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The same as it ever was 44

Posted on March 15, 2018 by

Particularly alert readers may have experienced a pang of deja vu at yesterday’s story highlighting media misrepresentation of polling figures.

We can’t imagine why.

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Spinning down 177

Posted on March 14, 2018 by

So here’s a headline from the (Dundee) Evening Telegraph.

You know how we’re always pointing out how newspapers love to lie to readers without actually saying things that are untrue? Let’s have a quick case study.

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The Cupid Stunt 412

Posted on March 08, 2018 by

An alert reader conveniently located in the Aberdeen area pointed us to an “SNP BAD” story in the ever-willing Press & Journal today.

And it raised an awful lot of questions the P&J didn’t seem to want to ask.

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Using the Force 58

Posted on March 08, 2018 by

From today’s Scottish Daily Mail:

The slightly-less-well-known definition of “force” that means “a minority government persuading three out of four opposition parties to agree with it and democratically vote a measure through”, there.

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Here come the monsters again 472

Posted on February 27, 2018 by

If you’re a person (unemployed or working) subsisting via state welfare in the UK, there can be no more genuinely, blood-runs-cold, terrifying phrase in the English language than a Tory saying they’ve come up with “fresh thinking” on poverty and benefits.

Because – and if you’re only going to trust us on one thing in your life, trust us on this – it never, ever means your life’s about to get better.

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Foote replaced by Dick 455

Posted on February 19, 2018 by

Last week, just a day after we highlighted the disastrous sales collapse of the Daily Record during almost certainly the most tumultuous and eventful seven-year period in Scotland’s peacetime history, the paper’s editor-in-chief Murray Foote apparently took the Scottish newspaper industry by surprise by suddenly resigning his position.

(We’re sure, incidentally, this is entirely unconnected with the recent advertising of some senior media vacancies in Scottish Labour.)

Rival hacks dutifully issued a series of glowing tweets about what a smashing guy Foote was and how much he’d improved the paper during his 27-year tenure there in various positions, most recently editor-in-chief, group editor and deputy editor.

So even though Foote accused this site of “debasing public life” with “sewage politics, conspiracy theories, hatred and paranoia” when we forced his paper to reluctantly and belatedly correct a massive front-page lie, we thought we’d join in the salutes.

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The seven-year ditch 266

Posted on February 15, 2018 by

Presented without comment, covering a period of THREE major national referendums, EIGHT elections (UK, Scottish, EU, council) and of course the death of Rangers.

What we’re saying is, it’s not like there wasn’t any news.

(Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

Unmuddied waters 106

Posted on February 05, 2018 by

We’ve had extremely poor internet at Wings HQ since Thursday of last week, which our telecoms company is trying to get to the bottom of. (We’re typing this on an iPhone via very flaky 4G.)

We’ll be back with you ASAP. In the meantime, we’re being baffled by this assertion from the Financial Times that’s been doing the social-media rounds again recently.

Um, that isn’t “difficult” at all. That’s what maritime borders are for. That’s why the UK took the precaution of stealing (or reclaiming, depending on where you’re looking at it from) thousands of square miles of Scottish waters in 1999.

But other than any possible attempts to renegotiate that boundary, there’s nothing to debate. One side of the line is ours. The other side is yours. The end. We’re not at all sure why the FT would ever try to pretend otherwise.

The waste disposal service 197

Posted on February 02, 2018 by

Alert readers may recall as far back as November, when we ran an article on a bizarre Scottish Daily Mail hatchet job which claimed that “the SNP has squandered £2bn” in its ten years in office, but only actually listed around £800m in supposed waste.

The independent press regulator IPSO is still in a great big sulking strop with us for reasons we can’t remember, so rejects any complaints that come directly from Wings, but the good thing about having a 300,000-strong army of readers is that some kind soul will usually take on the task for us.

And this one turned out to be fascinating.

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Replacement bollocks service 344

Posted on January 31, 2018 by

Alert readers may recall some articles last August in which we highlighted the total pig’s breakfast Scotland’s media had made of reporting ScotRail punctuality figures, centred around mistaking the “on time” figures (trains arriving within 59 seconds of their scheduled time, ie at the advertised minute) for the “PPM” figures (trains arriving within five minutes) which are the basis of official punctuality targets.

Several newspapers, including the Herald, Courier, Daily Record and Daily Mail, had to publish corrections after our articles, so we can be pretty sure they won’t have made that mistake again with the latest stats.

Can’t we?

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Fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake 213

Posted on January 26, 2018 by

The very strange man who is David Leask, chief reporter at the Herald, has been hard at work with a shovel ever since we ran a couple of stories on Monday.

Accusing this site of publishing “an implausible blog about our paper this week, based on some unchecked &, well, weird assumptions”, he curiously neglected to specify what those assumptions might have been, while embarking on a long, rambling and bewildering rant about what does and doesn’t constitute “fake news”.

