Oh dear, David Maddox isn't half scraping the barrel this morning:
THE SNP has invited one of Scotland's leading bloggers to host talks on how to get a grip on its increasingly negative profile on the web, The Scotsman has learned.
Jeff Breslin, author of the SNP Tactical Voting website and a contributor to The Scotsman's Steamie, has revealed that he is to meet members of the party's media team this week to discuss blogging.
100% not true. I'm not actually due to meet anyone party-related this week or any week thereafter.
A simple lesson for me here though is that giving people the benefit of the doubt and taking them at face value is not always the appropriate and honourable course of action I tend to think it is. Dimming down the sunny, wide-eyed optimism when people will happily shoot you down is well worthwhile.
While David Maddox will happily go for a chummy game of backgammon with bloggers of other parties, for those in the SNP he will take a comment, twist it for all it's worth and hang the consequences.
If that's the measure of the man then his cries for sympathy will fall on deaf ears from now on I'm afraid.
And anyway, I think it's pretty clear that by naively giving my fellow Steamie contributor a bit of rope to hang me with, it's abundantly clear I'm no "expert". I screwed up, I can admit that; shot my mouth off for a moment and had it blow up in my face, but if you learn from your mistakes they make you stronger I suppose...
Salmond vs Trump
3 minutes ago
26 comments:
Oh dear.
But it is reported in a newspaper, so it is a story. I expect you're not going to see a lot of love from the SNP press office today.
I think you should pay Mr Maddox a little visit. Branch out into Vlogging.
ouch Jeff, at this rate we'll find out tomorrow that you're the chump who put in his windows!
Truly disgusting behaviour by Maddox. Truly disgusting.
And, in the meantime, it seems that leading unionists can peddle their abuse on the internet with impunity:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article6936891.ece
Not a word of this have I seen in the Scottish media.
Surprising, given the stature of the man in question.
And yet a mere aide to an SNP minister get's a slaughtering.
Incredible.
You are absolutely right about Maddox.
His "news" reports are blatantly anti-SNP and that is quite simply not acceptable journalism.
"I've run what I like to think is a fairly decent SNP blog for nearly three years and haven't heard a peep from the press team except being ordered to take a post or two down."
"
Did you really say that? and would you actually take down a blog post if ordered to by the SNP press office?
Tavish Scott seems to think that your blogger's breakfast 'blows apart' the SNP response to Mark McLaughlan's errors of judgment - The response where he resigned; not sure what Tavish expects really...
Wonder what they'll make of you 'hosting' evenings in the pub though?
"SNP hypocrite encourages Edinburgh drinking session!!!" hmmm, do 3 exclamataion marks adequately capture the outrage? ;-)
Hi Jeff,
Your situation just got worse, as for the first time ever, i`ve decided to contact your blog(in fact, any blog!) to persuade you not to change your style or substance on the back of some two bit hacks inability to recognise truth.
You can console yourself that your "honourable course of action" has at least flushed one web lurker(myself) to the surface in support of your cause.
Excellent blog,keep up the good work!
Regards
Mal
Is it me or are journalists having a hard time seeing the difference of a blog that has maybe a few hundred readers, compared to a national newspaper that has a few tens of thousands?
I didn't think the scotsman could stoop any lower but it now appears that they are on there belly.
Does nayone reember the 'unionistas'?
Grahamski
Rufus
Sm753
The Brain
Tinman
8%
SW1
Kimba
Proud to be Scottish
Baffled
Hamish McKroptkin
Sam
Natty Dread
Aurora
Exiled Aussie
Spoonsy
Jonny Bond
Willie Forbes
Van Helsing Natslayer
Keira Hardie
Hanoi Jane
St George
English Voice
danbob
Oh the anguish and wringing of hands......
"Maddox gets his facts wrong"
Sums it up.
Maddox might have got his facts wrong or was it just wishful thinking on his part?
Remember Maddox did call you one of the good guys so don't be too harsh on him.
Jeff you wrote..
"100% not true. I'm not actually due to meet anyone party-related this week or any week thereafter."
..
I might be reading this wrong but I get the view you are meeting someone?? but just not party related so Maddox might be onto something right enough..
Anyway there are some good SNP bloggers out there so what Maddox has written appears not to be a bad idea.
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Blogged-down-in-scandal-SNP.5871028.jp
The comments you provide here are singularly unhelpful to the nationalist cause.
However, it has emerged from Mr Breslin's blog that Mr MacLachlan attended a bloggers' breakfast at the SNP's spring conference.
Who does that help?
"I've run what I like to think is a fairly decent SNP blog for nearly three years and haven't heard a peep from the press team except being ordered to take a post or two down."
So it sounds like the SNP do indeed run 'the bloggers' when in reality they don't.
This is your biog on the steamy:
http://www.scotsman.com/CustomPages/CustomPage.aspx?PageID=75793
Despite joining the SNP a year ago, inspired mainly by the Scottish Futures Trust and Free School Meals policies, Jeff remains undecided on the thorny question of independence.
