The Consumer Watchdog Foundation has claimed that it was the first and only site to publish a story about the rooftop protest at former Children’s Minister Ed Timpson home last week. It also claims that it followed the events as they happened.

This is not true. Whilst we broke the story first with real time video footage, and a full 24 hours before the CWF, a media outlet called The Northwhich Guardian followed shortly after us and then another online media site, The Nantwich News mentioned the protest. The Consumer Watchdog Foundation however, didn’t get to the demonstration until the following day.

We wrote in last night to mention that they had made a mistake about coverage, but as of this morning the comment has yet to be published and no correction to their article has been made. A comment added after ours has been approved.

This is not our biggest concern with the CWF’s article. It is riddled with factual errors and tries to liken the rooftop protest to a terrorist act. Protesters have been made aware of the news item by other campaigners and they are understandably very upset.

Other than getting the age of the rooftop protester and the number of hours the protest lasted wrong, as well as failing to verify details of the event or follow it in real time as they claimed to have done, the outlet then tries to liken what was a peaceful protest to Jo Cox’s untimely death. Offensive and in bad taste? We think so.

That the article was written by Consumer Watchdog Foundation Editor Leigh G Banks, (who is allegedly a former Fleet Street journalist), doesn’t do the publication’s credibility any favours.

Whilst we appreciate that the CWF is trying to create conversation around family policy in the UK, we do think their lack of journalistic care is something the CWF should address, especially when writing about issues affecting real families and children.

Many thanks to Forced Adoption Exposed for alerting us to this news item.