The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


The time machine

Posted on June 17, 2012 by

We’ve been getting very confused today by the (New) Sunday Herald. Last night the paper’s “Investigations Editor” Paul Hutcheon tweeted that this morning’s edition would carry an “exclusive” on how a psychologist was telling the SNP to avoid using the word “independence”. Mr Hutcheon was clearly pretty excited about this breaking story, as he plugged it again a few hours later, and has gone on to tweet about it no fewer than 31 more times (figure correct at time of writing) during the course of the day.

But weirdly, this great “exclusive”, rather than being splashed all over the front page as you might expect, didn’t manage to make the online edition of the newspaper at all.

The only place it can be read online, so far as we can ascertain, is on the blog of the Herald’s political editor Tom Gordon. There is, however, a totally different story on the same subject on the Herald website, although the paper oddly declines to draw any sort of attention to that one either – it’s completely absent from the front page or any section index pages, and cannot be found directly through the website.

(The only way to read it, other than being given a link to it by someone, is to somehow already know what’s in it and type some distinctive words from it into the Search box.)

But when the Investigations Editor is making such a big deal of it (the paper’s own Twitter account had also trumpeted it late on Saturday night), why would the Herald be shyly hiding such a dynamite exclusive away from its online readers – including those who pay for a subscription to Scotland’s only paywalled newspaper?

Could it be because it’s a repeat of a story the paper had already run back on the 8th of January this year, also credited to Mr Hutcheon, and which no other paper apparently thought interesting enough to bother covering? (Perhaps because it basically amounts to “party attempts to run campaign in way which will help it win”, shock horror.) Sadly, we have no way of knowing. If only we had some hotshot reporter to investigate it for us.

 

16 to “The time machine”

  1. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    PS It’s interesting to note that the Tom Gordon blog version of the story claims that “The dramatic shift [of banning the word “independence” in favour of “an independent Scotland”] has already been adopted by Alex Salmond and others at the top of the SNP”.

    Evidently nobody thought to tell John Swinney (who you’d imagine would come into that category), as his piece in today’s Scotland On Sunday uses the word “independence” no fewer than five times:

    link to scotsman.com

    Reply
  2. Peter Curran says:

    I thought the story mattered. In fact I thought it mattered before it was a story. I don’t understand the missing online bit either, as I said in my blog. But then, I still believe in buying newspapers.

    Reply
  3. [post deleted at author’s request]

    Reply
  4. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    For any viewers interested, Peter’s blog on the subject from January can be found here:

    link to moridura.blogspot.co.uk

    (Just in case anyone thought it was an innocent timestamping error by the Herald.)

    Reply
  5. Peter A Bell says:

    Not so much a repeat as a rehash, I’d say. I’ve seen things like this quite a lot of late. There was one occasion when Severin Carrell had at least five pieces on the same topic in the same online edition. I can’t remember what the topic was or what Carrell had to say about it. Which gives a clue as to how much of an impression he made on this reader. But creating an impression is what it’s all about.

    In truth, the only purpose of this particular “story” is to provide an opportunity for a few anti-independence rent-a-quotes which can then be picked up and parroted in the social media by the Britnats’ rag-tag “army” of amateur propagandists. Nothing really untoward about that. Pro-independence campaigners do similar stuff. Although there is a decided difference in the tone and quality of the messages being promulgated – with nationalists being markedly more positive.

    What is striking here is the hypocrisy and double standards involved in being so sneeringly critical of SNP campaigning techniques while employing tactics which are no less propagandistic.

    Or perhaps the unionists quoted genuinely don’t comprehend the importance of language in communicating a political message. This would certainly explain their inability to mount a credible campaign.

    Reply
  6. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    You may well be thinking of this Severin Carrell episode:

    link to wingsland.podgamer.com

    But while there’s nothing all that unusual about rehashing an old story, it’s pretty odd to make such a song-and-dance out of it being an “exclusive” and then tweet about it all day, but not have any route to it from the website.

    Reply
  7. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    “Or perhaps the unionists quoted genuinely don’t comprehend the importance of language in communicating a political message”

    That seems unlikely, given that the Gerry Hassan “separation” incident occurred this very weekend…

    Reply
    • Peter A Bell says:

      Thanks for the reminder about the Severin Carrell “obsession”. It did come back to me after I’d posted. That tends to be the way my memory works these days.

      Fair point about the tweeting. It may be an attempt to bulk out an otherwise rather thin campaign.

      Reply
  8. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    “But then, I still believe in buying newspapers.”

    If you want to direct me to any Bath stockists of the ink-and-paper Sunday Herald, I’m all ears…

    Reply
  9. Tearlach says:

    This story was trailed on Radio Scotland’s Shereen’s programme this morning, but I do not recall hearing the detail – listening to her programme is like driving past a car wreck, you know that you should not look, but you have to slow down and have a peek…….

