The belated truth
At 10 o’clock on a Sunday night, three months after publishing the original falsehood, the Daily Telegraph has finally quietly pushed out the sort-of admission that it told a lie before the general election about the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, wanting David Cameron to remain as UK Prime Minister – a claim intended to damage her party politically in the aforementioned election.
The toothless press watchdog IPSO has allowed the Telegraph to merely publish its adjudication by way of correction. No apology is offered to the First Minister, and the Telegraph can’t quite bring itself to concede that its facts were wrong, even though they’ve now been denied by every single party to the incident – Ms Sturgeon, the French ambassador, the French Consul-General and the former Secretary of State for Scotland who leaked a memo about their meeting to the press, Alistair Carmichael.
(More on him in a few hours, incidentally.)
Such, we must apparently accept, is justice for the British media.
Despite Carmichael having admitted that “the details of that account are not correct”, the Telegraph’s original piece making the false claims is still intact. It contains no link to the correction, and no acknowledgement that it has been altered since the original publication on 3 April, although it has in fact had five paragraphs added to the original version, some way down the piece:
“A number of Labour MPs openly praised Ms Sturgeon’s performance and said that her success made the prospect of a power-sharing agreement with the SNP more likely.
But some backbenchers were privately furious that Mr Miliband did not do more to challenge her.
Responding to the claims, a spokesman for Ms Sturgeon said: “As the First Minister has said, this story – which is based on a UK government document – is categorically, 100 per cent untrue. It must be a belated April fool.
‘As Nicola has said on numerous occasions, she wants to see the back of a Tory government which is decisively rejected by the people of Scotland and, unlike Labour, the SNP is the only party that had promised to lock David Cameron out of Downing Street.’
A spokesman for the French Embassy claimed that the meeting with Ms Sturgeon ‘did not touch on her personal political preferences with regards to the future prime minister’.”
These five paragraphs replace a single one from the original:
“She is increasingly seen as a potential ‘kingmaker’ in any Coalition talks as Labour support in Scotland has slumped with the SNP expected to gain dozens of seats in next month’s general election.”
All the damning and hyperbolic quotes from Unionist politicians including Willie Rennie and Jim Murphy, which assume the Telegraph’s story to true, are still present.
At the time of writing the correction is not mentioned on the Twitter feeds @Telegraph, @TelePolitics or Simon Johnson (who hasn’t tweeted at all for 11 days), and isn’t linked on the News, Politics or Scottish Politics pages.
The only mention we’ve been able to find is a tiny five-word link buried well down the front page between Tim Henman’s Wimbledon locker-room secrets and the news that Carol Decker out of T’Pau is apparently still paying off her mortgage.
By tomorrow the correction will be gone, and anyone stumbling across the original story will have no idea that it was ever there. They’ll read the blaring intro:
“Nicola Sturgeon secretly backs David Cameron
The SNP leader told the French Ambassador in February that she would prefer that ‘David Cameron remain’ in Downing Street, according to an official account of their conversation seen by The Daily Telegraph.”
They’ll be directed to the full text of the inaccurate memo, and they’ll read hundreds of untrue words with only an unobtrusive link to the denials of the participants, which ends in another Willie Rennie quote reinforcing the original false claim.
And that, readers, is as good as the scrutiny of the UK press gets.
And that’s why we’re here.
But that means the MSM can lie before every referendum or election, doing damage to political parties or individuals, at the crucial time.
How does that serve democracy?
The only comfort we can take from this is that thousands more will see this than read the Telegraph
You know why they do this of course. It’s because they see us as the shite that can occasionally get stuck to your shoe. Based on the reaction of the SNP to the Scotland Bill and the non-reaction of the general public to same, they may well be right.
The irony of it being sneaked out on the night of the result of the Greek referendum is beyond words.
I wonder if either will be mentioned on GMS or Kaye Adams programmes today?
They will bury it but once again, when red and blue unionists have to monumentally lie at Scotland like this to save their farce union, it’s only really a matter of time now.
Thanks Stu. You keep reminding me why I never want to read sub-standard, trashy, UK newspapers. I don’t think my blood pressure could take it! So, hats off to you for exposing their deceit.
Very good analysis but I wonder what can be done. If, like me the vast majority of Indy minded folk in Scotland have stopped reading this crap then what else is to be done?
I applaud Stu’s determination to out the unionist press but in reality are we not howling in the wind?
Not many unionists will read this so what’s the point anymore. Better to crowd fund complaints and legal action perhaps?
Or is there a template complaints form that could be created to complain automatically whenever one of these vile rags vomits?
Solution? Stop buying newspapers. Stop posting or clicking on links to newspaper websites. Stu goes there so we don’t have to. It really is that simple.
[…] The belated truth […]
“The toothless press watchdog IPSO has allowed the Telegraph to merely publish its adjudication by way of correction. No apology is offered to the First Minister,”
That is the toothless press watchdog.
But what about the rotten to the core Scottish justice system?
Or for that matter the rotten to the core English justice system?
And judges, the lowest of the low?
If the First Minister took the Telegraph to court in Scotland or in England for defamation and breaking election rules, I am 100% sure that the judge would behave in the same way as the toothless press watchdog.
