Biased Reporting

[AlenWatters]

I must apologise in advance for stirring up a hornets nest, but there is a question I must ask:

Why does the mainstream press in Scotland, and the UK as a whole continue to be so unbelievably biased when reporting on the SNP?

Beyond the fact that there is not a single newspaper in the country that represents the views of an increasingly significant part of the population, why must each small setback for the party be seen as a huge one, and each small progression seen as grave threat to the stability of the country?

My question springs from this story in the Times today, a paper which I would have hitherto seen as being reasonably even-handed (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/commen ... ng_article). Here, a drop of 4 points from the last poll, which we in the party would even say was optimistic, is seen as the wheels coming off the bandwagon! Jesus! The Lib Dems go up 3 and they become capable of giving us the First Minister! The poll is infact pretty consistent with all those that have gone before in the last couple of weeks, the optimistic Mail on Sunday one and the quite frankly flawed Herlad/mruk one notwithstanding.

The leader is even worse : http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/commen ... 680247.ece

Somehow the fact that we are still ahead of everyone else, despite all the shit that has been thrown means we are on to a loser.

So - do all you unionists out there believe that this is our fault for being such bottom feeding scum, or can you see where I'm coming from here?

[hr]

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~snpsoc/

[Irish Frank]

I've always found the Herald, as the most popular Scottish broadsheet, sympathetic to the SNP. I don't know why you're expecting the Murdoch Tory Times to support you.

The reasons you are "ahead of everyone else" are:

1) Jack McConnell's poor leadership
2) Iraq
3) Bad memories of World Cup Scottish-English tension from last summer

Not promising for the independence referendum is it?

[Tweedle-Dum]

Maybe it's because their bias sells newspapers, in the way that dissing Tories in Scotland does the same. Or are you under the mistaken impression that newspapers aren't interested in profit?

[hr]

Tetragrammaton is a four letter word.

[exnihilo]

It's treacherous and un-Scottish to not support the SNP who despite only ever managing about 1/3 of the popular vote are the only party to truly represent the people of Scotland.

[Iain]

From what I've been hearing, a good number of SNP members who used to follow the Herald now do not as it has given up on what was a relatively neutral stance and is now being sympathetic to the Lib Dems/Labour (allegedly)

No newspaper is under any obligation to follow a particular political party and I think that the influence of the newspaper ownership is the key factor (The Herald a particular example given their changing appearance). Secondary to this is the region - the Press and Journal has always been fairer, being an Aberdeen-North/North-East paper. The Scotsman seems to have run an entire series of little petty, jokey short pieces on potential SNP slip-ups. And of course the tabloids are spouting their usual.

It is a crying shame that there is no SNP-leaning paper in this country, but there is no divine right, something that the SNP just have to work with.

Exnihilo, this was a serious thread! Shouldn't it strike you as odd (for ANY country) that there is no national newspaper supporting the opposition party?

[hr]

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~snpsoc

[exnihilo]

Supporting AN opposition party. Not THE opposition. I do wish people would stop aggrandising the SNP. Do you see all the unionist parties being against them as a conspiracy as well??

Should a paper be obliged to support them? Would you legislate that? What are you suggesting? Are the papers being paid off, leant on, somehow influenced not to support the SNP?

Honestly, what is the actual allegation here, and what is your proposed solution?

[Iain]

As to what constitutes an opposition, I am merely pointing out that the SNP form by far the largest party that is not in Government at Holyrood.

No, no newspaper should be "obliged" to support any party. It's not state media. No I wouldn't legislate. Papers, through their ownership and to some extent their readership, sway towards a certain party. I would argue that there is more to be gained from supporting a large UK party in terms of influence and indeed credit from government, but my main point is not allegation. It's not something that any democratic society should do, to censor the press.

I, if I had the vast sums of money, would buy out one of the national papers and start being neutral or SNP-leaning. There's no rich SNP supporter who would do that at this time. The market, in my opinion, is saturated enough, a new SNP-leaning newspaper wouldn't work (Scottish Standard, for example).

One aside, if the parties were to club together against Alex Salmond being first minister, then it would be a conspiracy to kill off the SNP. That's politics for you.

[hr]

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~snpsoc

[Steveo]

There is no government, or oposition at the moment in Scotland. There are no MSPs at the moment, as parliament has been dissolved.

[hr]

Get off my internet.

[thePontificator]

Quoting Steveo from 13:45, 20th Apr 2007
There is no government, or oposition at the moment in Scotland. There are no MSPs at the moment, as parliament has been dissolved.

