If it’s on Facebook, it’s true, right?
“You can’t believe everything you read on the Internet.”
Such is the case of a 3-year-old Mississippi girl mauled by dogs and whose grandmother claimed they’d been asked to leave a Kentucky Fried Chicken because the little girl’s clawed face scared other diners.
When the story hit Facebook and other social media, it took off faster than a cheetah on too much espresso. Photos of tiny Victoria Wilcher with a patch covering where her right eye had been and gashes where three of her grandfather’s pitbulls had mauled her tugged at heartstrings. The story even reached CNN and The Today Show, generating more attention.
People across the nation, and even in other countries, expressed sympathy and offered help and donations — lots and lots of donations. A plastic surgeon in Las Vegas offered to perform free surgery on the child to repair her injuries, procedures he said could run into tens of thousands of dollars.
As people opened their hearts to Victoria, and their pocketbooks to her family, they turned on KFC. They berated the restaurant chain, soaked it in acidic vitrol as they unleashed anger usually reserved for visiting politicians. Managers and employees at KFCs in Jackson, Miss., reported having drinks thrown on them, being verbally attacked and even getting death threats because of the alleged incident.
They said they never would have asked anyone to leave their restaurants under those circumstances, noting they regularly had customers from the nearby hospital where Victoria was receiving treatment, even ones with wires and tubes still in them.
It was a public relations nightmare for KFC, which quickly offered to provide $30,000 for the child’s medical expenses and pledged to get to the bottom of what happened at the Jackson restaurant where the incident supposedly occurred. KFC initiated an independent, third-party investigation of the matter.
And that’s where things unraveled.
The Laurel Leader-Caller at Laurel, Miss., also conducted its own investigation and reached the conclusion it was a hoax. Not the dog attack on Victoria, or her disfiguring injuries, but the KFC incident.
The newspaper reported there were several holes in the story told by the grandmother and passed along on a Facebook page maintained by an aunt. Little things such as the date of the incident and exactly which KFC was the offender kept changing. The family finally settled on one location that turned out to have been closed for quite a while. Security video at two other locations did not show the little girl or her grandmother at either restaurant, and records did not show an order to match that the grandmother claimed to have made, according to the Leader-Caller report.
From the time an account was first set up for Victoria on April 28 until June 13 — when the KFC story went viral — $595 was donated from seven donors, according to the newspaper report. After the story hit the Internet, contributions rolled in to the tune of $135,000, including the donation from KFC.
There’s been some subsequent hemming and hawing on the Facebook page the aunt administers, comments about mistakes being made. Although the family didn’t respond to the Leader-Caller reporter, and so far hasn’t faced the press, their lawyer has said the donations all are earmarked for Victoria, not her family. Everything, he said, will go into a trust for the child.
As reports of the KFC incident being a hoax spread, folks are flummoxed by the whole thing. They can’t believe it, and as the reality of what happened dawns on them, I suspect their anger will turn fro
m KFC to the family. But, none should be directed at Victoria.
The dog attack was real. Victoria’s grandfather, who owned 10 pitbulls altogether, and his girlfriend were charged with child endangerment after the mauling. (I’m not sure I want to get into the family connections and lineage.) The little girl did, indeed, suffer terrible injuries — loss of an eye, a ravaged face, broken bones — that will take a long time to heal and be repaired.
Even if the circumstances that prompted the donations are questionable, I hope they can be kept and used for her medical care, under the control of a third-party trustee. A KFC spokesman has said the $30,000 donation for her stands even if the incident didn’t happen. And I hope that the Las Vegas plastic surgeon will honor his offer to help her.
Now, whoever in the family is responsible for apparently flim-flamming the country should face consequences for their actions besides national humiliation. They caused considerable trouble for KFC, slandered the company and put innocent employees in a bad spot. While they may not have solicited contributions directly, they did lie to an entire country and made no effort to correct the public’s misunderstanding of what’s now described as mistakes, and they accepted contributions based on false circumstances. Punishment for them is in order.
One more thing: This whole affair shows us how powerful social media is, how quickly something can spread via the Internet and how fast people will respond. It also shows how gullible the public is, how quickly people believe what they see on the Internet and not bother to check further before jumping into the middle of anything — politics, social issues, sob stories.
