Earlier today we reported on the mysterious failure of the Herald to notice that its front page lead story about supposedly poor ScotRail punctuality figures made a number of serious errors with regard to the facts, most notably confusing the excellent figures for last month with a 12-month rolling average which was significantly worse.
But as we read the rest of the papers, we noticed the oddest thing.
Today’s edition of The Times contains a textbook example of a phenomenon that we highlight regularly: how newspapers gradually unpick their own dishonest headlines to grudgingly admit a truth which is often the polar opposite of the initial claim.
The BBC’s Reporting Scotland is, in our view, directly responsible for at least 80% of Yes supporters’ belief that the UK’s state broadcaster is biased against independence. Almost all of the worst examples of unbalanced or downright dishonest coverage over the last five years come from the flagship teatime bulletin.
Broadly speaking, the psychological phenomenon known as the Pollyanna Principle is a tendency to neurotically see the most positive possible view of a situation. It’s not generally widely found in newspapers – for whom bad news as a rule sells much better than good news – but for some reason the Scottish press makes a uniform exception when it comes to military shipbuilding.
This, for example, is today’s Herald:
Now, in itself that headline is – unusually – true, so far as it goes. But it only takes until the first sentence of the article text before things start to fall apart.
Deep in the summer news desert, the papers today are struggling for material again. The Sunday Herald has a shock-horror front-page exposé about some photos from an Orange Lodge party that turn out to be from 2010 and 2013, while the Scottish Mail On Sunday reaches all the way back to 1940 to fill a couple of pages.
“Colonel” Ruth Davidson took time out from her holidays yesterday to unleash an extraordinary (and unusually defensive) 35-part Twitter tirade about the reaction to her appointment as an honorary military commander. So barren is the summer political news desert that two newspapers put it on their front page today, giving the BBC an excuse to deem it the day’s biggest story.
The term “fake news” has become somewhat devalued from overuse recently, and often translates simply to “news I disagree with or don’t like”. But this, from today’s Scottish Daily Mail, is a bona fide sighting:
Alan Scott on The Other Kind Of Winning: “(And not insignificantly, if a civil war broke out they’d be the ones with all the guns.) But you’d have…” Aug 13, 01:22
James on The Party Of The Dead: “I never said the onus was on the English parliament, chum. But you’re just a charlatan, here to disrupt like…” Aug 12, 23:25
Young Lochinvar on The Other Kind Of Winning: “C An interesting take however for one, I object to servicemen etc being regaled as “dregs and psychos”.. Very 18th…” Aug 12, 23:18
aLurker on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Indeed it would be better if people condider how what they call things affect how people think about it and…” Aug 12, 22:39
aLurker on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Fortunately there is already a fully fleshed out strategy which deals with this issue of democratic acceptability as best as…” Aug 12, 22:33
Bilbo on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Burnham has said he is going to disperse these immigrants more into middle class areas from now on. They’ll be…” Aug 12, 21:17
Chas on The Party Of The Dead: “No response from the learned professor….again but Scotland’s greatest fisherman has. Of course, his prowess is due to him being…” Aug 12, 21:14
Rob on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Folk are seriously wanting Trump on their side to help? that smacks of real desperation.” Aug 12, 21:06
Red on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Have you seen Glasgow recently? Muslim and African colonists are filling up the Dear Green Place nicely. Every other town…” Aug 12, 20:45
Peter McAvoy on The Other Kind Of Winning: “I agree with the comment that the SNP no longer stand up for Scotland it’s institutions,industries or people (native white…” Aug 12, 20:45
agentx on The Other Kind Of Winning: ““Polling outfits use the same wide-open franchise as the 2014 referendum” ——————————– The 2014 referendum was a vote not a…” Aug 12, 20:42
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “My newsagent doesn’t stock it, so I’ll never know.” Aug 12, 20:23
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “In short, True Scots vote Yes. Only the votes of True Scots need be counted. This one’s already been done…” Aug 12, 20:20
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Jews and shirt lifters! Have you started earlier tonight, Confused, or are you still on yesterday’s bender? Still though, I…” Aug 12, 20:13
Andrew scott on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Remember folks the Trasional is just a comic without the pictures” Aug 12, 20:11
agentx on The Other Kind Of Winning: ““our indy would be “treaty revocation”. That is what it would be.” —————————————————————- Have you not read the thousands of…” Aug 12, 20:05
Northcode on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Polling outfits use the same wide-open franchise as the 2014 referendum did when selecting potential respondents – this means the…” Aug 12, 19:58
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Actually, when I wrote they might stop paying benefits and pensions that was intended to illustrate a reason why vast…” Aug 12, 19:55
James on The Party Of The Dead: “You’d be a scrounging immigrant in either place. Just like the rest of them. Reform shills obviously don’t do irony.” Aug 12, 19:35
James on The Party Of The Dead: “….and I’ll ask you again, sunshine; do you mean competent government like the duds in the English parliament at Westminster?…” Aug 12, 19:28
Alistair on The Other Kind Of Winning: “I don’t think it’s a bad thing. The Overton window won’t move unless you make people consider it.” Aug 12, 19:26
Confused on The Other Kind Of Winning: “UDI people should stop using the wrong damn words; UDI is not appropriate terminology – it associates with Rhodesia and…” Aug 12, 19:24
Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: “Quite hard to understand how our “colonised mediocre meritocracy (Memmi)” managed to lead the world in practical engineering, such as…” Aug 12, 19:01
Red on The Other Kind Of Winning: “<b But Swinney is no leader Aye, that’s the problem. Scotland doesn’t have any leaders. Swinney calls himself a leader,…” Aug 12, 19:00
Hatey McHateface on The Other Kind Of Winning: “It’s August. It’s the silly season. The schools are out. Most folk are on holiday. We’re already tiring of The…” Aug 12, 18:47
Frank Gillougley on The Other Kind Of Winning: “Dear Alf, I know yours is a lone voice at times here with your endless use of the C word,…” Aug 12, 18:46
Dan on The Other Kind Of Winning: “How does that required majority support criteria being met for a particular policy to be implemented play out in the…” Aug 12, 18:45
agentx on The Other Kind Of Winning: “The SNP have “Pandora’s Box” most commonly refers to the Greek myth of the first woman, Pandora, who opened a…” Aug 12, 18:35