[hr]

Get off my internet.

Sweet Jesus that's pedantic.

As for the paper's allegiance - if the SNP dominate the election I'm sure at least one paper will swing over to their support if they want to appeal to the majority.

[Steveo]

Well, the choice is limited, as it'd have to be a Scottish circulation only paper, so that rules out all the usual suspects, except The Scotsman The Herald for the most part. Even then, I think they'd hold off showing support for an untested party for a while, esecially seeing as how the SNP probably aren't going to have an overall majority in parliament.

[hr]

Get off my internet.

[Frank]

Quoting thePontificator from 14:36, 20th Apr 2007
Sweet Jesus that's pedantic.

Yummy Sinnery-goodness! MmmmmMmmm!

[hr]

"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."

[Senethro]

10 points to steveo.

[Colin]

Quoting Iain from 11:06, 20th Apr 2007
No, no newspaper should be "obliged" to support any party. It's not state media. No I wouldn't legislate. Papers, through their ownership and to some extent their readership, sway towards a certain party.

The media is out to make money. If they thought that the majority of Scotland favoured the SNP, then they would too - as you say, they are at least in part swayed by their readership. So maybe the fact that they don't show a pro-SNP bias would imply that there is not the countrywide SNP support that you imagine there is?

[ascii]

Bump.

Today's Sunday Herald editorial is an interesting read. Not an endorsement of independence, but an endorsement of a coalition led by Alex Salmond.

http://www.sundayherald.com/election2007/election2007/display.var.1362928.0.0.php

Flicking through the Sunday papers here in the South West of England, I find it depressing how little comment there is on Thursday's election. It looks like we will wake up on Friday with the SNP as the largest party in Holyrood. I saw next to nothing about this in either of the papers (Observer, Sunday Times) that I looked at. There's more about the presidential elections in France.

[oddly familiar]

Quoting ascii from 14:47, 29th Apr 2007
Bump.

Today's Sunday Herald editorial is an interesting read. Not an endorsement of independence, but an endorsement of a coalition led by Alex Salmond.

http://www.sundayherald.com/election2007/election2007/display.var.1362928.0.0.php

Flicking through the Sunday papers here in the South West of England, I find it depressing how little comment there is on Thursday's election. It looks like we will wake up on Friday with the SNP as the largest party in Holyrood. I saw next to nothing about this in either of the papers (Observer, Sunday Times) that I looked at. There's more about the presidential elections in France.

Well Where I'm sitting France is a hell of a lot closer than scotland... But no, it does seem odd that there is so little comment on it at all.

[hr]

saru mo ki kara ochiru

[ryan]

Good point Alen, I've really noticed this as well. Actually I just saw an article in the Guardian about this- http://politics.guardian.co.uk/scotland/story/0,,2068748,00.html


Exnihilo- I believe that the allegation is that historically, the print media doesn't even approach neutrality on the subject (until yesterday at least). Although I do hate to stop you once you're on one of your famous Nat bashing runs.

[exnihilo]

What does neutrality have to do with the printed media? You can ask for that from the BBC but not from a commercial newspaper - if they don't support the SNP then they have sound reasons not to. I simply don't follow your point...

[Eliot Wilson]

Quoting Steveo from 13:45, 20th Apr 2007
There is no government, or oposition at the moment in Scotland. There are no MSPs at the moment, as parliament has been dissolved.

I'm not an expert on the devolution settlement, but I'd be surprised if all the ministers have resigned their offices during the election campaign. Certainly, ministers at Westminster do not do so. So there is certainly a government.

[hr]

Bill and Ted beat the Grim Reaper at Twister

Bill: "You played very well, Death, especially with your totally heavy Death robes."

Death: "Don't patronise me."

[[James]]

Quoting Eliot Wilson from 21:18, 30th Apr 2007

Quoting Steveo from 13:45, 20th Apr 2007
There is no government, or oposition at the moment in Scotland. There are no MSPs at the moment, as parliament has been dissolved.

I'm not an expert on the devolution settlement, but I'd be surprised if all the ministers have resigned their offices during the election campaign. Certainly, ministers at Westminster do not do so. So there is certainly a government.

Er, no, there isn't.
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/index.htm

[exnihilo]

They cease to be members of the Parliament, but do they cease to be Her Majesty's ministers? She appointed them, has not dismissed them, and will not replace them until after the election. Again, I don't know for certain, but it seems likely that would be the case.