Disappearing Headlines - the Elderly Care Cover Up

Yesterday, I was going through the BBC health RSS feed. Near the top was a report that in an honesty test, 58% of people thought it was ok for a care home nurse to persuade an elderly person to change the will in the carer's favour. The story was headlined with this statistic. I was going to do a post on it and then I was distracted. Some hours later, I came back to the feed and at first I couldn't find the story. That was because it was now headed, 'Women judge, but do they convict?' Today, I went back and found that the story was 21st on the RSS list, way below older articles on swine flu and others.

It's not the first time that this has happened with the Beeb. The Stafford story disappeared off the radar after two days. This story about people with learning disabilities being starved to death, was mentioned first in a news trailer and reported on third. Now this. I note it's also well below the article on assisted suicide; wouldn't want anyone to make a connection between changing wills and helping the old dears on to inherit, would we?

I don't know what's more shocking to me. The fact that nearly two thirds of people think it's ok to swindle an old lady, or the fact that somebody very well connected seems to be leaning on the Beeb to cover it up. The older I get, the more I understand the function of the court oath,' The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth'. To be dishonest you don't actually have to lie. It's enough to change a headline or move a story down the RSS list. This is one honesty test that the Beeb has failed miserably.