Yes that’s a word.
Last night I was winding down my day and I thought I would catch up on the news stories I had missed. I saw a story and something struck me as bizarre about it.
So I got to work. And before I knew it the night was morning, I didn’t smell particularly good and I had what I thought was the best work I had ever done.
I saw something many didn’t. I had caught the Times and the Mail in a lie again and a cabinet minister shared it and he had to know it was a lie.
There were stakes. Hundreds of trans people’s privacy and potentially their safety was at risk.
Turns out the only thing that was true from those last two sentences was the hundreds of trans people whose privacy and safety was at risk (and even then that turned out to be thousands).
I put out bad info during a time of great stress on you all. If there was ever a time you needed accuracy from someone like me, it was now.
I am sorry.
That was my fault, I shouldn’t have done it, but I did it anyway.
I honestly didn’t know, I thought it was right. But then people who are wrong think they are right, that’s the defining feature of being wrong.
I am sorry if you trusted the words and feel let down now. I started doing this four years ago and I didn’t expect people to show up and listen, read, all that stuff.
But I did kind of ask for it. I made a bleeding podcast. When you do that sometimes people listen and when you make a goddam news show, they are putting their trust in you to get your shit right.
I didn’t this time. I made a mistake on one fact (GIDS MEDICAL RECORDS AREN’T CONNECTED TO THE NHS SPINE) and that spiralled into several inaccuracies. I have released an updated version that is more factual but with more opinion at the end as I now am very clear on the facts and believe I can give one (believe me, I really checked it this time).
I called this an explainapology because I am a big believer in explanations not being excuses. I fucked up and I don’t think there is much that can excuse it when so many of you have read stuff I have written, heard stuff I have said, and thought “what the fuck is she talking about” at things I have tweeted.
But I hope this offers an explanation, a real one. Because…this is what happened. Sorry about that.
Thanks for putting your trust in my badly spelt shit. Going to do my best to make sure this never happens again.
Michelle Snow
PS: Thanks to the two people who patiently showed me why I was wrong. You were very kind about it.
