If you think this was a little story, I can only assume you are not resident in the UK. It dominated the news for at least a day, possibly more once the wider issue of funding was tacked on. As for unsupported claims, the sources I've seen include full stats - the medals are distributed 50:50 public/private, yet the general population is more like 11:1. If people haven't even read the sources, and are not aware of the coverage, then why are they even discussing this?