Anyway, only 53% of us would now vote to remain part of that rotten system compared to the 55% who did last year.
Would it be useful to hold protests outside of larger newspaper outlets and hand out the real truths to the public?
This just makes me sad,I’m all for robust ( even at times downright abusive) debate, but how is it possible to engage your opponent when the playing field isn’t even pretending to be level.
There is little to be gained by spewing vitriol at our “No” voting countrymen, people do what they do with the information they have.
If our older population are not familiar with the new technology and rely on MSM for their news, then it is up to us to show them another view.
Well-done!
Though seems we can do little will stay on their case (Telegraph).
Heh, well the initial story got to the people it was always intended to get to, England’s electorate. Thanks to the likes of Wings and our other excellent online new media, the story was debunked within hours and the facts disseminated throughout new media and independence support shortly thereafter. As far as we’re concerned the folk who matter, the Scottish electorate, responded appropriately by returning the most conclusive electoral result in Scottish political history.
In fact if anything their cackhanded attempt to smear the first minister backfired spectacularly in Scotland. In days past such a story released through a broadsheet would have been considered gospel. Today? In Scotland? Not so much.
Its happening before our eyes, the media are losing their grip and are possibly, in Scotland, at an all time low for public trust. Deservedly so, they’ve earned it big time and have no other place to look for their current plight than their own board rooms and editorial depts.
Their choice.
They wan’t to act like a huffy spoilt wean caught in a lie, compounding their crime in the eyes of the Scottish public? Again, their choice. It simply rubber stamps the Scottish electorate’s opinion of them.
And we’re grateful you are. There is no honest, open or fair press in this country and despite having had our eyes held open for so long they still try to promote The Lie. Trouble with any lie is you get found out. Eventually.
Disgusting decision!
I bet there are kiddy fiddlers at the IPSO. Coats of Deid Stoat no doubt on the way to them in the next Honours List.
Cast your mind back to when this story first appeared – it was wall to wall broadcasting of this tale. The only fair way to deal with this correction is for the media who broke the original story to give it the same vigorous broadcasting and airtime to the correction. Ain’t gonna happen tho. I can guarantee call Kay with an e won’t even touch this true story.
BBC saying Greeks reject bail out offer. What they aren’t saying is that the Bullies just got a well timed and well aimed and a well deserved kick in the baws.
Brit Nat Press and Media just cant help itself.
And lets not forget these guys (The newspaper said it had confirmed the authenticity of the document with two well-placed sources before publication. It was a contemporaneous note made by an experienced civil servant,)
Carmichael might have put his hand up (for now) but those others need naming & shaming & SACKED.
I hope the French Ambassador’s Office have a somone attending the forthcoming Carmichael trial & taking Contemporaneous notes in case anything else is revealed.
O/T.
Emergency debate on Greek finance on Tuesday & if that day doesent suit, we have other days lol.
OXI OXI OXI & Zorba danced rite through the night.
The excellent book, “London calling: how the BBC stole the referendum” by GA Ponsonby, has page after page of examples documenting the way that the BBC would run a false or one-sided story designed to undermine the independence movement. Then, once the truth was established, they would not publicly acknowledge that they had made a mistake. Ponsonby was also able to show that many of these false stories were announced to draw attention away from SLAB bad news or SNP good news. The Daily Telegraph story seems to be another example of this kind of thing.
It is obviously valuable that Stu and others are increasingly able to catch these false stories early and debunk them. What worries me is that what we are seeing in the media is that people in positions of responsibility, in newspapers and TV, are consciously and deliberately lying on a regular basis. Has anyone looked at the culture of these organisations, or the psychology of the people who work in them? It is one thing to monitor the media for occasional lapses where journalists make up things. It is now getting to the point where it is not possible to believe anything that you read in the mainstream media. If one story in a hundred is false or biased, then you can have confidence that most of what you read will be reasonably valid. I think we have now reached a level of false stories that it undermines the credibility of even the good, honest journalism that is still around.
In my opinion, what is behind all this is what has been described as “neoliberal” economics. This is a theory that prosperity depends on open markets and competition. However, it is a theory that in reality masks a systematic strategy of redistributing money from the poor to the rich. The domination of the political landscape by neoliberal ideas (as is happening at the moment in both the red and blue Tory parties) is therefore inevitably built on a big lie, which needs to be buttressed by lots of little lies.
One of the major differences between Unionist and Nationalist positions in Scotland at the present time is that the latter is based on respect for the truth, and the former is not. This is an extremely important distinction. As with the Daily Telegraph story, the Unionist media constantly try to undermine the SNP and other pro-independence groups by accusing them of not being truthful.
It would be logical to do a personal expose on all the journalists, editors, and owners of the MSM to establish their credibility or otherwise. Where they live and the value of the property, what school they attended, salary, marital status, political affiliation, any criminal records. private club membership, sexual orientation. Now that would make for some interesting reading, and for a change real newsworthy material.
The crooks, criminals, charlatans and liars in the MSM get off with it again, when they should be in jail. Complain to the Police and get them arrested and charged and put in jail for their criminal behaviour. Their number is up.
