Carole’s corona conspiracy codswallop

It seems the Observer’s favourite intrepid investigative journalist has been at it again. Yes, Carole Cadwalladr has been tweeting. On Sunday evening, Cadwalladr decided to deviate from telling her half a million Twitter followers that the UK is in the palm of the Russians by explaining that we are now living through an unprecedented era of press control and media manipulation. 

Cadwalladr was able to uncover something that no other journalist had yet revealed – that the daily coronavirus press briefings are, in fact, a sham:

As you, dear reader, may have guessed by now, this statement is entirely and utterly false. it is untrue. It bears no resemblance to the facts. 

The press conferences are not ‘stage managed’. Hacks from a variety of papers attend – from the Telegraph to the Guardian.

And while we can all have a little snigger at Carole’s now deleted foray into fake news, it masks a more serious point. In a time of unique national crisis, Cadwalladr has been sharing falsities that undermine trust.