The lure of a negatively framed headline about Scotland’s environment to conceal what the expert actually said

By stewartb

So a highly experienced journalist with the Guardian – its Scotland editor no less – demonstrates how to manufacture a negative frame for a news story.  As you read on, is the editor revealing that it’s OK for journalists supposedly serving the public in Scotland to mis-report – to  manipulate – the content of an interview in order to create a damning headline? As it’s well know that headlines impact readers, is this a blatant example of seeking to influence by deception?

Note the headline (from January 19, 2025): ‘We are resting on our laurels’: Scotland faces significant challenge to protect its environment – Francesca Osowska, the outgoing chief executive of NatureScot, says more needs to be done for Scotland to hit target of restoring 30% of natural environment by 2030.  (my emphasis)

The intended negative connotation of the phrase ‘We are resting on our laurels’ can be in no doubts. Various dictionaries give the following meanings: ‘to be satisfied with your achievements and not to make an effort to do anything else ‘; ‘to be satisfied with the things they have achieved and have stopped putting effort into what they are doing’; to exhibit complacency! Given use of the word ‘We’ and juxtaposition with a negative reference to Scotland, the message being put across here is crystal clear.

Later in the article, which is based on an interview with the Guardian by the CEO of Nature Scot, we learn what was actually said.

First from the article, some context: ‘World leaders have generally been too slow to address the scale and severity of the nature crisis, she said, which puts the security of people across the global south at risk.’

Then immediately following this sentence, we are told more of what Ms Osowska actually said in the interview:  ‘The 30 by 30 goal was “totemic” and “trips off the tongue”, she said. Yet “it feels as if globally we’re resting on our laurels. Where are the global funding initiatives to support the delivery of 30 by 30, to go beyond, effectively, what is a recovery program into restoration?”

Sleekit wordsmithing on display to devise a headline for a purpose – or worse?

Later in the article we’re told: ‘Osowska said she was broadly optimistic about the Scottish government’s direction of travel.’  She also told the Guardian journalist about the Scottish Government’s ‘spending £65m by next year on nature restoration, £5m on Atlantic rainforest restoration, a new national park and marine conservation’. 

Optimism and positive facts relayed to the Guardian by its interviewee were not enough to overcome the lure of a negatively framed headline about Scotland and the Scottish Government. A more powerful motivation than maintaining public trust in journalistic standards?

9 thoughts on “The lure of a negatively framed headline about Scotland’s environment to conceal what the expert actually said”

  1. It’s “Scottish” journalism, writ large. Lies, Espionage (MI5) and Porky Pies.

    What’s next for Mr Carrell?
    New Leader of the coalition of Scorrish Tories and the Farragists? Russell Findley already looks pre-baked and done.

    I see more leaks and stories “emerging” in the press: supposedly from the polis, lawyers or secret services ( most likely), making any trial of Mr Murrell from a juries perspective “difficult”.

    This is deliberate. A trial abandoned because the media has been tricked into making a fair trial impossible, is better for the British State than the prosecution abandoning the case because of having no evidence. But Mr Murrell will carry the stain to his character of secret service jury-tampering to his grave.

    gavinochiltree

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    1. Thanks Bob – I’ve read all this again and whilst in the greater scheme of things this particular matter may not be the most important, it is a salient example. Candidly, it leaves me with a disgust at how – when it comes to our Scotland and our Scottish Government – certain journalists and media outlets will stoop so low to manipulate and deceive people for their cause!

      It’s a great motivator to continue to support TuS is it not?

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      1. Your piece on the Guardian ‘confection’ matched my own views. It was as sleekit a piece as anything his sleekit colleague, Libby Brookes writes.

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  4. It also demonstrates the cunning, psychological methods (as you said prof, ‘sleekit), known to journalists (do they have a conscience?) to manipulate a headline-grabbing fact that most people will only look at the headline and not read anything in-depth. I believe since lockdown, the attention span of many has become even less and their maximum capacity for anything other than immediate, is zilcho. Sweet Fanny Adam.
    Who’s in the pipeline for the CEO job?

    At the moment, the anti-Scottish radio news headline is belting out anti-Scottish propaganda, just for a change…ha ha. It’s so tedious blah blah.

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  5. As none of these shower will report anything good about Scotland why does Inv/S call him out in Parliament by showing the headline and then quoting the whole sentence any time something like this happens they should do the same.I know MSM would be complaining but let them if it happens a lot maybe just maybe they might think twice about showing sleekit headlines.

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