A few days ago Russian Human Rights activists used an event at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to attack Alex Salmond for taking money from Russia Today – Vladimir Putin’s propaganda TV channel.  They said: “I think it’s awful… All the Russian propaganda TV channels are not working to provide information, but to provide hatred”.

Rather than echo these views and help a former First Minister of Scotland be less of a national embarrassment, Lesley Riddoch used her column in the Scotsman (13/08/18) to attack the BBC for apparently not reporting recent pro-independence marches.

Of course, this is “Fake News” from Riddoch. A quick search finds the BBC did report these events with headlines like “Independence supporters stage Glasgow march” and “Thousands take part in Scottish independence march in Inverness”.

Bizarrely, Riddoch also spends a good deal of her article defending the pro-SNP Government blogger Stuart Campbell (he rund). This is a man who makes a lucrative income out of using the worst kind of language to attack those that dare to question the SNP. Of Ian Murray MP he once said: “I hope an aeroplane delivering dirty needles to an incinerator crashes onto Ian Murray tonight”.

Lesley Riddoch’s article shows us only one thing, hard-core nationalists in Scotland aim to move the public away from trusted news sources like the BBC and on to so called “alternative” media like Campbell and social media. In that domain, people like  Vladimir Putin thrive as they can control content to deliver their agenda. The fact that Russia Today is now supplying “exclusive” material direct to Campbell is no coincidence.

Of course, the BBC News is not perfect but when looked at as a whole it does a pretty good job. That simple fact is why hard-core Nationalists don’t like it. They’d rather Scotland was a place where the media only reports good news about the SNP Government. The problem is that this attitude results in the kind of news output people enjoy in Russia where, ironically, many turn to the BBC for their news.