FURTHER to my letter kindly published in The National on Friday (January 15) arguing that more must be done to counter pro-Union media bias, I would suggest a good place to start would be to improve objective coverage of Scotland’s National Health Service.
Of course The National cannot afford to employ the plethora of BBC “health correspondents” who all seem focused on seeking out stories highlighting perceived NHS failures no matter how unrepresentative these are of NHS Scotland performance overall. Not only do daily negative news reports serve to undermine the commitments and efforts of dedicated doctors, nurses and support staff, persistent negative news reports in other areas of Scottish Government responsibility appear deliberately coordinated by editorial directors to erode confidence in the SNP.
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One need only watch any episode of Question Time involving an SNP MP or MSP to witness the biased political machinations of the BBC.
On the few occasions Dr Philippa Whitford was invited to speak last Thursday evening – surprising in itself given that most of the discussion centred on the current health crisis – Ms Bruce attempted to denigrate the Scottish Government through questions posed from her slanted script. On the first occasion, after the negative implications of her words had been robustly corrected by Dr Whitford, Ms Bruce immediately invited one of the “video audience” to speak who just happened to be a Scottish Government critic armed with misleading quotes from the already debunked Gordon Brown think-tank report.
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Perhaps as an alternative to employing dedicated NHS reporters The National could host a weekly “NHS Scotland Insights” news column with stories, letters and anecdotes from patients, nurses and doctors on the vast number of positive actions that continuously occur within our NHS? Besides creating a forum for a diverse range of contributions covering everything from individual care to new treatments and medications plus advanced research, this would provide a ready source of information to help counter the disproportionate and often scurrilous accounts fed to the people of Scotland by the London-controlled mainstream media.
Furthermore, as the same mainstream media – apart from Channel 4 – generally seem to turn a blind eye, or downplay, public health catastrophes occurring elsewhere in the UK (such as the recently reported hundreds of avoidable baby deaths in the1,862 serious incidents investigated in two neighbouring hospitals in England, and the necessity to build a new temporary morgue in London to accommodate up to 1,300 bodies as locally reported on Wednesday), our columnists should take every opportunity to publicise such information when commenting on our own NHS.
The BBC has not hesitated to report on, and show pictures of, hundreds of lined-up coffins and rows of newly dug graves from around the world but has failed to demonstrate the same interest in equally alarming developments in its own back yard. This partisan approach not only diminishes objective assessment of the Westminster government’s dithering and often misdirected actions but suppresses calamitous results which if soberly disseminated could possibly encourage increased compliance with necessary restrictions.
It is not sufficient to criticise the partial and at times irresponsible output of the BBC and much of the rest of the mainstream media; we need to find ways to relay “good news”, which often has limited circulation on social media, to a wider audience and thus persuade more of the “undecideds” that self-determination provides the only positive route for the people of Scotland to progress beyond the pandemic and climb out of the UK’s democratic, social and economic quagmire.
Stan Grodynski
Longniddry, East Lothian
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