    Reply
  10. Donal Carthlan says:

    Anyone else think this is yet more media bias in Scotland as apparently (if it’s true) the SNP dropping the word independence in favour of the phrase an independent Scotland is big news but the pro Unionist vote no campaign refusing to even use the word “Union” isn’t?

    Reply
  11. Morag says:

    I read the story in the paper.  Basically it said that some marketing gurus had told the SNP to us the phrase “independent Scotland” instead of “independence”, because it resonated more positively with the listener.  Some people were receptive and others thought it was a load of pretentious bollocks.  Some cherry-picked quotes from party spokesmen were trotted out in an attempt to prove that this policy had been adopted.
     
    Given the tone of the headline, the article itself was a serious damp squib.  Maybe someone should ask Paul when he’s going to write an article on the standing orders to the unionists never to use the word independence?
     
    Come to think of it, maybe Paul is a fifth columnist, planting the story to make the word “independence” seem negative, and so encourage the unionists to give up on this “separation” malarkey.

    Reply
  12. Stuart Winton says:

    To be fair to Paul Hutcheon the article linked to by Stu was findable via the Politics section on the Herald’s site, but oddly it was one of the secondary articles rather than the more prominent ones with the summary underneath. It’s currently at the top of the second column of articles and titled “JARGON TO VIEW VOTERS”. I had to look for it a couple of times and indeed for some reason I think the capital letters were part of the reason I missed it as well as its position.

    The article on Tom Gordon’s blog doesn’t seem to be on the Herald site, but perhaps that’s why he put it there. The Herald’s site generally updates  about 4am or so and doesn’t really seem to do much for the rest of the day, so perhaps those responsible for updating the site weren’t available and thus any ommissions couldn’t be rectified, so Tom Gordon used an alternative route to publish it online.

    And looking at the two articles I would assume that the reason they are different is because the main one – the one NOT on the Herald’s site – would have been accompanied by the linked secondary (shorter) article on the same page (or a double page spread) in the paper version (not sure what the technical term for that sort of layout is, but I’m sure there is one!).  

    Of course, the Herald’s website is quite well know for these errors and inconsistencies, so personally I would put it down to cock-up rather than conspiracy, although I’m sure there’s others who’d disagree!!

    But I’m glad Tom Gordon put the article on his blog because as someone who’s recently parted with £1.00 for my first month’s subscription I was thinking of asking for a refund!       

    Reply
  13. Erchie says:

    Paul Hutcheon and Tom Gordon are like the Beavis and Butthead of Scottish Political journalism.

    You see them on Twitter doing theirequivalent of “hurr hurr” all day and wonder why the Herald is so inefficient as to need two planks of thatcalibre rather than the single Kenny Farquaharson the SoS manages with 

    Reply
  14. jafurn says:

    My thought on this is that Mr  Hutcheon was practising lazy journalism here.
    I personally  had a  short twitter discussion with Mr Hutcheon on Wednesday as Mr Salmond was giving his evidence at the Leveson inquiry where Mr Hutcheon was castigating and  trivialising the FM during his evidence.
    I challenged him that he did not have to watch it.
    A sample of the exchange below..

     13 Jun Paul Hutcheon ?@paulhutcheon
    Next up at #leveson Salmond to reveal whether he prefers Godfather I or II
    13 Jun Jim  ?@jafurn50
    @paulhutcheon You do realise that you don’t have to watch it
    3:25 PM – 13 Jun 12 via web · Details
    Then…
    Paul Hutcheon ?@paulhutcheon
    @jafurn50 I wish you were right, but I’m writing about it for Sunday
    3:30 PM – 13 Jun 12 via web · Details
    13 Jun jafurn50
    @paulhutcheon Well I thought that would be the case so why then your obvious ‘slant’ against Mr. Salmond. What about fair and unbiased?

    I think he was hoping to write something about Mr Salmond’s ‘fall from grace at Leveson’  but in the absence of any such story he reverted to rehashing an old ‘story’. The original ‘story’ was published in the Herald back in January (as stated above).
    This in my opinion is lazy journalism. Rehashing an old story and dressing it up as some sort of exclusive. The uniting thread between all of the ‘stories’ is a negative view of Mr Salmond / SNP and that I feel is the nub of the matter.

     

    Reply
  15. Morag says:

    I remember watching Paul Hutcheon on Newsnight quite a while ago – I think it was during Wendygate.  He made it clear he hates all politicians with a fiery passion.
     
    At the time, he was the cybernats’ blue-eyed boy, because he was sticking it to Labour relentlessly.  It wasn’t just Wendy, he went after Jim Devine too.  It was fun and it was effective.  And at the time I thought, just wait till he goes after SNP figures, because he’s an equal opportunity politico-basher.
     
    He’s smart and he’s funny, but he doesn’t have a positive bone in his body.

    Reply


Comment - please read this page for comment rules. HTML tags like <i> and <b> are permitted. Use paragraph breaks in long comments. DO NOT SIGN YOUR COMMENTS, either with a name or a slogan. If your comment does not appear immediately, DO NOT REPOST IT. Ignore these rules and I WILL KILL YOU WITH HAMMERS.


