Thread by @simon_brooke

OK, look, sometimes people mess up. We all have times when we mess up. We all have times when we make two or three bad errors in succession. We're human. #1/23

The @newsundayherald is one of the important institutions of Scotland's news media. Admittedly it's less important now as our new media develops, but it was a big win for #Yes when, in 2014, it nailed our colours to its mast. #2/23

However, there's two aspects to that decision: yes, @newsundayherald's decision to come on board helped the #Yes movement, but the #Yes movement repaid that with a substantial boost in sales for the @newsundayherald. #3/23

No one should expect serious journalism always to support uncritically one political view. Political views need to be critiqued and challenged for their own health. #4/23

But there are two kinds of challenge to a political view: one is friendly, intellectually honest, probing, surgical, intended to make the patient stronger; @iainmacwhirter is a fine practitioner of this. #5/23

The other, we see all the time in the kleptocrat-owned press in Scotland: dishonest, mendacious, deliberately distorting, belittling, intended to undermine and destroy. There's no question which side of that divide this picture falls. #6/23

After that; after the controversy during the course of the past week; after the torrent of people cancelling their subscriptions, the framing of the Litvinenko story did look like thumbing the nose at the movement. #7/23

Nevertheless, it's making a serious point: as we learn more about Cambridge Analytica, Leave.EU, and the Trump campaign, the interference by Russia in Western democracy looks increasingly malign. #8/23

Sometimes people mess up. We all mess up. @AlexSalmond messes up sometimes too, and his decision to host his programme - however independent it may be - on a Russian platform is at the very kindest judgement questionable. #9/23

has apologised for the picture, and so he should. The framing of the picture is atrocious, and the caption compounds the problem with dishonesty. The story of the day was not 'ugly confrontations'. #10/23

Also, the claim that the picture was not manipulated is tendencious. No, there's no reason to believe it was photoshopped, but it was framed. It shows equal numbers of unionists and independentistas. #11/23

Nevertheless, everyone messes up, and apology is graceful. And @NeilMackay makes some good and fair points. #12/23

heraldscotland.com/news/16222188.…

We should all, given the overall tenor of the Scottish press, welcome an aspiration to "to provide balance, accuracy and fairness". #13/23

It was right to report the group of unionists giving Nazi salutes. It happened. It represents the very ugly core of Scottish unionism. While the numbers on the day were tiny, we know - and we need to know - that that ugly extreme exists. #14/23

It is, however, not reasonable to ask @theSNP to discipline the #Yes movement. Many independentistas are not SNP supporters - I'm not myself. #15/23

Abusive and threatening language and behaviour towards journalists doing their job is unacceptable. It's just as unacceptable from #Yes supporters as it is from Nazis. Don't do it. It's not good behaviour. #16/23

Cancelling your subscription to media which no longer appeals to you is a reasonable thing to do; speaking about it publicly is a bit petulant. (Yes, @bbcnews, I'm a bit petulant). #17/23

But it's time to draw a line, and bury some hatchets. There has been a synergy over the past four years between the @newsundayherald and the #Yes movement from which both sides have benefitted. #18/23

We need a serious press with "provides balance, accuracy and fairness". We need a press which is not afraid to criticise and probe our ideas, in order to strengthen our arguments. We need a paper which can't be dismissed by the BBC as a fanzine. #19/23

I think we all recognise that @NeilMackay, @iainmacwhirter, @foreigncorr1, @AngelaHaggerty (despite her awful faux-pas yesterday) are all basically decent folk and fundamentally on our side. #20/23

And if we all cancel our subscriptions, the @newsundayherald will be forced to join the other side in order to survive. Is that really what we want? #21/23

Folk made mistakes. We all got a bit heated. We had a stushie. But when the dust settles, the movement needs the @newsundayherald and the @newsundayherald needs the movement. Let's all be friends. #22/23

But, @NeilMackay, next week, dinnae thumb your nose at us. Just dinnae. Resist the temptation, hey? Surely, for the love of god and little fishes, you can find some front page lead that doesn't undermine the #Yes cause?

Pretty please?

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