Tuesday, March 15, 2011

War erupts between Sunday Herald and Scotland on Sunday as Scottish newspaper sales dive further, Douglas Fraser helped killed the market in 2007




















Dear All

Who killed the mainstream press industry?

The public, by not buying their forced fed propaganda!

If we think back to 2007 and the coverage of the Scottish Holyrood election, we saw a concerted attempt by the newspaper industry to want to return a Labour Government to Holyrood.

The public thankfully thought differently.

A chief ‘villain’ in the piece was Douglas Fraser of the Herald.

Fraser wrote propaganda straight from Labour Party press releases which I rewrote in the comments section.

He would stick it up and I would shoot it down full of holes.

Douglas Fraser was so upset at getting his arse kicked up and down his article that he took to calling his detractors ‘rats’ from the sewer.

Because people would comment but not under their real names throwing abuse!

I would also comment but under my real name sticking up the truth.

Things got so bad in the ‘war of the rats’ episode that Robin Dinwoodie, another Herald reporter wrote a defence for Douglas Fraser.

Dinwoodie was acting like a shield as Fraser was feeling the ‘heat’ of the wrath of the public!

Douglas Fraser in my opinion was the pebble that started the landslide of public opinion away from the Herald.

His career as a reporter was ruined as an angry public took the opportunity to ‘hang him high’.

At the same time other Herald reporters saw the way the wind was blowing and bailed.

Fraser got a job at the BBC and jumped ship.

Other newspapers of the pro Labour supporting variety also saw their sales falls as the Scottish public was forced to hear only one side of a two sided argument on Scotland’s future.

The market is shrinking and when a market starts to collapse people fear for their jobs which bring us to the row that has broken out between the editors of two of Scotland’s biggest titles.

The editors of the Scotland on Sunday and the Sunday Herald have accused one and other of trying to force each other out of business.Sunday Herald editor Richard Walker claims that the team behind the Scotland on Sunday were displaying a “fight to the death attitude” over readers.The Sunday Herald’s circulation had dropped 21% in 12 months.

Huge drop reflecting that they don’t have the right pitch in the market.

Everyone likes a good fight but the Herald group isn’t allowing much in the way of comment from sources other than Labour.

The new comments section hasn't worked after they imposed censorship which was seen by some as means of shoring up the Labour Party.

On their letters page which gives the public a chance to put forward their views, it is the same small clique of ‘approved’ readers who get published.

Iain A D Mann,
7 Kelvin Court,
Glasgow.

Countless letters from him!

How would I sum up the Herald’s letter page?

Working class need not apply in general unless they have special status.

Pollok, Easterhouse, Possil, Arden, Priesthill, Drumchapel and Barlanark are not places, you will see on the letters page of the Glasgow Herald.

Bearsden, Milngavie, Lenzie and Bothwell are!

The Herald Group complains about a drop in sales but it only represents a small section of the community, they don’t talk for Glasgow or its people.

And their habit of publishing articles based on Labour Party press releases that have been passed to them is a disgrace.

If newspapers want to be Scotland’s voice then more voices need to be heard in them.

And not just the special hand picked socially acceptable few.

Then they may have a future.

Douglas Fraser buried the Herald in 2007.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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