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Readers / viewers thinking "what bastards, going after that man who was only trying to act in the best interests of his family!" then running off to Brietbart or whatever.
Similar to the whole "stop going after Boris, he's clearly trying to do his best in a shit situation".
Howard-
I read the situation as people being pissed off that they have put their family second to what was best for society as they were being told to daily (stay home, save lives, protect the nhs), missed births, deaths and relatives final days, struggled alone when family help is near by and now being told they should of just used their common sense instead of interpretting the guidelines as black and white if they really cared about thier family
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Similar to the whole "stop going after Boris, he's clearly trying to do his best in a shit situation".
If that's an "own goal" by the media, and it's driving people to (more) extremists news sources, we've got much larger issues.
To be fair, I do think we're somewhat fucked. But I don't think a spad deeply tied to government coronavirus policy being held to account for ignoring those policies is something that's going to result in a spike in breitbart readers. Especially to the extent that other media sources meet to be careful reporting it.
greentricky
What's an own goal from the perspective of the media? I'm not sure what the risk which they need to be careful of is here. Other than readers/viewers not caring or sympathising.