I used to teach student journalists research methods. They seemed bright enough then to quickly find the evidence they needed for an informed and intelligent kind of reporting.
The above report is, as we expect, devoid of those first-year attributes.
Not reported by the Scotsman:
The Scottish Government has taken the following steps, within its devolved powers, to help households and businesses through the cost of living crisis:
introduced £150 council tax payments – reaching 1.85 million (73%) of all households
invested £10 million to continue the Fuel Insecurity Fund
uprated eight Scottish benefits by 6%
increased the Scottish Child Payment to £20 from April 2022 and to £25 from late 2022 – lifting an estimated 50,000 children out of relative poverty in 2023
increased support for home energy efficiency
introduced free period products – with legislation coming into force later this year making this a statutory right
invested £41 million in 2022/23 in the Scottish Welfare Fund
mitigated the benefits cap and bedroom tax through Discretionary Housing Payments
invested £113 million in Tackling Child Poverty this year, including £53 million for Parental Employment, £15 million for Parental Transition Fund, £2 million for Challenge Fund
invested around £12 million in debt and welfare advice
expanded Free School Meals
increased the school clothing grant up to £120 for primary and £150 for secondary aged pupils
https://www.gov.scot/news/urgent-action-needed-on-cost-of-living/
In response to the cost of living crisis, three key Scottish Government energy efficiency and heat programmes will be boosted from April. These include:
Expanding the Home Energy Scotland (HES) advice service, which provides free, impartial advice available to all households in Scotland on making homes warmer, greener and easier to heat. Capacity will be increased by 20% to support an extra 12,000 households a year, whilst a service offering bespoke advice to the most vulnerable households will be doubled.
Widening the eligibility criteria of the Scottish Government’s flagship Warmer Homes Scotland fuel poverty programme to include more groups within the 60 – 75 years age range.
Increasing the level of funding individual fuel poor households could benefit from through the local authority-led Area Based Schemes.
More than £160 million of funding is being invested this year to help make Scotland’s homes and buildings warmer and more efficient, supporting efforts to tackle fuel poverty whilst helping householders manage their energy bills and reduce carbon emissions.
https://www.gov.scot/news/tackling-the-cost-of-living-crisis/
TuS researcher Johnny Rubberskin (71) took 15 minutes to find and report the above.
Talking-up Scotland / Scottish media fact checking is like shooting fish in a barrel 
Are there ANY ‘journalists’, who would fit your definition actually working in the media these days?
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Carole Cadwalladr
The Herald’s Ian McConnell
Probably a few more
George Monbiot………………
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I worked for BBC Scotland and the Herald for approx 20 years (as a researcher, not a journalist), but I would struggle to name anyone now that is not just a hack, writing biased and poorly researched articles, all with the “SNPBad” message. I am so disappointed at the quality of our media these days and hope that once we are independent, we can create a better media that works for Scotland.
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We have independent Broadcasting Scotland, you can watch ‘Scotland at 7′ every weekday and they do a Sunday prog at 12 noon, via Youtube and other ways I think…they struggle to keeping going re funding, so it’s worth supporting if you can. I would like to see them expand, and be a bit like the independent PBS news in the US, funded by all sorts of benefactors. PBS is much bigger and they have several programmes including arts, and science etc. I watch their programmes via Youtube, really good, and though I’d say bi-partisan, they do lean towards democrat, as in democracy. They do have republicans on, which is useful because you get to hear the rubbish they come out with. It’s a balanced platform I guess, well presented, interesting and on the ball.
I subscribe to Broadcasting Scotland, but don’t subscribe to EngGov controlled BBC and haven’t done so for years. I do rely on TUS and others however, to keep up to date with the Brit states’ propaganda assault on Scotland.
Lastly, I don’t call the BritNat media, and their dodgy pals’ abroad media operating in the UK, ‘ours’, it’s theirs not ours especially in Scotland. Though I guess Scotland is billed for it!
It’s like when people say things like ‘what have we become’ when talking about the fascists in power in London, I would ask them, who is ‘we’? The UK is being taken down a very scary far right wing path via Brexit, which is why independence is absolutely crucial.
https://www.broadcastingscotland.scot/
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More nursery provision, £100million a year offsetting austerity. Increased student support. Building houses, bridges, roads and railway. No bedroom tax. No prescription charges. Increase SNHS funding. Social care. People staying in their own houses not residential care. Child benefit payment. Lower unemployment.
Westminster controls welfare and energy policies. Scotland pays more for fuel and energy despite being 25% in surplus.
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“Once upon a time, children, there was a fair Newspaper of Record, famed for its accuracy and friendly Editorial stance toward Scottish Home Rule.
Then some Big Bad Ogres emerged form the Brit Nat swamp and stripped the Scotsman of its quality, journalists and reputation.
Ransacked the company for assets, property and money.
Now the paper known as the Scotsman is a biased anti-Scottish, yellow page propaganda sheet, using British Nationalist Labour and Tory propagandists instead of journalists.
It DETESTS Scots being empowered and having a direct say in their own futures, preferring Scottish subjugation to another country.
No one lived happily ever after.
Good night children”!
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For interest/amusement! BBC Bitesize – the online educational service for school-aged young people – offers this (with my emphasis and a few comments) on the role and nature of ‘journalism’. It starts with this statement: ‘’Journalism plays a VERY IMPORTANT ROLE IN DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES.’
– OK but it also plays a very important role in ADVANCING THE POLITICAL AND/OR COMMERCIAL INTERESTS of particular, already powerful groups in society!
From Bitesize: ‘One of its main purposes is TO SUPPLY VOTERS WITH THE INFORMATION THEY NEED TO MAKE INFORMED CHOICES, for example, about how they are going to vote in an election.’
– but also to provide highly partial information framed in a manner to ENCOURAGE VOTERS TO MAKE CHOICES THAT ARE ALIGNED WITH THE EDITORIAL AND/OR OWNERSHIP’S POSITIONS OF THE ORGANISATION employing the journalist when it comes to public policy issues.
From Bitesize: ‘The democratic principle of ‘freedom of speech’ – meaning that people have the right to freely express their views and opinions, and to question or criticise the government – is enabled by A FREE, INDEPENDENT MEDIA.’
– but typically in Scotland, a politically partisan one too which is driven by an agenda rooted in a particular position on the constitution.
From Bitesize: ‘The media serves an important role in providing investigative reports, DEBATE, DISCUSSION, BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS, as well as news stories.’
– well – it would, if it did! Sadly, even so-called public service journalism fails here, at least in Scotland – Unionism trumps all!
From Bitesize: ‘Journalism serves as a public ‘watchdog’ by monitoring the political process in order TO ENSURE THAT POLITICIANS CARRY OUT VOTERS’ WISHES, and that they don’t abuse their positions.’
– carry out voters’s wishes? What has been in the manifesto of the most successful political party – and therefore the governing party – in Scotland? Do voters NOT express their wishes through the ballot box?
From Bitesize: ‘A free press is important because if the media was not ABLE TO REPORT TRUTHFULLY ON EVENTS, important information might be hidden and voters would remain in the dark. Equally, if the media was not allowed to facilitate open and free discussion, the views and concerns of ordinary people might not be heard.’
– ‘report truthfully on events’? If the BBC was ever to have someone repeat this claim in a public presentation in Scotland nowadays, it would need to be shouted loudly TO BE HEARD OVER THE GUFFAWS!
Source https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zyt282p/revision/1
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Well done stewartb – great idea to use BBC Bitesize as the mirror for the BBC and the press. Excellent.
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