Talking-up Scotland

Image: aberlour.org.uk

That wasn’t the BBC Scotland broadcast headline this morning, of course. Well, they don’t want to frighten the electorate do they? What, they usually do? When it’s possible to blame something on Scottish Nationalism, they do? Well, of course, but that’s only reasonable unless you’re one of those awful ‘divisive Scotch nationalists.’ English, sorry British, Nationalism, is healthy and normal, not like that divisive Scotch version. You’ve only got to look at our ‘wee’ Northern friend, Ruth ‘Bullstraddler’ Davidson, to see a normal, loyal, grateful, ’wee’ Scotch person.

Here’s the 06:26 TV broadcast headline:

‘Scotland’s economy will be cushioned from the likely negative impact of Brexit compared to the rest of the UK.’

So, there’s no need to get uppity about your son’s or your daughter’s job prospects falling of the UK’s broad shoulders. Interestingly, the BBC News website went with:

‘Fraser of Allander report: Brexit could cost 80,000 jobs. Scotland could lose between 30,000 and 80,000 jobs as a result of Brexit, according to an economic analysis. But the Fraser of Allander Institute said the Scottish economy would be “cushioned” from the likely impact compared with the rest of the UK.’

 See what BBC TV News did there? Catch the inattentive and the short-attentioned with more good news about Britain and those broad shoulders even though it’s clearly bad, very bad, news indeed!

 This happens a lot. The broadcast reports present the worst possible interpretation for the SNP and the Yes campaign while the website does not. Indyref2 revealed a classic example yesterday (see below) where Gary Robertson utterly distorted reality. These distortions are now, I’ve decided, to pre-14^th Century, Celtic form, Donnachaidh.

Have BBC Scotland’s still Blairite (Ye Blairites by name lend an ear, lend an ear?) top brass given up on the predominantly Yes-supporting internet surfers and are concentrating their fire on the more easily frightened older voters still loyal to the broadcast version?

I’ve insisted before that, mostly, when BBC Scotland presenters appear to be biased against Scotland, it’s probably habitual, unconscious or at worst semi-conscious. The above case smells of deliberate bias to me. Many of us have strong suspicions that their Unionism is consciously driving the work of some reporting. Indyref2 ‘called out’ Gary Robertson, yesterday (5^th October 2016) for what seems a clear piece of deliberate distortion on Good Morning Scotland:

‘Shona Robison doesn’t want to see training for more British doctors.  Yep you read correctly.  Scotland’s Health Secretary objects to a plan by the Tory government to make England self-sufficient in terms of doctors. How do I know this?  I know it because Radio Scotland presenter Gary Robertson said so ……The claim though is false.  Shona Robison has no objections to more training for British doctors.  In fact you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone in the entire UK who objects to more training of this nature. What Shona Robison was objecting to was a threat by the UK government to deport foreign doctors already practicing in the UK.’

Indyref2 seemed a wee bit uncomfortable with ‘outing’ Robertson in this way. I’d like to see more of it. Scotland’s future is too important for active Unionist propagandists, on salaries paid for in large part by Yes-supporters, to continue to flout their own rules of impartiality and balance with impunity. I’m reminded of the way ‘top’ journalists rallied to the defence of BBC Scotland when protests at Pacific Quay were deemed by them to be a form of bullying:

‘Scottish secretary Alistair Carmichael has called pro-independence campaigners a “bullying mob” following a protest outside the BBC in Glasgow.’ (STV, 15^th September 2014)

As we now know, Alistair was to go on to be mercilessly ‘bullied’ by Orkney voters who seemed to think he had lied about Nicola sturgeon.

Most of us, by now, feel sure we can identify the consciously deliberately biased individuals at BBC Scotland. Across social media, the very mention of some names triggers rage – Robertson, Bird, Bradford, Campbell, Naughtie, Wark, Smith………..quite a few actually. What about the others, are they just dupes, programmed, airheads? In some ways, that’s a worse insult isn’t it? In 2014, Guardian cartoonist, Steve Bell, called me ‘a nationalist dupe who could stick my research up my erse!’ Not taking time to think about I just replied ‘bell-end’. Mature, not me clearly? But seriously, I was a dupe, taken in? As a full prof (foolproof?), I found that more insulting.

The early morning report also had a fairly balanced piece on underground coal gasification and another one of those regulars on the bitter struggle between the Scottish Government (SG) and the (still) Labour local councils. I’ve coded the latter as bad news for the SG. No, I’m not coding the 80 000 job losses as good news!

Running Total:

Running total 21 to 6/10/16*                          Number of reports

Bad news for SG/SNP                                                            16

Good news for SG/SNP                                                          7

Bad news for Labour                                                              1

Good news for Labour                                                           5

Bad news for CP                                                                      0

Good news for CP                                                                   3

* Monday to Friday only

 

Sources:

http://indyref2.scot/some-bbc-scotland-presenters-deserve-to-be-called-out

http://stv.tv/news/politics/news/292211-scottish-secretary-alistair-carmichael-bbc-protesters-a-bullying-mob/

 

 

 

pdf for printing: when-we-can-all-see-it