The Green Ink Gang: Fake Views on Fake News

Edinburgh Evening News, 25/01/18

I’d like to respond to the regular tag-team contributors Keith Linton and Councillor Scott Arthur who jointly attacked the SNP’s recent party political broadcast which apparently lampooned a political columnist. I say apparently as many of the complaints which have been voiced can’t actually decide who the supposed butt of the joke is. Being a boring, tweedy, beardy politically obsessed bore, the character “Davey” could be almost anyone. In fact I’m surprised there aren’t more people lining up to claim that they are “Davey”.

Mr Arthur’s claims that this is Trump like behaviour, before going on to try to link it to Russia Today and online abuse. His letter was a British Nationalist bingo full house, rounding off with a defence of the discredited BBC. On the basis of the last few years of news coverage the criticism of the BBC as a sometime purveyor of fake news is more than warranted, and instances of its manipulation of news are well documented, the film “London Calling” by Alan Knight and GA Ponsonby being an excellent summary of why a little scepticism of the media is warranted.

Perhaps Mr Arthur could confine his criticisms of the SNP to documentable and verifiable topics in future. More facts, less fictions please

Letter to The National: Trident and Trolls

Submitted to The National, 07/11/15

Dear Sir,

I read Keith Howell’s letter in The National where he said those MSP’s who supported Trident should not be seen as pro WMD, but as multilateral disarmists, and I noted Brian Quails response where he states that Mr Howell’s view is “hideously wrong”.

Readers should perhaps be aware of Mr Howell’s history. He regularly points out his perceived evils of Scottish nationalism to newspapers across Scotland and the globe: In 2014 he personally took out a full page advert in the Metro newspaper where he railed against Scottish independence, he runs a hardline unionist website, where he describes himself as a “moderate provocateur”. I feel that I would not be wrong in saying that rocks would melt under the sun before he found a positive case for anything which advanced the cause of Scottish nationalism or indeed was complementary of any policy advanced by a nationalist party, and that The National would in future be better using the room wasted on his words, which are at all times against the very cause which brought this paper into being, to continue to print views which collectively discuss how we can shape and bring about a better Scotland.

If I want to read views such as Mr Howells there are plenty other newspapers I can read, and I choose not to. Mr Howells actions in writing to the National are the same as those people who seek out online pro-independence discussions to disrupt them, in modern parlance ‘trolling’. The National should remember the number one rule in this sphere: do not feed the trolls.

Yours,
James Cassidy

 

Do Not Feed The Trolls

Letter To The National, 21/09/15

Dear Sir,

I read Keith Howell’s letter in Mondays National where he said that while there appeared to be a “positive and hopeful spirit amongst your readership”, that as a No voter no-one was making any attempt to change his mind. Mr Howells prodigious letter writing has not gone unnoticed . He regularly points out his perceived evils of Scottish nationalism to newspapers across Scotland and the globe: he took out a full page advert in the Metro newspaper last year against Scottish independence, he runs a hardline unionist website, yet describes himself as a “moderate provocateur”. I feel that I would not be wrong in saying that rocks would melt under the sun before he found a positive case for Scottish nationalism, and that The National would in future be better using the room wasted on his words, which are at all times against the very cause which brought this paper into being, to continue to print the positive case Mr Howell claims he seeks. Mr Howells actions in writing to the National are the same as those people who seek out online pro-independence discussions to disrupt them, in modern parlance ‘trolling’. The National should remember the number one rule in this sphere: do not feed the trolls.

Yours,

James Cassidy