[SHOCKER] EXTRAORDINARY MEDIA BIAS BEFORE VOTE “[They are] addicted to welfare ... Scots embraced the something for nothing society” Simon Heffer The Spectator “What spoilt, selfish, childlike fools those Scots are ... They simply don’t have a clue how lucky they are. Melanie Reid The Times The use of evidence from sources other than the parties themselves and which might be presented as ‘independent’, ‘academic’ or ‘scientific’ is a measure of quality in political debate. Notably, there was very little use of such evidence in the reporting overall and, where there was, there was clear tendency to use anti-independence over pro-independence evidence. Though a rare phenomenon overall, reporting tended to link pro-independence evidence from Scottish Government sponsored committees to their sponsorship while UK advisory groups such as the Office for Budget Responsibility, The Institute for Fiscal Studies and several Parliamentary, Treasury, or House of Lords committees were typically treated as independent despite linkages to UK government and other government departments or units with a vested interest in the union. Indeed the IFS was referred to as a ‘well-respected think tank’ (Reporting Scotland, 19/11/12) whereas a Glasgow University academic was ‘outed’ as having been ‘bought’ by the Yes campaign to support the independence case (Reporting Scotland, 22/8/13). The sequence of statements whereby anti-independence arguments preceded pro-independence responses as opposed to the reverse order is of interest. There was a clear majority (66:24) of the former, on Reporting Scotland where ‘bad news’ about independence came first and obliged a defensive response from a pro-independence spokesperson but a much narrower majority (61:53) on STV News. The Reporting Scotland imbalance tends to normalise the No/anti-independence position and put the onus of the Yes/pro-independence position to justify itself. Dr. John Robertson University of the West of Scotland https://opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/john-robertson/bbc-bias-and-scots-referendum-new-report
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 21:44:22 +0000
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