by Christian Wright

Update – Tues 7 April

Have been tweeting journalists who have issued unreserved & certain condemnation of this cruel calumny (a “torrent of vicious abuse”) inflicted on the BBC’s James Cook, asking if they would produce evidence of it. 

None so far have answered the call and alas, Fraser Nelson’s response seems to have been to block me on twitter.

Makes you want to go – “hmm?”

Update – Wed 8 April

Iain MacWhirter in an article posted late April 7 (see below for link) downplays Cook’s reaction as just a “complaint of abuse” when in fact it was more the cry of a severely wounded journo bleeding-out on the Serengeti.

BBC SCOTLAND’S PROJECT FEAR BEGINS WITH A VENGEANCE

BBC Scotland have launched an unprecedented attack on nationalists in the heat of a General Election campaign, claiming cybernats have viciously abused its reporters, and that the Corporation fears for their safety. Not one shred of evidence has been offered in support of this incendiary statement – our analysis

 

Bit tired of journos tribal defence of their own while ignoring the blockbuster story of a smear perpetrated by government & pimped by Labour

Alex Salmond in The National wrote: “There are, of course, exceptions. People who do not allow their journalism to be compromised. And one of them is James Cook of the BBC. I want the following paragraph to be read and remembered by anyone who thinks that it is a good idea or good politics to tar all journalists with the disgraceful Telegraph brush.“ emphasis added

HOLD ON THERE A MINUTE

Alas Alec, James Cook has not maintained that heroic level of journalistic integrity.

He, like the rest of his cohort, continued to give equal weight and exposure to the content of the memo as to the denials. There was no attempt to regard the debunking of the memo by the ALL the principals as dispositive.

By dint of that, the defamatory and politically damaging memes of the debunked memo continued to be propagated by the MSM.

James, like the rest of the political commentariat, studiously avoided acknowledging the potential blockbuster story, that what we have here is a smear perpetrated by government and pimped by Labour.

When this was put to James on twitter he chose to engage in debate, until tweeting:

“What an extraordinary level of vicious abuse I have received today for simply reporting the news. Is this the country we want folks? Is it?”

I went looking for this “extraordinary level of vicious abuse” in his twitter timeline, but found only pointed questions that went unanswered. I found naught that might reasonably be considered an extraordinary level of vicious abuse.

Of course it is possible I might have missed it somehow, so I tweeted James and asked if he might link or otherwise steer me towards the most egregious exemplars of this extraordinary level of vicious abuse.

I got no response and some time later repeated the request. Two days on and James has still not responded or produced evidence of anything that might reasonably be characterised as an “extraordinary level of vicious abuse”.

Fraser Nelson, over at the Spectator in an article, blasted the scurrilous vicious cybernats for their savaging of James. However, nowhere in that article did he produce any evidence to back his accusations.

I contacted Fraser and asked that he produce some corroborating evidence of this vicious abuse he claimed James had endured. Alas, there was no response. So I tried again, and again I received no response.

Other Journalists (notably Iain Macwhirter) have rushed to the defence of James, condemning those who abused him, yet they apparently made no attempt to verify James’ claims of “extraordinary level of vicious abuse”.

Note that since this posting, in an article in the Herald posted late Tue 7 April 2015, MacWhirter mischaracterises Cook’s tweeted complaint, stating:

‘The internet angry brigade turned their fire on the BBC reporter James Cook … Cook issued his own tweet complaining of being “abused”.’

 

Well, in fact James’ tweet is better described as a cry of a severely wounded journo bleeding-out on the Serengeti : ‘What an extraordinary level of vicious abuse I have received today for simply reporting the news. Is this the country we want folks? Is it?’

 

This mischaracterisation lets MacWhirter claim a lower threshold for evidence of abuse, and thus allows him to credibly argue Cook’s complaint was justified.

 

Again and again, we have seen claims of terrible abuse of journalists and others by vicious cybernats being accepted as gospel by leading Nationalist politicians and opinion-makers, without any attempt to verify their veracity.

Time the leading lights of the Nationalist Movement held the accusers to the same standards of scrutiny as they do the accused.