Leask’s argument, at least in so far as we can make any sense of it at all, is that even deliberately and knowingly made-up lies printed in mainstream newspapers are not, and can never be, “fake news”.

That’s a term which he insists only applies to spoof sites pretending to be real news outlets, which we’d presume – although it’s by no means clear – means the likes of The Onion or the Daily Mash.

Which is an odd angle.

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An early failure 277

Posted on January 25, 2018 by

December:

January:

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    Wings Over Scotland is a (mainly) Scottish political media digest and monitor, which also offers its own commentary. (More)

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    • Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “That’s a lot of “can’t”s Mia. As always in the real world, the question arises: Says you and whose army?…May 24, 18:28
    • AndrewR on The shifting sands of memory: “I wrote a post that hasn’t appeared, quite possibly because it was too long, which it most definitely was. If…May 24, 18:24
    • Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “Good to hear we’re generating twice as much leccy as we need in the particular weather conditions prevailing when you…May 24, 18:21
    • Xaracen on The shifting sands of memory: “You totally missed the point, Hatey.May 24, 18:21
    • Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: ““Why write one paragraph when 10 will do?” Why stop at 10? Why not 100? I doubt Mia writes them…May 24, 18:01
    • Mia on The shifting sands of memory: ““how is it that the central state holds the power to decide if a part of that state gets independence?…May 24, 17:57
    • Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “Naw. It has rained for the first time in a month and some of the regulars got caught in it.…May 24, 17:48
    • Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: ““It would have made no difference” Keep going, NC, you’re half way there! Believe the 2014 vote DID go to…May 24, 17:40
    • James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “Mia, I am aware that my personal view that the Scots are not in the treaty at all due to…May 24, 17:37
    • Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “That’s always been my understanding of the situation, Andy. We already have an example during the Brexit process. All the…May 24, 17:34
    • AndrewR on The shifting sands of memory: “Do you know what usually happens? Czechoslovakia, for instance? Most laws aren’t going to be contentious, like your votes for…May 24, 17:33
    • Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: ““The UK only looks like a single state …” When I go through immigration, in either direction. When I am…May 24, 17:17
    • AndrewR on The shifting sands of memory: “Scotland couldn’t enter into a treaty with the Westminster parliament of Britain because it didn’t exist yet. But your next…May 24, 17:03
    • James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “For those that wish for the treaty of union to remain as a status quo sure we see many instances…May 24, 16:20
    • Northcode on The shifting sands of memory: “It is my belief that even if the 2014 vote had gone to ‘YES’ it would have made no difference…May 24, 16:17
    • Andy Ellis on The shifting sands of memory: “The boundary change is a red herring. Until and unless Scottish voters grow a pair and take their independence rather…May 24, 15:53
    • Andy Wiltshire on The shifting sands of memory: “My tongue-out-of-cheek point is that either a newly independent Scotland (brought into existence by a court declaring the 1707 Act…May 24, 15:45
    • Aidan on The shifting sands of memory: “@Mia – “Korea” isn’t a “binary state”May 24, 15:45
    • AndrewR on The shifting sands of memory: “I’ve got a more sensible post below, but I was struck by the same point as Andy Wiltshire. I don’t…May 24, 15:31
    • Mia on The shifting sands of memory: “Absolutely, James Cheyne. Which also brings up another question: if the UK of Great Britain and NI was a unitary…May 24, 15:06
    • Mia on The shifting sands of memory: ““Can you give me a give example of where the concept of a binary state is recognised in intentional law…May 24, 14:57
    • James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “Dan, Having had a quick reminder after reading the link you provided, Question, if each territorial state remains in tact…May 24, 14:36
    • Dan on The shifting sands of memory: “Smith Commission report stated… “nothing in this report prevents Scotland becoming an independent country in the future, should the people…May 24, 13:08
    • Aidan on The shifting sands of memory: “Can you give me a give example of where the concept of a binary state is recognised in intentional law…May 24, 12:43
    • Dan on The shifting sands of memory: “I’m sure in a change from arguing about “ancient irrelevant guff” the unionists will be along any minute now to…May 24, 12:25
    • Xaracen on The shifting sands of memory: “A meaningless hypothetical question, Aidan, and one designed to confuse and deflect the unwary and the uncertain! You are constructing…May 24, 12:03
    • Captain Caveman on The shifting sands of memory: “You can bloody talk Park Bench Buckie Boy.May 24, 11:53
    • Mark Beggan on The shifting sands of memory: ““Imagine there’s no countries.”May 24, 11:27
    • Mark Beggan on The shifting sands of memory: ““time” “Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day. You fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand…May 24, 11:24
    • James on The shifting sands of memory: “*Sigh*…. Trolls gonna troll.May 24, 11:21
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