The Smiler Incident 02/06/15

[TH14TEEN]

I'm not being funny, but if Alton towers attendance goes down slightly because of coverage, I'm not complaining personally from a queuing perspective

[Kirsty25]

One of the young lads who were seriously injured are doing an exclusive interview on This Morning on Wednesday morning. I'm intrigued in his perspective as one of the main victims of this tragedy.

[ROYJESS]

That's right Joe Pugh will be the first of the victims to do a TV interview tomorrow (Wednesday) on ITV's This Morning Program.

[TheBeast]

I am going to downright refuse to watch it because all it is going to be is slander and abuse towards the Towers' name. No doubt the papers will use it as a way of reminding the public that the Towers is run by Satan

Edit- I mean no disrespect to Pugh or any other victim of the incident, I more mean with the news corporations that will eat this up. No matter what he says, they will claim he was anti-Alton, even if he does forgive them, although I do expect that to be unlikely

[Dan]

To follow on from the above, Joe Pugh will be live on ITV's "This Morning" at 11:30 today

[TheBeast]

I've changed my mind, I will watch it... I doubt it will do anything but fuel the media's anti-Alton propaganda tbh. That's to be expected tbh

[peter150496]

Just watched the interview. Really mature responses, not pointing the finger and anyone and didn't see anything that could give bad press to alton. It's a shame his thrill seeking days are over for now but I'm not surprised to be fair

[Kirsty25]

I might see if it goes online and watch it out of curiousity

[xylyx]

Missed the first minute or so but I thought it was a good interview as respectful as a quick fish for info can be and he didn't rise to the leading questions. Brought it further home just how devastating the impact was after seeing his knees and that fused little finger.

Seems like a decent guy who's been through something horrific and is making the best of the outcome.

And AT came out fine to my eyes

[ROYJESS]

Full respect to Joe Pugh, he spoke about what happened on the day in detail!

He mentioned that they were stuck at the top for about 20 mins and heard an announcement that staff were going to help them.

He was asked if he felt any anger towards Alton Towers. Joe said he couldn't stress enough how fantastic they've been and that he doesn't want to point any blame or anything. Though he said when the H&S report is out his emotions may change.

For those that missed it, it will be on ITV+1 at 12.30 and should be available on ITV player.

[TheBeast]

I feel like Amanda especially was trying to show Alton in a bad light... I have lots of respect for Pugh seeing as he didn't just point the finger at Alton, I think his views were perfectly justified on it to be honest. I'd like to see the Mirror's take on this... It will be quite hard to stick a negative spin on it tbh

[MizzHanza]

The interview on This Morning was actually quite nice - no slander and no commenting on the other "faults" the park have experienced since. Joe seems like a top guy, I just hope the media will now leave him and the other 3 seriously injured alone.

[ROYJESS]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... edles.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jack]

Wow, the determination of Joe is amazing and fair play to him and ITV for not jumping on the Alton Towers hate train. Brilliant interview and I hope that Joe, Leah and everyone involved stay as strong as they have been.

[NemesisRider]

The interview on This Morning was actually quite nice - no slander and no commenting on the other "faults" the park have experienced since. Joe seems like a top guy, I just hope the media will now leave him and the other 3 seriously injured alone.

I hate to say this but the media aren't leaving this one alone. The Mirror's story seems to be a more negative one and, whilst they respect her privacy, the minute Leah or Vicky is available they'll be on the news. Possibly even the BBC with the injuries they both suffered. This story won't be allowed to die with the tabloids existing

But good to see Joe recovering, he seems like a nice guy.

[ROYJESS]

For anyone who hasn't seen the interview, it's available on youtube

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[missingaa]

Joe comes across as an amazingly brave, determined, focused and level headed young lad. The best of luck to him, although, on watching that I am sure he will do just fine.

[Danny]

That seemed a nice interview. It's a relief to hear that the help Towers has given has been top of the game. It would've been very easy in his situation to use the interview to slag off Alton and put people off going, but he was honest and admire his bravery and determination.
Hearing his story has sort of given it this whole other realism for me, and I wish them all a safe and speedy recovery.

[Adam.W]

Fair dues on Joe, I'm glad the interview wasn't spun against the towers. Also, however, the daily mail spun it and made towers look bad - they took out most of the good parts, and called the earlier breakdowns 'safety fears' ](*,)

[jdoughtyqpr]

I'm very naive to these things, but do papers get in trouble if they say things like that? Or because they are not officially being slanderous, is it ok