Nicola should sue the crooks for libel and get damages for the damage they tried to do to her reputation.
The MSM ignorant, arrogant liars think they are above the Law. They are not.
Anyone who believes anything they read in the media nowadays cannot consider them selfs part of an intilligent species.
The MSM for the main part have become the peoples enemy….How did it ever come to this?….For me the fact it’s tolerated shows not a free press but actually I believe it just exposes a thinly disguised fascist state.
Hi Mactart, rather than ‘Gospel’ do you not mean that lovly old Irish expression, ‘Gobshite’? Non purchase of papers like the Record and Hootsmon plus all the non-payment of TV Licences are starting to hurt as indicated by plummeting circulation figures and drop in BBC income. As you sow so shall you reap!!!
Auld Rock
When is a complaint going to be made to the Police about the DR Foote and the lying Vow to illegally affect a major Referendum decision. The damage that has done to people in Scotland who now are threatening with sanctions and starvation by an administration the majority in Scotland did not vote. Arrest and charge Foote and have him up in Court. These liars think they are above the Law. MSM cause poverty and deprivation.
“And that’s why we’re here.” And thank God you are!!
And what else might we expect from a respectable newspaper like The Telegraph? Honesty? Integrity? Decency?
Naah. The Telegraph is in full panic flap like the rest of them.
Onwards and upwards folks!!
OT sorry
Is the Greek NO vote a game changer for Scottish Independence?
Hopefully Scottish no voters will reconsider. Stand up to the bigs boys. Hope over fear.
fingers crossed.
The Greek people send a message to Brussels. Democracy lives, the people of Greece do not want your Eurowonga loans binding the poor in the ropes of austerity. I hope it’s the start of a movement to take democracy back from the bankers. The people have decided and it’s hard for Merkel to argue with what the people say as opposed to an “unreasonable” government. The Greeks have played a blinder. Will the Eurozoomers hammer them for not playing ball? They cannot be seen to reward them but they can’t just cut them loose without hurting themselves. Isn’t politics interesting when the people get involved. 🙂
When is DR Foote going to jail for his criminality and damaging lies?.
But surely a front page lie warrants a front page apology?
Also interesting this appears when most of msm is concentrating on Greece. BTW, watching bbc news last night (no option, on holiday and that’s the only “news” channel available), thrilled to see a saltire waving in the crowd in the Athens square. Only for an instant though; the cameraman zoomed out so quickly I feared for his safety!
Also no coincidence that Osborne let loose his assault on the poor on the same day. Never once mentioned all the time I had that bbc on.
James Dow says:
6 July, 2015 at 5:54 am
“It would be logical to do a personal expose on all the journalists, editors, and owners of the MSM to establish their credibility or otherwise. Where they live and the value of the property, what school they attended, salary, marital status, political affiliation, any criminal records. private club membership, sexual orientation. Now that would make for some interesting reading, and for a change real newsworthy material.”
Jesus, James. Get some sleep. That would not be logical at all. That would be deeply sinister. If you want to start compiling a dossier that’s up to you. I’d say your tinfoil helmet’s on a little too tight.
@ Macart
You are spot on in your post at 3.16am-it all boils down to trust & we don’t have any.
I was polled by Populous yesterday. The subjects were TV companies, newspapers,road repairs & utilities
1st question-how much trust do you have in the news output of the BBC.On a scale of 1-10, ten being most trusted.
Me: Wrong person to ask-I burst out laughing & said 0.
Interviewer: but I can’t accept 0-has to be 1-10
Me:I won’t give them a score as I have no trust in BBC. If they tell me the date I check it!
That was just the start of a hilarious 30 minute interview that went on to go through ITV/STV & Sky. All got nil points on trust from me.
Asked for my reasons for no trust in BBC-paedophile cover ups in WM-never mentioned in BBC, Rona Fairhead a Director of HSBC becoming Chair of BBC Trust, attending Bilderberg etc. Scandal of HSBC frauds never being reported by BBC-all in it together OK!
Treatment of Scotland in the run up to Indyref last year & the outright lies told to frighten voters & which BBC knew to be lies because the English regions were broadcasting the exact opposites of those Scottish stories to their viewers.
Interview carried on in that vein as we went through the list of papers-all MSM this time & same questions about level of trust as per TV companies
Then moved on to online sources of news so I cited several European sites plus Al Jazeera & RT that I look at in a week. Which source do you visit most for news -Wings for anything to do with Scotland, UK news-no UK MSM sites because I know I can’t believe a word they say.
Twitter was also asked about-useful & immediate response to news stories. People looking to establish the truth in stories tend to stand out from the average tweeter.
The papers included the record & hootsmon-much laughter from me & then I told her their % decline in readership in last year & why-for proven lying to their readers! Much laughter again.So by then she had established I had no trust in MSM print or online media-only independent sources!Why did I think that was?
Me: Whole media owned by 6 people, all non-doms paying nil taxes & all with their own agenda to push which does not include honesty or including holding govts to account. Why would I trust any of them?
Eventually we got to the end & she actually thanked me for brightening up her day & giving her so many opportunities to laugh.
