The Times is now up to speed with the Montague Burton story with not one, not two but three articles focussed on it.
Lorraine Davidson's second piece includes the following paragraphs:
The best known nationalist supporting website, SNP Tactical Voting, is regarded as expressing mainstream views. Its author Jeff Breslin warned renegade cybernats to abandon the web over the damage they are inflicting on the party. He said: “My personal belief is, as mentioned in my previous post, blogs and new media are overall a good thing, potentially a great thing, and if you believe what you’re writing is true, fair and can be backed up then go for it but if you’re indulging in rants and venting untapped rage behind a pseudonym, then maybe you should think about another hobby.”
There was some sympathy for Mr MacLachlan, however. One contributor to SNP Tactical Voting said: “Definitely feel for Mark. I met him at a Blogger’s Breakfast at Spring Conference and briefly again at the Autumn Conference a few months ago. He came across as a thoroughly engaging and good-natured guy. In amongst hundreds of blog posts I guess it just takes one to fall wide of the mark before you can fall foul of journalists and/or opposing parties and lose your job. That’s a very tough standard to set for oneself.”
I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable being 'the best known nationalist supporting website' or having my name in the paper for that matter, particularly when the official SNP response in the article, coming right at the end, is reduced to An SNP spokesman said Mr Mac- Lachlan was no longer a member of the party. I daresay the SNP press team's press cuttings will have a red question mark against this article tomorrow morning too.
This isn't (just) a blowing of my own trumpet but it is an interesting babystep in the dynamic between blogs, newspapers and political parties in Scotland. Not that these measly two paragraphs is remotely close to the same thing, but it is perhaps fitting that this personal 'first' of mine comes on the same day that Tim Montgomerie of Conservative Home was the cause of the main story in today's Sunday Herald. It's probably also worth noting that I've had more patronage from supposed 'unionist' journalists than I have from the party I've tried to champion for almost three years. (I was somewhat bizarrely instantly rejected from being included on the party's press release mailing list a while back)
That's not necessarily a complaint. In light of this weekend I can perfectly understand the SNP not wanting anything to do with bloggers but it's an interesting nugget of information nonetheless, perhaps.
Oh well, given this newly established precarious position, I guess I'd better fall well and truly in line behind tomorrow's Referendum Bill white paper now (which I was going to do anyway, of course).
(I should note that my first mention in a newspaper story was, rather embarrassingly, in the Chester Chronicle off the back of a Twitter message I wrote when Fiona Bruce accidentally said 'orgy' on live news instead of 'mortgage'. Not exactly a baptism of fire...)
Salmond vs Trump
22 minutes ago
11 comments:
with respect, does that mean mainstream as in good enough for MSM (i fully concur) or mainstream as in representative of progressive nationalists? its just the whole anti independence thing....
It is true though; you are currently the most widely read SNP-leaning blogger.
Personally I read you every day, and my own blog contains not a few stories based on what you've said and my reaction to it.
As a Party, we need to embrace the entire net, as I said the other day on your post about that event in Edinburgh;
We do need to embrace a culture of participation, we need to interact with the voters. Gone are the days when people will come in their hundreds to drafty town halls for meetings. Nowadays, they want to sign an e-petition or join a facebook group.
Sure, some will still go to the Town Hall, but many won't and we ignore those voters at our peril.
Wondering on a completely selfish note if the shutting down of wardog and UoC, not to mention the no-doubt forthcoming shuttage of a few other SNP-leaning blogs due to fear of tabloid outing/reprisals will mean I can get my blog a bit better read…
'Spose that means I need to post more original content rather than just reactions to you and Tom Harris. Really Jeff, where do you find all this stuff. I'd love to see your regular bookmarks!
Late on, i took it as neither to be honest but rather as safe and uncontroversial. I am, perhaps regrettably, Michael MacIntyre to Wardog and Monty's Frankie
Boyle ;)
Thanks Math. I guess your logic stacks up that less blogs and same number of readers means more hits for remaining blogs but then, applying logic to the crazy beast of blogging isn't easy!
In terms of original content? It should be easy enough I like to think. There's certainly enough news at a local, national and international level to feed off and add one's opinion to but blogging can be easier if you're something of a daydreamer too ;)
I note that Cochrane at the Telegraph says the following of "Montague":
"This offender is but the public face of a pathetic bunch, commonly called the Cyber Nats, who wage a constant and often extremely nasty blog campaign against anyone who dares to disagree with them."
Unusually Cochrane does not allow comments, and he must know that the most vicious comments in the Telegraph are from those who comment favourably on his articles.
While I deplore the alleged threats to Maddox, I think this is now being turned into a campaign of vilification against SNP supporting bloggers-all except yourself and Mr Cashley, it seems :-)
I think as usual the attacks on the SNP bloggers are biased in the extreme.
Mayhaps I'm too much of a daydreamer…
Sitting watching BBC News channel for the first time in years (online streaming FTW) waiting for the unveiling of the White Paper…
I seriously hope that the Party et some better PR people soon. It's getting to the point that even *I* could do a better job….
If we don't turn the cycle back to us and get back up in the polls a bit, it won't matter who gets in next year, we'll not get back in a year later...
This is the latest unionist ploy to tarnish everyone and anything supportive of independence.
Cyberbnats are being demonised and soiled with a reputation which only a very few of them deserve.
Yet nothing is said about the barrage of anti-Scottish, anti-SNP comments we see whenever an independence story hits the headlines.
Here' the latest, from the BBC. Some of these comments are stunning for their ignorance and vile opinions of Scotland and the Scots:
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=7286&edition=2&ttl=20091130125640
Strange, though, isn't it, that absolutely no journalist will write an article pointing out the nastiness of stuff like this.
I see this attempt to demonise online independence supporters as yet another nail in the coffin of Scottish democracy which, in my opnion, has been considerably diminished under the smog of media bias against the independence campaign.
We are perfectly within our rights to campaign for independence which is a right that the vast majority of people in the world already have.
What we're seeing now is a witch hunt, an attempt to flush the internet clean of the support for independence that is so abundently there.
In addition to above, I think the general idea of the uninionist is to make people in Scotland feel guilty about wanting independence so that, in the end, we feel shamed into giving up the idea.
All the accusations of being nasty, xenophic, English-haters, and all the rest.
It's designed to make us feel ashamed and meek and to defuse any desire we might have for being a normal independent country.
The recent acceleration of anti-independence, anti-SNP hysteria in the media has left me feeling sick to the stomach, not so much because the desire for independence is being extinguish bit by bit, but because I no longer feel I live in a free democratic country where my voice is as important as anyone else's.
Congrats on being quoted in the Thunderer, Jeff!
I take the word mainstream to mean merely moderate, since you're far too off-message to be regarded as representative of the mainstream SNP line, which is probably why the party won't really engage with you, and long may it continue ;0)
And given the control freakery associated with the the modern political process and news management, that's probably why in general terms the party gives the blogosphere a bit of a body swerve - it would be like herding cats, thus better to concentrate on what they can control.
This would be your cue to call someone a cunt.
Argh Jeff,warmly praised by David Maddox.
I'm not sure if that's an achievement or not.
Post a Comment