Professor John Robertson OBA
There are million stories out there, from the flu pandemic to youth employment or the ten year high in cereal harvests, but six of the newspapers available in Scotland are still going on about Nurse Peggie. She’s so high profile, school kids will have a playground game about her. My 5 year-old grandson says they have Donald Trump game. I’ll spare you the details.
An AI survey today reveals up to 50 Peggie reports in December alone and only 1 Darlington report (Telegraph) in the same period.
Why are they obsessing over her? From US researchers:
News doesn’t just happen it’s constructed, Editors, journalists, and even algorithms act as gatekeepers, deciding which stories make the cut. I remember interning at a local newspaper years ago and being shocked at how many pressing local issues got buried because they weren’t deemed newsworthy enough.
This isn’t just about sensationalism it’s about media ownership and agenda-setting. A handful of corporations own most major news outlets, and their interests inevitably shape coverage. Studies have shown that media consolidation leads to homogenized narratives, where diverse perspectives get sidelined. Ever notice how certain political or economic viewpoints dominate mainstream news That’s not an accident.
https://sociologyinc.com/how-media-shapes-our-world-the-sociology-behind-news-making/
What is the dominant viewpoint in Scotland’s media today – Get the SNP out? Protect Labour?
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Drop The Dead Donkey comes to mind, except in our case it ain’t funny. Any Independence supporting political party, or organisations, are a target for a corrupt, mainly foreign owned, M.S.M. Since at the moment the S.N.P are in Government, they of course are the ones who must be denigrated at every opportunity, which means on a daily basis. Add in an equally corrupt B.B.C News, especially the Scottish version, you have a powerful mix of propaganda, all designed to convince the electorate that we are better off remaining in an equally corrupt union. And don’t forget the people I despise the most. The unionist Fifth Column operating in plain view in our midst. I mean of course politicians, who will quite happily take English gold, and so-called honours, aye, so-called, to try to make sure we never escape the clutches of Westminster. Traitors, one and all. Don’t lets us kid ourselves, if we ever manage to achieve Independence, it will be the greatest feat our people have ever managed to do, since Scotland became a country.
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Strange but certainly not unique in our wonderful media that when Peggie, her legal team and the media were only a few days ago weree proclaiming victory the Nurse is strangely appealing the verdict. I can only imagine who is financing this but clearly they see an opportunity to further damage the SNP and no doubt set eyes on a bumper compensation payment to boot.
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Two good reasons that I can think of:
1 Allowing men to use women’s changing rooms, hospital wards, prisons and compete against women in sports is a policy the SNP have strongly aligned themselves with.
2 Women make up 52% of the voting public
If I was an opponent of Scottish independence this is exactly the sort of wedge issue I would blazon across every media outlet available. Such a large cohort of voters is too big to ignore.
Conversely, the SNP could distance themselves from this divisive policy and ensure challenges are quickly resolved.
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SNP could distance themselves, but the media and even what I have seen at an English Youtube channel and the English folks’ comments oh no, the SNP are to blame, Scotland is a basket case because of the SNP etc etc…
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To this day I vividly recall the lifting of the veil on UK media propaganda after about 3 months in Ireland – It would have been about May 2000, and I was reading an article in the Irish Independent over an after work pint of Guinness before having dinner – A fairly typical UK story when I’d left, but with an entirely different perspective from a long forgotten but incisive irish journalist – I’ve seen thousands of such articles since over the last 25 years, ever featuring the ‘we can’t afford it” fairy, despite fewer believing in politicians than fairies
Am I surprised that 25 years on Scotland’s media is convinced there is public interest in the Peggy case, not a bit of it, quite the reverse, it’s gaslighting, the ‘British’ way.
We saw what happened after near enough 5 years of Sarah Smith’s anti-QEUH campaign, no public protest marches, absolutely nothing more than a wee balding man with an expensive choice in suits and zero connection to anybody else’s reality taking over the helm having warmed the bed for his predecessor in the US, to insist on reminding us about a ‘troubled hospital’ which only existed as an artefact of a failed propaganda campaign.
It’s in a way similar to the Isla Bryson farce which ran longer than a bout of diarrhoea, interested few if any, forever ‘investigated in the public interest’ by Pacific Quay – Sandie Peggy will remain the prime Scotland story until the Darlington etc cases vanish from England’s media focus – Ignoring media manipulators has become embedded in Scottish society due to such as ‘el Cookie’ and his bams…
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‘I was reading an article in the Irish Independent over an after work pint of Guinness before having dinner’
Stop it! Not fair.
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Ooft, a bit early surely….
I lived in a bedsit at the time in Abbey Street, Kilkenny, a short walk from the Abbey brewery where they made the stuff – Nobody attempting a pub-crawl in Kilkenny could succeed, more pubs per square mile than anywhere, with every single one priding themselves on serving the perfect pint…
Still have two pint glasses in the cupboard here branded Breo, White Beer, Guinness – Soon dumped by Guinness having failed to impress the Irish public, with priests even making references to blasphemy….
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