So that was my good deed for Sunday afternoon-spreading truth & making someone laugh a lot at the same time. Quite therapeutic 🙂
To BBC, ITV/STV, Sky & all MSM-your grip on people’s opinions is slipping & I for one am enjoying your demise.
The MSM puppets are illegally lying through their teeth about the Greece/Eurozone situation. Every word they utter is a lie. The rest of the UK has a higher debt ratio than the Eurozone/Greece and the debt in the rest of the UK continues to rise because of total Tory fiscal mismanagement. Cameron and Osburne are complete liars and illegally fiscal incompetent. Cameron and Osbourne should be in jail. Breaking the Ministerial Code every day.
Cameron and Osbourne are cutting welfare/taxes in the UK and more in the rest of the UK and increasing the debt. Acting totally illegally and fiscally irresponsibly. The Tories are sanctioning the vulnerable and starving them to death. Worried, cold hungry people get sick.
@ John McLeod – good comment. Neo-Liberal sounds too polite a term for the level of lying and political manipulation in most of the MSM.
The Levinson Report has still not been enacted in full. This coterie of editors’ choice watchdog, IPSO, was an attempt to avoid the proper scrutiny Levinson recommended. Is it not time to conclude that it doesn’t work?
Levinson, Chilcot, Smith report after report dumped in bin. Time for an inquiry into inquiries?
This is indeed why “we” are here.
We may not be able to change the MSM, but we can educate people about the MSM. That could be more powerful and help to bring down their empire of lies. An other great article from WOS.
I have registered my own complaint with IPSO, regarding the 6 times repeated Lie about SNP refusing to pay the Palace an agreed percentage of the Crown Estates revenue, however I wonder if we would be better served campaigning for the removal of this press
watch dog?
Rather than having a toothless waste of our time who let these scaremongering propaganda agents get away with anything for the penalty of placing a diluted form of correction in a corner no one is likely to see.
Surely the best option for us under Corrupt UK is to now be aware that neither the Politicians the Law nor IPSO give a damn about
how the Truth is covered up, distorted or replaced by great whopping Lies.
Much simpler to know that the UK is bereft of moral integrity and exists only to supply a constant stream of lies that will serve the political aspirations of their elitist masters.
Nothing there to loose other than another corrupt body.
Close IPSO and send their operating costs to charity.
Great article once again Stu.
To others – What can we do?
We can identify the advertisers whose money supports these rags and ask ourselves if there is a product or service we could use from another supplier that would encourage the people who advertise in these papers to think again as they watch their sales falling.
You generally find that 20% of the advertisers supply around 80% of the income stream, so we don’t need to boycott all their advertisers, just the main ones.
@Auld Rock
Aw they were always talking gobshite as far as I was concerned, but for most bods, if it was in black and white it was true.
Not no more Lochaber. Those days are well past, IMO. If the journos don’t get it right, or attempt to mislead, there’s plenty folk with a keyboards who can check their guff out and set it straight.
Iain More says, coats of deid stoat. Thats a stoatir
Holyrood can implement the Leveson verdict in Scotland. Nicola And Co should do it, to get them back. They would have to be more careful about their illegal, criminal, immoral behaviour, illegal briefing, and what they publish in Scotland.
Get Foote charged for breaking the 2013 referendum act. He allowed the vow to be published during a period of Purdah.
Slightly o/t, but related to selective msm reporting, I read last week about a civil servant due in court in Edinburgh, on Thursday I think, in relation to fraudulent practices during indyref. Did anyone hear how that went?
Cameron/Osbourne are cutting benefits/taxes in the UK and spending more in the rest of the UK putting up the debt. The debt is going up. Totally fiscally, immorally, illegally irresponsible.
Scotland will have to mitigate the benefits cut in Holyrood. Scotland is already mitigating the ‘room tax’ and the benefits cuts already instigated from Westminster. £300Million – £100Million a year to mitigate the cuts already imposed on Scotland. £300Million for Nursery places etc.
Apologies, should be “Leveson” Inquiry
I guess the Torygraph feels morally and ethically free to use the same excuse as Sir Nicholas that exceptional circumstances demand exceptional responses.
The question arises, what can the Scottish Parliament do to make printing lies that amount to defamation illegal, followed by a fine or imprisonment or both?
Foote has blood on his hands with his twisted Vow forcing our people into poverty hunger and debt with that gigantic con trick.He is as much to blame as Cameron and Osbourne.
O/T
Yanis Varoufakis has resigned, because of the opposition of Eurogroup Finance Ministers (I wonder if that includes Gideon?).
He says he will “Wear their loathing with pride”.
link to yanisvaroufakis.eu
Link to former Greek Finance Minister’s blog
@kennedy
I fully expect the money creators to go all out to destroy greece and try to make an example of it.
Best way IMHO they can go now is to issue their own sovereign debt free currency, although that will enrage the Plutocrats even more.
The unionists in uk have used the example of Greece in a currency union to ridicule the yes campaign’s policy of a sterling currency union. Scotland takes the role of Greece and England of Germany in their eyes – which is absolutely ridiculous. The uk economy is moribund. It has a huge current account deficit and an economy built on private debt, underwritten by the tax payer.
