Quote Originally Posted by xsnaggle View Post
I only tended to believe it because he says it himself, its not someone accusing him of lying. Why would he lie about lying?

But I just found this from the Evening standard 15 hrs ago.

"A man who claimed to have seen Dominic Cummings in Durham for a second time in April has admitted that he made it up, according to reports.
Tim Matthews said he altered figures on the popular Strava running app to make it look like he had seen Mr Cummings in Durham on April 19, after the PM's aide had returned to London from his first trip.

His claim was reported in the Guardian earlier this week.
But he told the Mail on Sunday: "I made that up afterwards, a few days ago in fact. I modified it for a little bit of comedy value.
"I undid it later, Im sorry. A bit of comedy value even if it was really inappropriate."

He added: "The only thing that I can definitively say is that at some point during the last few months when I was out running, I had occasion to think to myself, 'Thats Dominic Cummings'.
"What I cant tell you is any sort of timeframe other than in the last few months."

Mr Matthews is one of two people who originally claimed to have seen Mr Cummings on April 19.

Yes, i got that bit.
I'm not saying that he's lying - you're saying that his lies were the ones picked up by the media when he doesn't say that anywhere. He says he made it up but I don't recall reading anywhere whom he told his pack of lies to. I know there were a few people on Twitter who made some shit up too - but we can't attribute those lies to The Guardian and The Mirror, can we?

The key thing that you've mentioned several times is how you wanted the papers to be better at verifying their facts - if this guy isn't their source then it's not relevant to the story and The Mail are making it look worse by planting that seed of doubt - which you have been watering for the last several hours.

The guy lied about seeing Cummings - but to whom and when? If it wasn't to the people who printed that Cummings made a second trip then it's not relevant in our discussion about the media spin on Cummings.

"I made that up afterwards, a few days ago in fact. I modified it for a little bit of comedy value."

He made up the story after the Guardian broke the news. How is that relevant?