Talking-up Scotland

Kate Garroway and Derek Draper

Probably no variety of ‘border’ – hard, soft, frictionless or herbaceous can fully protect us from the furious sense of entitlement of the BritNat elite. Legislation covering balanced broadcasting did not stop ITV being wantonly inaccurate in this interview with Nicola – see link and snippets below:

https://www.scotsman.com/news/itv-censured-over-inaccuracies-in-interview-with-nicola-sturgeon-1-4818204

(Pains me to admit it but the Scotsman report seems pretty fair – bare bones only here)

ITV censured over inaccuracies in interview with Nicola Sturgeon

ITV have been rapped over an interview with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon where claims were made the SNP would have to impose austerity if Scotland became independent.

Ms Sturgeon immediately attempted to correct the error but Ofcom found she was “dismissed or ignored” by Shephard and his co-host Kate Garraway.ITV were forced to make an on air apology following the interview on June 8 this year.

At one stage, Shephard waved a piece of paper at Ms Sturgeon and claimed he was reading directly from the report (Sustainable Growth Commission report).

In their written ruling, Ofcom said: “We recognised that Ms Sturgeon sought to correct the inaccuracy on a number of occasions during the interview. However, in each case, her correction was either dismissed or ignored by the presenters.“For example, as described above, Mr Shephard responded to Ms Sturgeon’s initial correction by reiterating the original inaccuracy. Later, when Ms Sturgeon said “the report does not say what you said”, Ms Garraway interrupted and told her to ‘answer my question’.

“This potentially left viewers with an erroneous impression that Ms Sturgeon was either unclear about the contents of the report or deliberately misrepresenting its findings.”

The broadcaster was also found in breach of guidelines by Ofcom for failing to make the on air apology until four weeks after the interview was broadcast.

Might this have been a simple mistake made in the ‘heat of an interview’ as ITV argued? – Maybe – but let’s just check the formbook shall we?

The ‘Kate Garroway’ involved in the interview has an interesting connection. She is married to Derek Draper. Does the name ring any bells? The Blair Govt ‘LobbyGate’ perchance? – see snippets from Wicki below:

In 1998, while still working as a director at GPC Market Access, Draper was caught on tape, with Jonathan Mendelsohn, boasting to Greg Palast – an undercover reporter from The Observer posing as a businessman – about how they could sell access to government ministers and create tax breaks for their clients. When the tabloids got hold of the story, they dubbed it “Lobbygate”. On the recording, Draper said that “there are 17 people who count in this government … [to] say I am intimate with every one of them is the understatement of the century.” Palast also wrote that Draper said, regarding his motivation: “I just want to stuff my bank account at 250 pounds an hour…”

Next piece of evidence:

Draper was the founder and editor of LabourList.org, which was launched in January 2009. On 11 April 2009, it was reported by The Daily Telegraph that Gordon Brown’s special adviser, Damian McBride, had sent a series of emails to Draper discussing plans to set up a blog which would be used to post false rumours about the private lives of senior or prominent members of the Conservative Party and their spouses. These smears would have included sexual and personal fabrications against MP Nadine Dorries, Conservative leader David Cameron and his wife, Samantha, and Shadow Chancellor George Osborne and his wife Frances.

Draper later apologised for his part in the affair. Although in his reply to McBride’s email he had described the idea as “absolutely totally brilliant”.
Draper married GMTV presenter Kate Garraway in 2005.

Maybe Kate Garroway has been taking some lessons from old DD? – Just a thought.