Anyway what it should highlight is that Scotland needs to look towards a sovereign currency of its own well away from the debt based pound
Alex Salmond made a mistake when he failed to see to it that Lord MacCluskeys report recommendations on legal regulation of the press were adopted into Scots Law.
@ almannysbunnet. “Eurowonga loans” Ilike that.
But the Telegraph is more closely linked to the Westminster analogy than anything I can think of so no need for them to worry about little fish like us.
@Peter Sneddon 6.40
There is no freedom of the press in Britain or Ireland – there is only freedom to own the press
What we need is ‘the right to hear’
This should be the BBC’s job- but the knowingly and falsely tke their lead from the very press that they and all others acknowledge as biased.
Keep at it Stu.
O/T……..W.o.S just got a mention on BBC Radio Scotland …….during a piece on the launch of a new online news site ……. The slip up was made by Garry Robertson…….. The new site got about 5 mins free publicity…….. Peter Gaghan (spelling) is involved……. It’s been suggested the new venture has been named after his appearance.
woosie says:
“surely a front page lie warrants a front page apology”
Exactly. The retraction/apology should occupy the same space, style and duration as the falsehood. A decent standards authority would ensure that.
Also, the newspaper will have made money out of printing lies. That needs to be reversed. If they are allowed to keep their income for that day then the deceit has been worthwhile. I think a significant percentage of the takings should be handed over to charity. Crime shouldn’t pay!
I have the suspicion that Cameron being soft on the MSM has bought favour with them.
It is very difficult to establish and maintain a reputation for honesty and fairness. Few individuals achieve it and even fewer organisations.
,,,the bulk of our modern media is a propaganda sham. Journalism cannot even raise it’s own standard to investigate and address the squalid conditions it lives in.
Why do the other newspapers ignore such behaviour?
Why do other journalists not cry out at the insult to the profession?
…a simple answer is “club rules”. They are all in it together.
Folks,
Just a reminder.
To spread the word to your non-web savvy friends, use the big green print button to print out as many copies of a story here on Wings as you like. Hand them round, leave them placed strategically.
Stu’s concise and very readable style will do the rest. The links and references he throws in are a bonus for backing up the story.
Or use that same button to create a neatly formatted PDF that’s easier on eye and focusses on that one story. Email that to your pal with a friendly: “Here’s the info to back up what I said earlier” kind of message.
“Cameron welcomed many of Leveson’s findings, but expressed “serious concerns and misgivings” regarding the prospect of implementing the changes with legislation.”
Wikipedia on Leveson.
If this can be remedied in Scots law as Marian suggests above then now is the time to do it.
Mitigation of Tory depredations,cuts and attacks on the poor will bankrupt Scotland . Partial Fiscal Autonomy is a trap. Anything less than FFA is a burden and not a power. To borrow a phrase from our Slovenian auntie,it is Partial Fiscal Stupidity!
Scotland is not Greece and there is no comparison. I wish Greece well but any recovery for them willbe slow. Perhaps in the 1950’s Greece was too generous in cancelling the debt Germany owed them!
Capella: Yanis Varoufakis has resigned, because of the opposition of Eurogroup Finance Ministers. He says he will “Wear their loathing with pride”.
Newspapers always give him the prefix ‘controversial’ finance minister. The mindf*****s never sleep.
In a real democracy banksters would be described as ‘controversial’ or worse!
@Clootie
Couldn’t agree more.
They may see the wrong that individuals or organisations do within their community, they simply do nothing to prevent it or allow others redress.
If you can’t police your own community, then someone has to do it for you. If you see and know that others print to mislead or outright lie in the name of an agenda, if you know those lies will have a harmful effect on your society and do basically SFA to prevent or combat these practises?
Then you deserve all the contempt, the public can pour on you.
In reality the Scottish economy is more like Germany, balances the books and has been in surplus always. Except Scotland has not been able to invest the surplus in it’s economy. The surplus has been illegally and secretly taken by Westminster and wasted on illegal mismananagement on Trident/illegal wars, tax evasion and banking fraud, and higher spending in London S/E making Scotland poorer.
The rest of the UK has more debt ratio than Greece. In the rest of the UK Westminster is cutting benefits/taxes and spending more (pro rata) and increasing their debt. Total illegal, fiscal irresponsibility. Cameron and Osbourne are lying and illegally breaking the Ministerial Code. They should be put in jail. They have no authority or mandate to chronically mismanage the Scottish economy. Taxing Scotland higher than the rest of the UK, with higher fuel and energy charges not with parity. The Act of Union terms agreed says Scotland was supposed to be treated equally. That is not the case. Westminster is acting illegally and breaking Scottish/UK and International Law.
The story is still on the front page of the web site as I type. What is odd is that it is the only story in a box that does not have a picture. Maybe the picture attracts eyes to the headline which encourages people to click to read the story? No picture, no eyes to headline?
James Dow says:
6 July, 2015 at 5:54 am
“It would be logical to do a personal expose on all the journalists, editors, and owners of the MSM to establish their credibility or otherwise.”
Can I recommend ‘The Establishment – and how they get away with it’ by Owen Jones. You’ll get a lot of your answers there.
