The people of Barrow-in-Furness have long been used to seeing their town ridiculed by ill-informed outsiders as a place which should be avoided at all costs.
Some of the depictions of the town since the Legionnaires’ Disease outbreak hit the headlines have also been less than flattering.
Alan Cole, of the North West Evening Mail, looks at the national newspaper and television reporters that have painted the town in such a poor light.

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Following the discovery of a Legionnaires’ Disease outbreak in Barrow, the town has received hundreds of column inches of coverage in the national press.

Images of sufferers along with Forum 28 and Furness General Hospital have also been broadcast via television to homes around the world.

Inevitably the outbreak has put Barrow in a negative light, but the image of the town has not been helped by some of the negative, stereotyped and often downright bizarre spin that has been put on an already distressing story by reporters from out of town.

Their insults and jokes were based on nothing more than ignorance about our remote peninsular location.

As we know, the vast majority of visitors are much more discerning, not to mention observant, and almost always remark on the breathtaking beauty of our coastline, rich local history and warm hospitality.

To those many assets we can now add the newly-enhanced reputation of Furness General Hospital. Whose response to the emergency has been truly world class.

Some reporters, however, just saw the outbreak as another opportunity to repeat the old joke that the only good thing about Barrow is the road out.

Even the Observer newspaper, which many feel upholds high standards of journalism, made a bizarre gaffe on Sunday when it painted a picture of a rural island community where everyone owns a boat – just like something out of Whisky Galore.

Writer Stephen Khan said: “People fled Barrow in droves yesterday, despite reassurances from health professionals. With many people leaving the town by boat and others heading abroad or around the UK on holiday, there is concern that victims could be spread over a vast area.”

The image of disease-ridden Barrovians fleeing in a Dunkirk-style naval flotilla would be quite amusing if was not so insulting, ill thought out and stereotypical.

Ceefax has referred to Barrow as Barrow-in-Furnace.

I know we have had our share of trouble but to suggest the town is ablaze is going a little bit too far.

You would expect some simple fact checking could be achieved by a major media operation. But this was just one example of how professional standards were chucked out of the window by people who seemed to feel that Barrow was beneath them.

One of the most hilarious gaffes came from a BBC reporter broadcasting live from the town earlier this week.

When finishing his report with a tired look on his face that seemed to say: “Why the hell have they sent me here?”

Then he signed off with the words “reporting from…” followed by a short pause and a puzzled look as he completely forgot where he was.

“Er… er… er…” he said, followed by another pause. Then came the final insult when admitted defeat and told viewers that he was simply ‘up north’.

Well that narrowed it down a bit for the millions of people watching!

At one press conference a TV reporter outside the hospital was overhead saying: “They must be stupid up here. When we went to look at Forum 28 there was a whole crowd of people up the alleyway gawping at the air-conditioning unit.

One reporter outside the hospital was also heard referring to Barrow as the ‘bottom’ of the universe – or at least that is the printable version of his remark.

An Evening Mail reporter who hails from down South was also offered a ‘whip round’ by the press pack at the hospital so he could go back home to safety and civilisation.

Some reporters were so busy being insulting and patronizing to the town that they failed to notice what was actually going on.

Fortunately, Barrovians took no notice of the rash of stories about a town gripped by fear and deserted by boats full of refugees.

And unfortunately for some of the more fanciful reporters, the town refused to panic. Instead, the community spirit that we sometimes take for granted came to the fore while people tried their best to get on with everyday life as usual.

The Legionnaires’ Disease outbreak has caused huge distress to sufferers and their families.

Many feel that has been made worse by the mauling Barrow has received by a sometimes lackadaisical and insensitive out-of-town media.

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