponies went off with the other pony and trap in the direction of Yateley so we are just trying to hear from anybody who knows anything about it at all." (Excerpt) Cont reading at BBC.com.....