I don’t have the radio on, but I’ll bet the Call Kaye phone-in this morning is either about the Greek Referendum OR the up and coming Tory Budget.
Because I know that I can trust BBC Scotland to give me an honest and impartial view on current affairs that are relevant to Scotland and Europe.
Half a sleep this morning so only caught a few moments of radio Scotland where WoS got a wee plug at the end of an interview with two guys who are starting a crowdfunded internet news blog.
Get the name ‘Ferret’ 🙂 Aye right!
Here is some info, but if it’s the Guardian staff I’ll be keeping my Drachmas in my pocket!
link to archive.is
Westminster controls the Press/MSM. The majority of the Press is right wing. Thatcher saw to that. Thatcher secretly allowed the right wing Press (Murdoch etc) to have too control of the MSM in the UK. Thatcher denied it at the time and lied. Illegally broke the Ministerial Cide. The papers/letters and documentation evidence was released recently. Kept hidden by Westminster under the 30 year rule, D noticed under the Official Secrets Act. The corruption of Westminster.
Without a fair and balanced Press there is no Democracy.
Implementing Leveson in Scotland is a start, but possibly will not prevent the MSM from continuing with the MSM lies and manipulation in the rest of the UK/world. Only charging them/their representatives and suing them in the Courts might prevent their appalling, illegal behaviour.
The Greeks have both marbles and now balls.
The English have neither as demonstrated in GE15.
We are still waiting for the 53% to get some.
The Anti-austerity win in Greece may start the ball rolling across Europe. Let’s hope it reaches these shores.
Telegraph shows all the class and good grace that we’ve come to know so well from a business run by nasty twits and goons.
So as UKOK hackdom gets more and more bizarre by the day, hammer of the Scots Libby Carrell boosting a crowd funded
link to archive.is
“The unit is being led by three established investigative reporters, the environment and freedom of information specialist Rob Edwards; Peter Geoghegan, a social affairs and politics specialist, and Billy Briggs, a home affairs and defence journalist. Two others, Rachel Hamada, a social justice specialist, and designer Jo Skinner complete the current team.”
I give them a month.
I hear the Daily Record wants to buy the Express
reports are, will this not be a conflict of interest as their political viewpoints are opposed
Never really noticed any difference myself
Both papers tell lies
Both papers appeal to extremists
Both papers sales are badly down
Both papers are losing their advertisers
Let’s face it both papers are rubbish
So no difference there then
heedtracker
They cite the investigative teams in Ireland and Holland, but these will be real journalists. The Carrell thing uses the cover of fracking to encourage support but what it will be about is attacking the SNP and the SG.
They haven’t really grasped why we crowd fund Wings, Newsnet, Common Space, Bella.
Thank you, Rev. for your tireless efforts.
Clootie at 9.09, spot on.
We can always count on dirty tricks from various quarters, what is REALLY sickening, is that we have no proper investigative journalism in this country, we know the Press colluded, but how fking depressing is that?
The image that jumps into my mind when this story is mentioned, is James Cook pursuing Nicola around George Sq. as the poor woman was trying to get on stage at a rally there on the Saturday. He kept squeaking – but I’ve seen the memo! Meaning that having seen a piece of paper, it must be true. No questions involved, it must be true.
The nicest thing I can say about you James, what a patsy. But never mind, you are in good company with all the other dupes masquerading as serious jounalists.
The embarrassing part of your masquerade, is that half of Scotland is on to you, and the rest.
You played your part well, and the result in May, shows what we thought of it.
I see steve keen has been on bbc a few times leading up to the Greek referendum. Think they liked the idea that he is critical of the euro zone. What they didn’t bargain for was his anti-austerity stance!
Without a fair and balanced Press there is no Democracy.
Freedom of speech is democracy but there are some countries that control who owns media.
Murdoch wanted to buy some US media, Fox? but US law banned foreigners from owning their tv. So Murdoch got himself US citizenship and now the sneaky old lech spends his life baiting progressive liberal America, propping up blue toryboy teamGB and waiting for death on top of giant pile of tax dodger mullah.
Freedom of Speech in action.
Its the BBC that’s being used to destroy Scottish democracy.
can anyone post me the link
RBS debt is more than Greece
I saw it on a twitter feed,maybe the herald
thx
The Guardian is just as bad as the rest in Scotland. It has been cowled and threatened by Cameron/Clegg illegally. The only Paper of any independent editorial (because of it’s constitution). The Guardian is a double disgrace. The print version and the online site. Total lying hypocrites
I take issue with the implied Telegraph story claiming that the IPSO upheld someone’s complaint about Ms Sturgeon. It ought to have read;
“IPSO upholds Nicola Sturgeon’s complaint”
The careless omission of a possessive ‘s’ alters the whole meaning of the London Telegraph’s link, compounding their original British nationalist lie about Nicola Sturgeon and her true opinions, which were carefully planned and timed by the paper (and others) to alter the result of a UK election.
Murdoch bribed public officials In the UK and should be in jail in the US. Under US Law it is illegal for any Company to bribe public official anywhere in the world.