  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,789 Posts, 1,222,317 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • stuckdoonhame on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Massive kudos to you, Lorn, not only for your ever sensible analysis of this nonsense but for your correct use…Jul 20, 02:20
    • stuckdoonhame on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Massive kudos to you, Lorn, not only for your ever sensible analysis of this nonsense but for your correct use…Jul 20, 02:13
    • Rob on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Its perfectly obvious that NHS Fife are trying to find something, anything, to blacken Peggies character t try and salvage…Jul 20, 00:26
    • Lorn on The Pillars Of Sanity: “The National is a disgrace as a national newspaper. Its pages are in vested with ‘trans’ dogma and its support…Jul 19, 23:23
    • dearieme on The Pillars Of Sanity: “James VI decided, later in life, that he’d been wrong about witches. They weren’t bad, they were mad. He supported…Jul 19, 22:43
    • Alf Baird on The Pillars Of Sanity: “UKSC, Court of Session and ScotGov and other state institutions all serve the English (as British) Crown, i.e. they do…Jul 19, 20:25
    • agent x on The Pillars Of Sanity: “@ Kelpie If they withdraw their defence then it becomes a default judgment and every point raised by the clamant…Jul 19, 20:03
    • agent x on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Notice also that Upton is described as “she” despite having a cock and bollocks.Jul 19, 19:34
    • Aidan on The Pillars Of Sanity: “@Kelpie – you are exactly right, that is definitely what they are planning to doJul 19, 19:22
    • Aidan on The Pillars Of Sanity: “@Alf – how does that relate specifically to the comments raised?Jul 19, 19:20
    • Kelpie on The Pillars Of Sanity: “There are plenty of legal types on X saying that NHS Fife can totally end this right now by basically…Jul 19, 19:15
    • agent x on The Pillars Of Sanity: “The National barely mentions the Sandie Peggie case but yesterday published: “Sandie Peggie denies making racist comment as new allegation…Jul 19, 19:09
    • Alf Baird on The Pillars Of Sanity: “In the colonial situation there is only colonial governance: which implies “a government and a judicial system fed and renewed…Jul 19, 19:04
    • Dave Hansell on The Pillars Of Sanity: ““The days when police forces across the UK acted as pet goon squads for every misogynist incel with a grudge,…Jul 19, 18:39
    • Dave G on The Pillars Of Sanity: “As a matter of strict law the Northumbria Police judgement does not apply in Scotland since the jurisdiction of the…Jul 19, 18:30
    • James on Points Into Prongs: “Dave L; yep, they don’t call he/she/it the Site Prick for nothing….Jul 19, 18:19
    • agent x on The Pillars Of Sanity: “@ Alf “On 8 December 2023, the Outer House of the Court of Session, part of Scotland’s highest civil court,…Jul 19, 18:15
    • Confused on The Pillars Of Sanity: “balance is restored to the force www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAbIL8C2JJ0Jul 19, 18:12
    • agent x on The Pillars Of Sanity: “16 APRIL 2025 – VICTORY #1 Arguably (we’ll come to that later) the most crucial victory of them all was…Jul 19, 18:11
    • Andy Storrie on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Come on, Campbell. You just canny help yourself, son. Let it go. This bullshit is yesterdays propaganda, lad!Jul 19, 17:33
    • Aidan on The Pillars Of Sanity: “@Alf – but isn’t that exactly what has happened, look at who are the hero’s in this story. The U.K.…Jul 19, 17:27
    • William G Walker on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Dear Rev, I’m pleased that your “report of victories” got a first-class response from all your fans! It must take…Jul 19, 17:21
    • Lorn on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Great piece, Rev. I do hope that you, with all the other people who placed their heads above the parapet…Jul 19, 17:13
    • Alf Baird on The Pillars Of Sanity: “A widna haud ma breith on any UK state quango protecting the rights of Scots, though she may learn something…Jul 19, 17:06
    • Peter McAvoy on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Well done to everybody who refused to accept and challenged this woke fascism and to the deserved victories you have…Jul 19, 16:22
    • Ian le coup on The Pillars Of Sanity: “DEI Diversity Equality Inclusivity is an absolute and utter con, created by the woke by the woke. DEI must DIE!!!Jul 19, 15:57
    • sarah on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Somewhere, over the rainbow… there is a happy land of sanity where children and women, and their supporters, can live…Jul 19, 15:53
    • Marie Clark on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Well done Stuart, you’ve been in this fight for a long time and it’s nice to see the outcome now.…Jul 19, 15:49
    • panda paws on The Pillars Of Sanity: “However deranged this week has been, I have every faith that next week will be the gift that keeps on…Jul 19, 15:47
    • agent x on The Pillars Of Sanity: “Meanwhile I am really enjoying watching the beautiful talented women playing in the EURO’s 25 without seeing big bollocked men…Jul 19, 15:45
  • A tall tale



↑ Top