So the Scotsman have managed to find the only 'pro SNP' blogger who doesn't actually unambiguously support independence. Who also has a remarkable array of friends among the unionists:
"not as partisan as you might think, well-written and informative." Tom Harris - Labour MP
"I particularly enjoyed this blog during election time due to Jeff’s number crunching ability but it seems his blog has turned into quite an impressive political and social commentary." Scottish Tory Boy
"SNP sympathiser with very little sympathy when the Nats properly cock up. Rational debater free from the shackles of internal Holyrood blogging. Very readable with just the right personal touch." Kezia Dugdale
I've been toying with the idea of standing for the SNP in Lewisham for a while...I a convinced that it would be a worthwhile venture to highlight constitutional anomalies...
im still confused here, did jeff meet people from the press office? id say i can vouch that no one at the top knew about mark because the second that any researchers blog beecomes an issue for the powers that be, they get a sharp e-mail in their inbox.
as for jeff's "revelation" about the bloggers breakfast, that was by no means an official party event, osama attended in a personal capacity, there was a labour memeber there, but it seems that jeff was using his own experience of a man in the press, as we would all do. ive always thought the SNP could do with "hiring" someone for new media (i could be wrong, but i think stephen glenn does it for the lib dems), but im certain jeff wouldnt want to do it. seems he made a few comments to a paper that got misrepresented that he was the saviour of the SNP new media operation, that the snp doesnt have a new media operation is lamentable, but i dont think a very independent (pardon the pun) member like jeff would be up for his blog getting "called in"
Hmm do I recall saying that I thought this steamie revamp was a bad idea?
'Never sup the devil' - maybe that is a good phrase that springs to mind.
You are clearly more powerful than you think Jeff. If you shout does Alex jump? Now that is the question. ;)
I was speaking to a chap yesterday who conducts research into terrorism cases and the (fraught) relationship between the media and practitioners. Quoting one of his interviews, a lawyer said to him, roughly speaking, that when dealing with journalists you have to be careful - and realise that they aren't talking to you because of any of your qualities, or because they have an innocent interest in you and yours - but their beady eyes are fixed on the story.
Although you are obviously in a less contentious position that a lawyer representing state or terrorist suspect - the interviewee's lawyerly wisdom clearly applies.
Watch your step Mr Breslin, I'd hate to see you wake up to find yourself styled as a ranting cybernat, orchestrating a spittle-flecked defamation campaign on the morrow!
Yes Jeff, a lesson learned I think. When I was around your age I had a run-in with a journalist. A friend then told me 'a journalist views no one as a friend but as a potential story'.
I learned my lesson then too and I would no more talk with a journalist than vote labour.
Now perhaps we all realise the present art of some Scottish political journalists and as Lallands says watch your step.
You, like Bruce Newlands, have completely exposed your identity yet comment on those who prefer to be anonymous. Maybe now a little more understanding will be given to those who prefer to use a pseudonym.
It could have been worse Jeff so don't let it get you down too much.
Stick to your guns, Jeff.
I've always been dubious about the Scotsman's 'Steamie' site, as it seems to me to confirm that the mindsets behind their political coverage are simply anti SNP.
Naive, I suppose, to expect even-handedness from David Maddox and his colleagues, but confirming their bias through a blog seems to me to undermine any credibility they might have as journalists.
Sadly, as far as David is concerned, the words 'ecce homo' apply.
Jeff, I've done a post on this on my blog, but in essence I've posed the following questions:
1 What precisely did you say to David Maddox?
2 What were the circumstances surrounding your meeting with Mark MacLachlan/Montague Burton at the bloggers' breakfast? Did you know who he was?
3 What precisely were the circumstances surrounding the SNP ordering you to take down posts?
Subrosa:
"You, like Bruce Newlands, have completely exposed your identity yet comment on those who prefer to be anonymous. Maybe now a little more understanding will be given to those who prefer to use a pseudonym."
Subrosa, I've asked you this before, but since you didn't answer the quetion last time round, I'll ask you again - are you supposed to be anonymous?
OK, the Marlene Detriech photo clearly isn't you, but presumably that's your photo at the top of the page, and thus lots of people must know who you are?
And even if people don't know you by sight, surely you've given out enough personal info for anyone interested to be able to work your identity out?
I can't imagine why you would be the least bit bothered by this. Half of what the Scotsman writes on any given day is a lie or at least a very warped version of the truth.
It is ironic that while many see the mainstream media and bloggers as being in competition, many bloggers seem to adopt the same approach as the mainstream media; personalities, gossip, wildl interpretations of facts and general sensationalism.
You avoid that. You are a good, thoughtful and sensible blogger.
I am sure the SNP press office do love you!
Jeff I don't know the background to this story and don't share the opinion of many Nationalists on media bias but could I just say I am a big fan of you blog.
I disagree with what you say quite regularly and a not backward about saying so but always respect your small 'i' independence and integrity and long may that continue.
stuart winton,
as for 2?
there weren't really any organisational circumstances, it was an open invitation.
as for mark, we didnt know who he was, but he was personable, and left early, and paid more than his fair share of the bill, if thats enough of a conspiracy!
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