Scottish Independence Guide: The Scottish Media
The sheer hypocrisy of the 'Scottish' press. The London owned Sun's short lived conversion to independence in 1992 and it's alarmist headline in 2007.
'Scottish' Television News Despite both Labour and the Liberal Democratic parties including broadcasting as a required power in the plans drawn up by the Scottish Constitutional Convention (the Devolution Convention) the powers were removed before the devolution bill was enacted. Broadcasting is one of the powers specifically excluded from the Scottish Parliament under the Scotland Act. It is also now known that Tony Blair conspired with John Birt (then BBC Director General) to block an attempt to have a Scottish 6 O'Clock News. Broadcasting is therefore still wholly controlled in London, even after devolution with some regional news programmes like 'North (of England) Tonight' or it's equivalent 'Scotland Today'. There is also a Scottish bit clumsily tagged on to the BBC's news discussion programme 'Newsnight' and there are a number of small political programmes produced by BBC Scotland. The main news however comes from ITN and the BBC and is very much English orientated. In terms of political coverage everything is based around the big three (London controlled) political parties, Labour, Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. This is particularly obvious during Westminster (UK) elections but filters through all news coverage.
Almost all of the newspapers and news programmes are quite openly biased against the whole concept of independence, not only the fake 'Scottish' papers (see below) but also the few genuinely Scottish papers. See also this illuminating article (from the Saltire Magazine) by a former Herald News Editor which goes into more detail in this regard. Scottish Newspapers (Note: Most of Scotland's papers are now in 'tabloid' format, but for the purposes of convenience, the terms 'broadsheet' and 'tabloid' are used for the newspapers which were so traditionally) Scottish tabloids Daily Record (or Daily Retard as it is sometimes termed by Scottish nationalists). This is a Glasgow based paper, mainly read by people for the sport. It has the best claim to be a truly national (as opposed to local) tabloid, but its slogan that 'Real Scots read the Record' is probably undermined by the fact that many of its stories are anti-Scottish. Its relationship with the Labour party (and STV) is just a wee bit too cosy. Former editors include ex-Scottish Secretary Helen Liddell, aka 'Stalin's Granny', and nat basher, now in Australian diplomatic exile. In 2006, it was revealed that the Record received more than £900,000 worth of business, from the Labour led Scottish executive while its nearest rival, the 'Scottish' Sun secured £40,000, and the Executive spent less than £50,000 with the Herald. The 'Retard' now also publishes a free version of the paper in Edinburgh along similar lines to the Metro. West Highland Free Press (WHFP/Am Paipear beag) - As the name implies, this is essentially a local paper but one of the better produced ones. It was founded by Labour MP Brian Wilson, amongst others, whose political ambitions soon alienated non-Labour colleagues. Naturally because of this, it too has touted for Labour in the north west, often unsuccessfully. Wilson also used his connections to send Gaelic funding its way. Nonetheless, this paper often contains interesting cultural articles, and its sports section is impressive for such a small paper.
The Sunday
Post - although associated with older
people, has one of the highest circulations of any of the tabloids in
Scottish broadsheets The Scotsman - This is the Edinburgh broadsheet. Although it claims to be 'Scotland's national newspaper', it actually has a lower circulation than the P&J. Also in recent years, it has taken a Tory stance, despite the Conservatives being the fourth party in Scotland. Many lament its demise post-Andrew Neil's editorship. Scotland on Sunday (SOS) is its stablemate. The Herald - Formerly The Glasgow Herald. This is the rival broadsheet, and probably has the best claim to be Scotland's 'quality daily'. Its political coverage is less biased than most of the others, and this is your best bet if you are looking for decent stories, and writing. On the downside, it's never been very good for sport. It also has a Sunday version. Press and Journal (P&J) - As with the other two, the P&J is intimately connected with a particular city, in this case Aberdeen. It actually has the biggest circulation of any of the Scottish broadsheets, so should not be underestimated. It tends to be read in the north east, although it has expanded westward in recent times, and has a major readership as far south as Stirling. This is a blessing and a curse - its writing is often provincial, but you will also find stories in here that you won't in the Central Belt papers. The Courier - formerly The Dundee Courier, this paper tends to be dully written. In recent years, it has seen an improvement in content, away from a more advertising based format into an article led one. It has been accused of being biased towards Labour in the past, although this is much less blatant than the Glasgow papers. British tabloids Most of the British tabloids share one thing. Since the mid-1990s, they have called themselves 'Scottish' this, that and the other, but they are essentially London run papers, with a cover and a couple of inside pages produced here (which they cynically term 'putting a kilt' on the news). They can be neatly divided into 'yahbloids' (Daily Mail, Daily Express) and the rest. Their sports sections usually concentrate on English football, and the 'Auld Firm' (Celtic and Rangers), together with horse racing (for betters), and the odd piece of cricket or rugby. 