www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2183494...her-11-children.html

a scene straight out of Shameless(my fave show)

The poor DM has bent over backwards and produced a Guardian style tale on the lad that tweeted Tom Daley.

Surprisingly, the comments section (usually dripping with hate) are not too bad.

My view : tasteless as the boy's tweet was ( and I tend to believe he didn't know Tom's dad had passed away)Delay is at fault here. Basically he re-tweeted the boy's tweet to all his followers and must have known they would turn on the boy. So was Tom bullying the lad?

He may not have meant to but he was bullying the lad even uknowingly, just like kids do at school and probably did to Tom without realising the hurt they cause.

I watched this Twitter session unfold and the boy told the truth : as soon as others attacked him and said Tom's dad had died he apologised.

I reckon Tom should apologise to the boy.

I really like Tom Daley, kinda cute and a very talented diver.

But this whole episode shows what a sick world we have become.

the Daily Mail uses language to vilify a boy who posted a fairly innocuous message..not knowing Tom's dad was dead. The police storm in and arrest him.

the Daily Mail headlines it's tale that what the lad says are 'boasts'. It's a headlined designed to create hate towards him.

the following day it runs a tale from Tom's mom who boasts about her son. And why should she?. But she is boasting.

On twitter there are people now saying quite disgusting things about the lad-far worse than he said about Tom (and all he said was that Tom disappointed his dad).

Some of the Daily Mail comments are really utterly vile about the lad.

Where are the police raids ?

Yes HH - the topic of Internet Trolls has finally caught on; the tiny minority of mad people whose insane ramblings have finally started getting heard and the over reaction to them.

Some of us minor celebs have been used to death treats and insulting "fan mail" for decades and most of us just shrug our shoulders and wonder how the obsessed loonies cannot see their sickness. Media coverage and over sensitive stars (and "it's a good story") have meant we are now getting the other extreme. Which brings even more fringe loonies out of the woodwork. And the poor police spend hours (and our tax monies) chasing up URLs.

In days gone by, this lead to witch burning and drownings.

It's a human characteristic belonging to a few obsessed freaks. Leave them in peace and try to help them.

JK2006 wrote:
Yes HH - the topic of Internet Trolls has finally caught on; the tiny minority of mad people whose insane ramblings have finally started getting heard and the over reaction to them.

Some of us minor celebs have been used to death treats and insulting "fan mail" for decades and most of us just shrug our shoulders and wonder how the obsessed loonies cannot see their sickness. Media coverage and over sensitive stars (and "it's a good story") have meant we are now getting the other extreme. Which brings even more fringe loonies out of the woodwork. And the poor police spend hours (and our tax monies) chasing up URLs.

In days gone by, this lead to witch burning and drownings.

It's a human characteristic belonging to a few obsessed freaks. Leave them in peace and try to help them.

Don't get me wrong: what the lad said about other people on Twitter was vile. What he said about Tom was tame. But he only had about 20 followers (now he's vanished).

Tom did the wrong thing by re-tweeting the fairly innocuous tweet about his father (and of course he would be upset) to hundreds of thousands. Unwittingly Tom has unleashed a wave of hate and bullying towards this boy by Twitter/ Daily Mail (and comment are getting very nasty now).

The Mail has interviewed an unsophisticated boy and printed every aspect of his life which in turn has fuelled the hate towards the boy.

In the end : everyone is a game target for tabloid tosh, no-one is 'helped ' in any way , the boy will probably end up feeling hideously lonely as only one who is compared to another successful being will be, and the police aspect is the weirdest of all!.

One Daily Mail comment made the most sense : ie that the article (and everything since) has basically proclaimed that Tom Daley is somehow a better person than the boy.

We have nil proof he is- but he is more famous (and needs a good media manager).