Why is the First Minister pictured here? Why is it not the Transport Minister, the Scotrail Chief Executive or the RMT union leader, who are clearly directly involved?
Back in 2011, Alex Salmond was recognised as having been demonised, by Iain Macwhirter in the same newspaper, writing:
In the past week the First Minister has been compared to the Zimbabwean dictator, Robert Mugabe. He has been cast as a “Jekyll and Hyde”
https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/13039618.demonisation-alex-salmond/
In 2014, my own research noted the same phenomenon in the run-up to the referendum. I wrote:
Later that year, the Huffington Post agreed: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/alan/snp-alex-salmond-has-been-demonised_b_6174718.html
Since she became First Minister in 2015, I’ve sometimes felt that Nicola Sturgeon attracted less of this tendency which consciously or subconsciously seeks to damage SNP support by characterising its leader as a failure in some way.
However, in 2019, we saw this:
And in 2021, we saw this on BBC Reporting Scotland Down:
There are no doubt many more examples but this makes the point, I think.
Talking-up Scotland 
The strategy is to locate the concept of independence (socialism, feminism, etc) in the person of the leader and by demonising the leader the cause is demonised. E.g Michael Foot is an old duffer in a donkey jacket at the Cenotaph, ergo, socialism is ridiculous.
This also entails the presumption that the mass of the population is being gulled by this person into supporting independence, socialism, feminism, etc. To foster this, the media report ALL aspects of independence (etc) through the person of the ‘leader’ with the aim of, eventually, disgracing the leader and hence the cause.
This approach demonstrates the profound contempt these journalists have for the population and the readers.
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#SpecialPropagandaOperation
The BBC and the MSM in Scotland have ramped the propaganda war against the Scottish government up to unprecedented levels. They have have given up any pretence of impartiality.
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If we are brutally honest, this sort of rhetoric has never stopped since 2014. And, unfortunately, we are now looking at the build-up in anticipation of the 2023 referendum. It can only get a lot worse. Let’s hope it doesn’t do too much damage but a date has to be set in the very near future or good, loyal yes supporting people will begin to drift. We need action and soon. We need to fire up our young folk. We need to reassure the older ones. We need that date. Then the troops will rally.
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