'Scottish' Daily Express - Once a powerful paper under the control of Lord Beaverbrook, the Express is little more than a poor man's Daily Mail now. In its English edition, it tends to print many anti-Scottish (and anti-Welsh) stories, which are left out of the Scottish edition. It is rumoured that the whole Express group might be about to support independence, if this is true we hope it lasts longer than the Suns conversion. 'Scottish' Daily Mail - Most of what applies to The Express applies to the Mail. Its chief interests are illegal immigrants, 'law 'n order', 'womb-tremblers' (i.e. scare stories) and suburbia. It is sometimes called 'the paper that the boss' wife reads', and there is no small truth in this. It formerly used to print anti-independence scare stories. Today, its line tends to be that an independent Scotland could survive, but it would be wrong for it to do so. 'Scottish' Daily Mirror - Like the Sun, this newspaper doesn't contain much news. Instead, you can read about not very well known 'celebrities', soap operas, and the odd scare story. It used to be left leaning. Many people read it mainly for the football. Like the rest of the British tabloids, and the Record falling sales have forced it to give away freebies, mainly DVDs and CDs, and lower its cover price. The Sport - There is little to this paper apart from soft pornography. It used to contain 'funnies' on the lines of America's Weekly World News, but eventually it gave up on these too. There is little politics in here, and even the 'sport' part tends to be pretty narrow. 'Scottish' Sun - The Sun tends to concentrate on much the same as the Mirror. It is best known for printing pictures of topless young women. In the mid-1990s, it went through a phase of pretending to support Scottish independence. Many read it for the football, and racing. News of the World is the Sunday equivalent. Metro – A chirpy, free paper that reads as if it has been written by hyperactive yuppies, Metro seems to be barely aware of Scottish devolution. As its name implies, it is only available in the big cities, usually on public transport. However, despite being “dumbed down”, it avoids the sleaziness of certain other British tabloids. From the same stable as The Daily Mail but with a less obviously right wing viewpoint in it's news coverage. The letters page however has numerous anonymous writers who all seem to either share an unusually fascistic agenda. The few independence supporting letters are written by obvious morons designed to damage the cause. The
People – Another trashy
tabloid, this time without much of a readership in
“Scottish” Daily Star – Women and football. Not much else and not even as entertaining as The Sun. British broadsheets
Most of the British broadsheets (except
the Guardian), are
Financial Times – Not to be confused with The Times, this paper comes printed on distinctive copper-coloured paper. As its name implies, it is aimed at businessmen, and stock market traders, but recently has started to report more and more non-financial/economic news items.
The Guardian
– formerly
The Manchester Guardian, it has
in the words of Anthony Burgess “chosen the wrong form of radicalism”. Read
by the cocktail and coffee house set, it likes to pretend to be left wing.
While it has rightly exposed certain matters in
The Independent – Although its name states its “independence”, it is sometimes questionable. Since transference to tabloid format, its cover has tended to be dominated by a single story, with the headline occupying much of the page. The Telegraph – Best known for its crossword (like the Times), you might want to read this for the “sudoku”. Contains frequent spelling errors, and traditional style right wing opinion. Old timers claim it has become increasingly “dumbed down”.
The
Times – A
Evening Papers
Most
urbanised areas of
Evening
Express – A fairly uninteresting local
paper, but one with a largish geographical spread, being read fifty miles
west of
Evening
News – Read over much of the
Lothians, and parts of
Evening
Standard – This is the
Evening
Times –
Brit left rags
These are produced by various
What they tend to share in common is a dislike
of “nationalism” deliberately confusing the imperial kind with the self
determination kind. While they propose liberation for places such as Iraq,
Chiapas etc, as long as they are not nearby, you will find that they are
highly critical of devolution and/or independence for the Scots and Welsh.
Most have done u-turns on the Irish question within the last thirty years,
and it’s possible they may do the same regarding
Special interest
Other papers include,
An Gàidheal Ùr (all Gaelic,
monthly), Jewish papers such as the Jewish
Chronicle (
There are also papers for the Irish diaspora,
the gay and lesbian community, the green movement etc, mostly based in
A full listing of Scottish papers available online is here Scottish pro-independence magazines are available here Read (former Glasgow Herald Editor) Murray Ritchie's article about politics and the press Join the mediawatch email group (which monitors anti-independence bias in the Scottish press) by sending an email with the subject ‘subscribe’ to: mediawatch2007@aol.com
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Channel
Four's news is produced by ITN as well and there is no attempt to introduce a
Scottish dimension into their news coverage.
