Skip to main content

Part 29: Scotland on Sunday’s Arrogance

 

I welcome the new evidence presented in the article by Delamore and Semple in today’s Scotland on Sunday.  In Part 30, hopefully out Monday 6th April, I will review the evidence which they, and students at the University of Strathclyde’s investigative journalism course, uncovered.  The case for an inquiry should now be unstoppable but the Crown Office will almost certainly see this differently.

I have a major criticism though and it intrudes only minimally into the article itself.  I suspect that Delamore and Semple are largely innocents with the blame to be laid at editorial level.

And I need to rant about that before I look calmly and logically at the article itself. 

In this long series I have tried to be even-handed in my analysis of evidence.  The one point at which I have veered is that I come down firmly on the side of an inquiry being held but, even here, I try to be fair to both sides of the argument.  Within the McRae case, however, much of the reporting has not been balanced: many journalists seem to have an ‘angle’ to promote and evidence is presented from that position.

Scotland on Sunday is no exception and its problems start on the front page where a photo of Willie has these words appended,

Sos on Willie1

What an invitation to buy!

But then …… the mystery isn’t solved.

False pretences and then the editorial.

 

NOWHERE in my reading of the case have I come across such arrogance, hype and false conclusions as were written for the Scotland on Sunday editorial.

SoS Leader

I feel for those whose work this editorial trashes through hype.   The reporters and students have produced good work but ….

 

McRae conspiracy theories now laid to rest


old-fashioned reporting to solve a baffling 30-year-old mystery

 

an exemplary piece of journalism …. has solved a 30-year mystery

 

None of this true!  The article doesn’t even claim this other than in its first paragraph which doesn’t fit with the rest of the article.

 

Good work!  Well done!   A step forward in our knowledge but not the end.  Add it to that already available and make an even better case for an inquiry.

 

Unfortunately, the leader-writer isn’t finished.

No doubt some conspiracy adherents will continue to insist McRae was murdered by the British state. The grassy knoll is a comfortable spot from which to view a bewildering world.

and the editor’s chair is a comfortable spot for wishful thinking.

But for most reasonable [of course, the leader-writer is one such] people, [ah! nice touch of negative labelling there!]  today’s Scotland on Sunday revelations are the final [a] chapter in a story three decades in the telling.

 

And then there is the article.

I’ll start working on this, now that I’ve dealt (probably inappropriately) with an inappropriate editorial.

 



[originally posted 5 April 2015]

__________________________________________________________________

If you have thoughts, or more, feel free to:

email me at calumsblogATgmailDOTcom or

tweet me at @calumcarr

© CalumCarr 2015

__________________________________________________________________

COPYRIGHT

Copyright over this article is retained by me, CalumCarr.

Please feel free to reproduce extracts and images provided you attribute the words and images to me taking into account any provisos below.

If you wish to use more than one quarter of the article then contact me for permission at calumsblogATgmailDOTcom.

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Part 1: Introduction

Willie McRae: born 18 May 1923; died 7 April 1985 This we know for certain but much else in his life and death is open to conjecture. What is fact or fiction? Truth or lies? Openness or obfuscation? Will we ever know? Probably not but in this series – may be 1 post or 20 posts depending on my enthusiasm – I want to look back and review his story.  The best way to ensure I keep going with my review is to write and post as I go on.   You, my readers, are key to my continuing! I must have read about Willie in the 80s but I only became aware of him on Sunday past when the Sunday Express published a story more than 24 years after his death. [ Original source ; archived source ] Of course, we note the very important, … it was claimed last night. There’s nothing definite here but you can start to see that McRae’s life might not be straightforward. Within the rest of the article there is more. So here we have claims that he was killed: - by drug smugglers - by security services...
Read more

Archive Notes

Between December 2014 and August 2015 I investigated the death in 1985 of lawyer and SNP politician, Willie McRae.   All my work was published on my blog  "calumcarr on .... whatever" which is now closed. This work is now republished here. My writing did not cover the entire case but it is a very detailed study over 36 posts. I have checked to ensure links are still live and have corrected obvious spelling mistakes. Almost certainly, I will have missed some mistakes and created new mistakes for which I apologise. Other than these very minor changes, the posts are republished here as they were originally posted. The work is presented here in chronological order.   Unfortunately, to achieve this, the original publishing dates have been removed and all comments lost. In preparing the posts for the archive I have come across the occasional error of logic, where a conclusion may be incorrect. I have left these untouched so the posts read as did the original...
Read more

Part 2: Last Journey

This is another scene-setting post.   To launch into all the confusions and contradictions now would lead to our getting totally lost in a mishmash of facts, lies and conjecture.  Better that I outline the basics first and then go back and look in more detail.  I hope Part 4 will start this more detailed process but I’m not sure of my path yet.  Time spent well now will bear fruit.  Also because of the complexity of this case each detailed post is likely to take me several days to write.  Please bear with me. -------------- On Friday, 5th April 1985 about 6.30pm, Willie McRae set out from Glasgow to his holiday home near Dornie in Wester Ross – about a 170 mile drive.  Almost the entire drive was on single carriageway roads with much of the driving being in the dark.  Sunset would have been about 8.05pm [based on sunset being that time on 6th April 2015].  Google maps estimates the driving time as 3h 55min.  He should have arrived s...
Read more