I think the establishment will try and bring Greece to heel, for they have much to lose. If Greece is successful in what they do then it raises hopes in other ” problem” areas, Scotland, Catalonia, Austria, and others. That cannot be allowed, so financial bods will be making life as hard for Greece as they can.Likely sneaky moves.
The UK, will try and use the situation to castigate Scotland and the other democratic movements. Bizarrely, the UK will use Greece for their own ends, overlooking their own behaviour.
The gutter press are only too happy to push the anti democracy agenda, indeed any agenda they are given, we, the people need to recognise that as fact.
There has to be a rising of people against this movement,and it’s authors, how it can be done with best effect is the issue.Let’s get thinking and come up with innovative action.
GO GREECE!
Ken500 says:
6 July, 2015 at 9:37 am
“Westminster controls the Press/MSM”.
I think you’ll find it’s the other way about.
The Guardian – The Ferret – More like rats in a sack. They have no chance. Lying hypocrites. Keep out.
All the British media is part of the Establishment, infact the whole rotten corrupt system is the LabServativeDem and BBC STV Royal family Unionist media party
o/t
Greek finance minister has resigned.
Likely to be another astute move by another clever left of centre, anti austerity govt.
caz-m
Never knowingly cynical ;). You were right enough bud.
…and hopefully you’re here to stay!
bookie from hell at 10:17 am
This what you are looking for?
I would not want to fall into a Tory trap, but I have a feeling that after the new austerity moves have been determined, and it’s effect on Scotland is determined.
Indy2 will come sooner than we think.
It would classify as an enforced fundamental change to circumstances in Scotland, and as such, just cause would be established. I like the idea of dissolving the “Union” legally, as some have suggested.
@Clydebuilt
You were more awake than me 🙂
Graeme
You think that the Greeks have got it bad, just wait until Wednesday, when Boy George whips Scotland right into line.
This budget must surely be the wake up call that “No Voters” needed to prove they got it catastrophically wrong on 18th Sept last year.
Its a pity that it took extreme hardship to convince them.
Les wilson says:
6 July, 2015 at 10:25 am
“The UK, will try and use the situation to castigate Scotland and the other democratic movements. Bizarrely, the UK will use Greece for their own ends, overlooking their own behaviour.”
Indeed. As Gideon told Andrew Marr yesterday, “Whatever Greece decides, Britain is prepared. But I don’t think anyone should be in any doubt – the Greek situation has an impact on the European economy, which has an impact on us”.
This is true. Equally true is that decisions impacting the English economy has an impact on the Scottish economy. There are therefore very few, if any, decisions made in the House of Commons that could truthfully be described as English only.
I very much doubt he will see it that way.
Caz-m
I’m really starting to wonder if ‘No’ voters are paying any attention and, if they are, really care what happens to this country and it’s people.
The latest Panellise numbers are a depressing reminder of how much it might take for folk to wake the eff up.
We will now see the Oligarchs and their Westminster lackies viscious nastiness in full flow, driven by their terror of the Greek Plebs expressing sentiments like “we were hungry yesterday, we may be hungrier tomorrow but at least now, little by little it will get better”. Would that Scotland had the same courage.
I believe the Chancellor intends to crack down on non-payment of the TV license.
And thank God you are here. The MSM do not like you, some of them even hate you, and you could not get a better recommendation than that.
Fred says:
6 July, 2015 at 11:51 am
“I believe the Chancellor intends to crack down on non-payment of the TV license.”
Think I heard last night he is set to change the law so that you have to pay your license even if you only watch catch up TV.
Probably in the budget.
Graham: Greek finance minister has resigned.
A politician to emulate:
link to grousebeater.wordpress.com
Despicable people controlled by even more despicable people thats the torygraph,its a festering cesspit of neo liberalism propaganda lies ,and affront to descent journalism and should have no place in a modern 21st century democracy.
But then the UK is no democracy never has been.
o/t
Good for Greece lets hope the neo liberals cant shore up the tsunami they just let loose, unfortunately some of that wave is gonna smack right into the UK and since we are still stuck to them us as well,but what the hell we can take one for team anti-austerity 🙂
Your turn Spain and Portugal 😉
Nicola when can you go visit Greece i think the people of Scotland would like you to go make friends with their new government and give them whatever aid we can in this struggle against austerity 🙂
[…] At 10 o’clock on a Sunday night, three months after publishing the original falsehood, the Daily Telegraph has finally quietly pushed out the sort-of admission that it told a lie before the general election about the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, wanting David Cameron to remain as UK Prime Minister – a claim intended to damage her party politically in the aforementioned election. […]
Grousebeater
‘..a bunch of unelected loan sharks.’ Exactly what Greece and the rest of the neo liberal controlled world are up against.
Varoufakis statement. Integrity that few in the London elite and the Troika you describe could understand, never mind aspire to.
“We can stand the pain. The problem is that the troika is suggesting a ‘therapy’ which, as far as I know, is not just painful but worse than the ‘disease’,”
Quote from Varoufakis blog
@heedtracker says: 6 July, 2015 at 9:48 am:
(inhales big breath and) : –
That, heedtracker, looks to me like a bunch of cynical, sleekit, “ferrets”, who see their present, equally cynical & sleekit, MSM emplyers cutting their losses and readying P45s for the cynical & sleekit employees who now imagine the victims of their past cynical & sleekit outpourings of utter lies and omissions really are as stupid as the cynical & sleekit, “ferrets”, think they are.
