The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


Archive for the ‘media’


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.

Read the rest of this entry →

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.

Read the rest of this entry →

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.

Read the rest of this entry →

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.

Read the rest of this entry →

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.

Read the rest of this entry →

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.

Read the rest of this entry →

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.

Read the rest of this entry →

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?

Read the rest of this entry →

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.

Read the rest of this entry →

An early failure 277

Posted on January 25, 2018 by

December:

January:

Read the rest of this entry →

  • About

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

    Stats: 6,752 Posts, 1,217,415 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on All Or Nothing: “Tentative translation of the Marquis of Montrose quatrain: He either fears his fate too much, Or his deserts are small,…May 8, 23:10
    • Confused on All Or Nothing: “hail mia, full of grace, the lord is with thee … jesus was “antisemitic” : Ye are of YOUR FATHER…May 8, 22:52
    • Lorn on The Last Thing They’ll Expect: “I think, Mia, the traditional Scottish Unionist vote and UKReform do not a double act make. They are coming from…May 8, 22:51
    • Lorn on The Last Thing They’ll Expect: “Neither, Hatey. It doesn’t have to be above 48% before a campaign starts. Calling the bluff of both Holyrood and…May 8, 22:45
    • Lorn on The Last Thing They’ll Expect: “Your tedious nonsense might apply to some nationalists, but, for the majority, we are very well aware that independence will…May 8, 22:39
    • Hatey McHateface on All Or Nothing: “Understood. I’m gonna assume that “wanking on and on” is an order of magnitude more serious than “wanging on” 🙂May 8, 22:17
    • Rev. Stuart Campbell on All Or Nothing: “Y’know, I’m not sure you were ever voting Yes, mate.May 8, 21:50
    • Rev. Stuart Campbell on All Or Nothing: “Fucksake, what do I have to DO to stop you people fucking wanking on and on about Israel and Palestine?…May 8, 21:49
    • Hatey McHateface on All Or Nothing: “Woo, check out the big guts on Mia. She’s standing by her words. There’s your route to Indy right there.…May 8, 21:39
    • Mia on All Or Nothing: ““The problem is the number of plants [in Hollyrood] working for the USA’s deep state and for the rogue state…May 8, 21:06
    • Mia on The Last Thing They’ll Expect: “I am actually very surprised the Green vote remains that stubbornly high after their many cock ups with the return…May 8, 20:58
    • Hatey McHateface on All Or Nothing: “Aw, quick everybody, look at Mia. If frantic virtue signalling could give you wings, she’d have enough lift to carry…May 8, 20:53
    • Mia on All Or Nothing: ““It’s people like you that stopped me voting YES” Yes to what? It is trolls like you and Hatey what…May 8, 20:50
    • Vivian O’Blivion on The Last Thing They’ll Expect: “RefUK friendly polling outfit Find Out Now have the Faragists on a thirteen percentage point lead! Westminster voting intention, field…May 8, 20:26
    • Yoon Scum on All Or Nothing: “Mia It’s people like you that stopped me voting YES And I use the term “people” in it’s loosest meaningMay 8, 20:16
    • Mia on All Or Nothing: ““an openly unashamed antisemite” If, according to you, the new meaning of the word “antisemite” is to feel sick at,…May 8, 19:58
    • 100%Yes on The Last Thing They’ll Expect: “He keeps having a go at Alba Party. Bitter nice as a drink, it must be hell for someone who’s…May 8, 19:58
    • Yoon Scum on The Last Thing They’ll Expect: “The biggest tell that a NAT isn’t very bright is they cannot give one single reason to stay in the…May 8, 19:52
    • Hatey McHateface on All Or Nothing: “Like I said, Mia, you’re an openly unashamed antisemite. Whether it’s you blaming your perceived wrongs in Scotland’s governance on…May 8, 19:47
    • Mia on All Or Nothing: ““days of 2014, that antisemitism w…” zzzzzz!! Antisemitism. The good old magic (but by now devoid of meaning) word that…May 8, 19:23
    • Hatey McHateface on The Last Thing They’ll Expect: “You just beat me to it, YS. I was wondering if Rev Stu is lying to us, or if supporting…May 8, 19:21
    • Hatey McHateface on All Or Nothing: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, sara, but who cares about that? Don’t we really need racist, sectarian, twisted bigots if we are…May 8, 19:12
    • Mia on All Or Nothing: ““Happily there will be true independence fighters to vote for” I am counting on that, Sarah, but, If am not…May 8, 19:09
    • Owen Mullions on The Last Thing They’ll Expect: “His blog these days has nothing to do with independence, just a constant diatribe against Alba (no wonder they got…May 8, 19:06
    • Hatey McHateface on All Or Nothing: “Mia blaming Scotland’s situation on Da Dews again. Who ever thought, back in the heady days of 2014, that antisemitism…May 8, 19:02
    • Xaracen on All Or Nothing: “Excellent summary! The fact of Westminster insisting on its own sovereignty only verifies that the concept of sovereignty is a…May 8, 18:56
    • Yoon Scum on The Last Thing They’ll Expect: “YEP that has been the plan in 2019 there was a vote on keeping the UK in the common market…May 8, 18:55
    • Yoon Scum on The Last Thing They’ll Expect: “If each event I was told was going to have a massive boost for indy actually did have a massive…May 8, 18:53
    • Yoon Scum on The Last Thing They’ll Expect: “Most moon howlers and NATs think that support for indy is well over 70% many think it is 90% So…May 8, 18:51
    • James Cheyne on All Or Nothing: “Mia, Hear hear. It is not allor nothing, The problem is the voting system in Scotland under Westminster parliament of…May 8, 18:37
  • A tall tale



↑ Top