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Thursday, March 11, 2010

Whyte & MacLie - lets drink to the death of the press


The scent of an election has our 'free' press scraping every last barrel for a story that they can spin into propaganda, chiefly for one of London's two ugly sisters. Hitherto, things have being going swimmingly for the Tories. After months of tickling the evil Rupert Murdoch's chocolate starfish with his nose, David Cameron sees the bulk of the News Corporation behind his collection of rosy cheeked and rotund old Etonians.

The Daily Mail is in schwein heaven with the thought that a bunch of Bullingdon boys could soon be in power. The DM would seriously love to throw its weight behind the heidbangers of UKIP (am i dyslexic, or do i really read 'PUKE' when i see that written?) but so far, the PUKE are pretty much unelectable, save for one or two seats at the EU level. The DM would love to support the BNP in a throwback to the 30s when it supported Mosely and the Blackshirts and the DM proudly saw some of it's text find its way into official Nazi propaganda. But, i guess that the official BritNats are still too dodgy and too liable to implode due to the volatile mix of out and out racist knuckledraggers, private school toffs, closet homosexuals and now... blecks that makes up its membership.

Whatever. The press continues to play the fear card. The DM continues to foam at the mouth about the usual targets: immigrants, the BBC, single mothers, gays, Islamists, foreigners, the EU, Gaelic telly, asylum seekers and... hell, even atheists and scientists are in their firing line now! Needless to say, statistics and evidence is in short supply. For more info on the DM and its misuse of statistics or sheer downright evilness, check out the Straight Statistics blog and the straight to the point Daily Mail Watch.

In Scotland, we have our own Daily Mail which goes under the name of the Scotsman. Joking aside, it is actually quite similar. Not least in the skeletons it has in its dowdy conservative New Town cupboard. Whereas the DM supported Fascism in the 30s, the Hootsmon supported the Highland Clearances in the 19th century. This support for loony landlordism earned it the title of 'Daily Liar' in the Gaidhealtachd. To its credit, it has printed weekly Gaelic columns for decades. However, its pro-Labour and ludicrous anti-SNP scaremongering has reached new depths in recent years. "SNP accused..." is a favourite starter. This week saw it trumpet Whyte and Mackays announcement that it would pull out of Scotland if the SNP's plans for minimum pricing on alcohol went through. The next day though saw W&M claim that its protestations had been misunderstood and that only UK-wide, and hence non-SNP inspired, legislation would force its hand.

Predicament for da Hootsmon. With no press-releases forthcoming from Labour HQ, the story disappeared quicker than a Labour MPs principles. Hootsmon 'journalists' such as David Maddox are now so hated that no comments are allowed on his articles. I hasten to use the word 'journalist' here, for this guy is certainly no John Pilger. We do have a 'Scotsman Watch' in the shape of the aforementioned Pseudepigrapha. One can understand that i was more than chuffed to see that the Hootsmon's owners are losing money quicker than Carol Vorderman can embarrass herself on Question Time. See the BBC for more info at 'Johnston Press profits fall sharply'.

The press makes much of its declining sales and makes pleas for tax payer handouts. Aye right... if i want to read partisan rants and propaganda, i need only read some blogs for free. Do the likes of Murdoch, the Daily Mail and the Scotsman think we will pay to have our intelligence insulted? I look forward to an independent Scotland, not because of a pro-SNP bias or a love for Alex Salmond but because the London government is backward, corrupt and expensive. Its a layer of government that we don't need. Time to clear the scum from our pond, starting with the tabloid press.

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