(exhales big breath).
I think they may get an initial crowd fund from English NIMBYs who do not realise their ploy and who are bitterly opposed to Fracking in their back yard and who would prefer it if it was moved to the north of Britain like that nuclear deterrent thingy where, if it all goes wrong, it will only be those sweaties wot get it, and they are expendable.
After which they will have to live on whatever savings they have put away for a rainy day for the forecaster is persistent precipitation in MSM land.
@Fred says: 6 July, 2015 at 11:51 am
“I believe the Chancellor intends to crack down on non-payment of the TV license”.
You cannot crack down on non-payment of the TV Licence, Fred.
All you can legally do is crack-down on watching TV without a TV licence. If you don’t watch TV they cannot touch you. Even if you do watch TV and are over 75 you don’t have to pay. Even if you are under 75 and watch TV, they have to prove you watch TV.
Believe it or not the Establishment has indeed mooted the idiotic idea that they tax every household in the UK to fund the BBC even if they have no TV, don’t watch TV or even if TV signals cannot be received at that address.
Even more devious. Osbourne is going to make the BBC bear the cost of non payment of TV license for over 75 year olds. Scrooge.
The BBC is over extended could easily cut Channel 3 and 4 and allocate viewing on BBC 1 and 2, instead of the re run of repeats.
Stuart – each and every time you carry out one of your precision pieces like this, you should include the email address of the newspaper’s editor. Your readers could then bombard him/her with complaints. Maybe wouldn’t make a huge difference, but would be mightily inconvenient for him/her.
I suppose they’ll do a 4 page attack on the evil CyberNat from Bath this week!
O/T Our courageous Greek friends keep the pressure on!
link to keeptalkinggreece.com
@ John McLeod says at 5:14 ‘’What worries me is that what we are seeing in the media is that people in positions of responsibility, in newspapers and TV, are consciously and deliberately lying on a regular basis. Has anyone looked at the culture of these organisations, or the psychology of the people who work in them? It is one thing to monitor the media for occasional lapses where journalists make up things. It is now getting to the point where it is not possible to believe anything that you read in the mainstream media. If one story in a hundred is false or biased, then you can have confidence that most of what you read will be reasonably valid. I think we have now reached a level of false stories that it undermines the credibility of even the good, honest journalism that is still around.
In my opinion, what is behind all this is what has been described as “neoliberal” economics. This is a theory that prosperity depends on open markets and competition. However, it is a theory that in reality masks a systematic strategy of redistributing money from the poor to the rich. The domination of the political landscape by neoliberal ideas (as is happening at the moment in both the red and blue Tory parties) is therefore inevitably built on a big lie, which needs to be buttressed by lots of little lies.’’
GREAT post John. The Media is now the mouthpiece for the Financial Corporations, who have links to political parties, and use in-house psychologists to train their (some) journalists et al; arm them with strategies to meet their agenda (and normally how to keep within the law). They also attend courses locally and further afield. Take a look at the link Thepnr posted yesterday.
link to zerohedge.com
Note too that the IMF Director of Communications Department, Gerry Rice, is a Scot from the Calton area in Glasgow.
The following video highlights the profound implications of the success of Media propaganda.
War by media and the triumph of propaganda by John Pilger.
link to johnpilger.com
The Myth of the Liberal Media: The Propaganda Model of News
link to youtube.com
’GUE/NGL MEPs expressed their strong support and solidarity to SYRIZA and its policies in the run up to the forthcoming Greek parliamentary elections at the group’s meeting in Brussels today……..
A victory by SYRIZA would be a clear and historic message for change both in Greece and the whole of Europe and against the neo-liberal policies and austerity measures that have damaged social cohesion and failed to tackle the economic crisis, providing no prospects for economic recovery, growth and fighting unemployment.
The Group unanimously and strongly voiced its full opposition to the scaremongering fear campaign by certain EU officials and government leaders to influence the pre-election campaign in Greece, by suggesting scenarios of chaos and catastrophe and by bullying and inflicting terror on the Greek people in case of a victory by SYRIZA. This unprecedented interference jeopardises both the sovereignty of Greece and democracy in Europe.’
Chunky Marks take on the Greek situation:
OXI: European banks were bailed out, not the people of Greece
link to youtube.com
Greece!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
link to youtube.com
A clear-out of the Augean Stables at BBC Scotland is long overdue.
I think we all know that in reality the Telegraph newspaper,is a establishment mouthpiece, and it will continue to back the union and government anyway it sees fit.
During the Scottish referendum the Telegraph carried anti-SNP stories almost daily, I think we all know where we stand regarding the Telegraph newspaper.
As for IPSO, I for one am not surprised, at its lack of enforcement.
and as if by magic…….
link to bbc.co.uk
thanks – for being there.
I’m still stunned Carmichael is still an MP after he blatantly lied about his involvement in the whole dishonest Memogate affair.