People would do well to heed those words of Mr. Lincoln.
- Abraham Lincoln
Such is the case of a 3-year-old Mississippi girl mauled by dogs and whose grandmother claimed they’d been asked to leave a Kentucky Fried Chicken because the little girl’s clawed face scared other diners.
When the story hit Facebook and other social media, it took off faster than a cheetah on too much espresso. Photos of tiny Victoria Wilcher with a patch covering where her right eye had been and gashes where three of her grandfather’s pitbulls had mauled her tugged at heartstrings. The story even reached CNN and The Today Show, generating more attention.
People across the nation, and even in other countries, expressed sympathy and offered help and donations — lots and lots of donations. A plastic surgeon in Las Vegas offered to perform free surgery on the child to repair her injuries, procedures he said could run into tens of thousands of dollars.
As people opened their hearts to Victoria, and their pocketbooks to her family, they turned on KFC. They berated the restaurant chain, soaked it in acidic vitrol as they unleashed anger usually reserved for visiting politicians. Managers and employees at KFCs in Jackson, Miss., reported having drinks thrown on them, being verbally attacked and even getting death threats because of the alleged incident.
They said they never would have asked anyone to leave their restaurants under those circumstances, noting they regularly had customers from the nearby hospital where Victoria was receiving treatment, even ones with wires and tubes still in them.
It was a public relations nightmare for KFC, which quickly offered to provide $30,000 for the child’s medical expenses and pledged to get to the bottom of what happened at the Jackson restaurant where the incident supposedly occurred. KFC initiated an independent, third-party investigation of the matter.
And that’s where things unraveled.
The Laurel Leader-Caller at Laurel, Miss., also conducted its own investigation and reached the conclusion it was a hoax. Not the dog attack on Victoria, or her disfiguring injuries, but the KFC incident.
The newspaper reported there were several holes in the story told by the grandmother and passed along on a Facebook page maintained by an aunt. Little things such as the date of the incident and exactly which KFC was the offender kept changing. The family finally settled on one location that turned out to have been closed for quite a while. Security video at two other locations did not show the little girl or her grandmother at either restaurant, and records did not show an order to match that the grandmother claimed to have made, according to the Leader-Caller report.
From the time an account was first set up for Victoria on April 28 until June 13 — when the KFC story went viral — $595 was donated from seven donors, according to the newspaper report. After the story hit the Internet, contributions rolled in to the tune of $135,000, including the donation from KFC.
There’s been some subsequent hemming and hawing on the Facebook page the aunt administers, comments about mistakes being made. Although the family didn’t respond to the Leader-Caller reporter, and so far hasn’t faced the press, their lawyer has said the donations all are earmarked for Victoria, not her family. Everything, he said, will go into a trust for the child.
As reports of the KFC incident being a hoax spread, folks are flummoxed by the whole thing. They can’t believe it, and as the reality of what happened dawns on them, I suspect their anger will turn fro
m KFC to the family. But, none should be directed at Victoria.
The dog attack was real. Victoria’s grandfather, who owned 10 pitbulls altogether, and his girlfriend were charged with child endangerment after the mauling. (I’m not sure I want to get into the family connections and lineage.) The little girl did, indeed, suffer terrible injuries — loss of an eye, a ravaged face, broken bones — that will take a long time to heal and be repaired.
Even if the circumstances that prompted the donations are questionable, I hope they can be kept and used for her medical care, under the control of a third-party trustee. A KFC spokesman has said the $30,000 donation for her stands even if the incident didn’t happen. And I hope that the Las Vegas plastic surgeon will honor his offer to help her.
Now, whoever in the family is responsible for apparently flim-flamming the country should face consequences for their actions besides national humiliation. They caused considerable trouble for KFC, slandered the company and put innocent employees in a bad spot. While they may not have solicited contributions directly, they did lie to an entire country and made no effort to correct the public’s misunderstanding of what’s now described as mistakes, and they accepted contributions based on false circumstances. Punishment for them is in order.
One more thing: This whole affair shows us how powerful social media is, how quickly something can spread via the Internet and how fast people will respond. It also shows how gullible the public is, how quickly people believe what they see on the Internet and not bother to check further before jumping into the middle of anything — politics, social issues, sob stories.
People would do well to heed those words of Mr. Lincoln.
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