The Beeb is no stranger to controversy, and now pro-independence Scottish newspaper the National is on the warpath. The editor of the secessionist journal has taken to Twitter to fume after the BBC’s business editor described her august paper as ‘propaganda’ multiple times on one of the broadcaster’s own podcasts. Talk about saying the quiet part aloud, eh?
The podcast in question is the BBC’s Media Show, featuring an interview with BBC Scotland business editor Douglas Fraser. The offending clip first features discussions of the 2014 indyref’s tenth anniversary before considering the impact of the independence debate on newspaper subscriptions. ‘One title,’ Fraser began, ‘with a strong propaganda approach to supporting independence, the National – a sister paper to the Herald, based in Glasgow – makes some waves politically through its propaganda.’ Perhaps referencing the newspaper’s dwindling circulation of, er, 3,000, Fraser added: ‘But it doesn’t suggest there’s much to be gained commercially from taking sides.’ Burn…
Safe to say the staff at the pro-indy paper are rather furious about the whole thing – and have now turned the tables on the public service broadcaster. The paper’s editor has taken to social media to question whether the Beeb may have even broken its own impartiality promises on the issue, raging: ‘I would love to know how this passes the BBC’s impartiality standards, frankly. Appalling standard of commentary. Your listeners deserve better.’ Don’t hold back! Meanwhile general secretary of Alex Salmond’s anti-Union Alba party Chris McEleny insisted: ‘If the BBC want to go on some sort of McPravda rant then they should be impartial and call out the blatant pro-Labour propaganda in union-supporting newspapers.’ Ouch.
Mr S would remind readers it was not so long ago that the Nat-obsessed journal decided to splash a rather controversial Anglo-bashing cartoon across its cover that had even Scotland’s staunchest nationalists cringing. Its ‘Bravissimo Heart’ Italy-over-England football front page received a similar reaction in 2021, while its Sturgeon-lauding indyref2 campaign page in 2022 was hardly, um, subtle. Confected outrage, anyone?
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