Offensive Claims
Here's a piece by Roy Greenslade in The Guardian which tells the peculiar tale of an article about the prospect of English athletes getting booed by Scots at the 2014 Commonwealth Games which get underway in Glasgow next week.
Now I have tickets for some of the events and have English friends visiting us in Glasgow who will be attending as well, so I can say for certain that there is not the slightest possibility that this kind of behaviour will occur at what will be a magnificent showcase for Scotland, as the opening ceremony at Hampden Park the other night showed the world.
But why would The Telegraph publish such a ridiculous article and why then drop the story from its Scottish edition?
I think we should be told.
Why didn't the Daily Telegraph run a Scottish scoop in Scotland?
Paper claims English athletes could get booed at Commonwealth Games – but drops story in Scottish edition
Daily Telegraph story on English athletes
The front pages of the Daily Telegraph in England and Scotland were noticeably at odds today. Both carried articles about the Commonwealth Games, due to start in Glasgow next week, but the articles were very different.
The English version carried a front page story headlined What should we do if we get booed by Scots, ask English athletes.
But that bit of nonsense didn't feature at all in the Scottish edition. Instead, its front was dominated by the headline Superbug hits Games village.
The reported outbreak of norovirus, based on an NHS announcement that 12 members of the workforce at the site were experiencing possible symptoms, was a genuine enough story with proper sourcing.
But what are we to make of the other one about English athletes being briefed on what to do if they are booed by Scots nationalists?
I looked in vain for proof. The only source was that ever-helpful person, "an insider", who confided that a "small number" of athletes had raised the subject of possible booing and had been told not to react to it.
And then came a paragraph stating:
"Members of the Team England delegation who have been in Glasgow this week have been given such a warm welcome by their Scottish hosts that they do not expect the athletes to be barracked."
Exactly. So the story itself was - to quote my own Scottish insider - "ridiculous." Could that be the reason that a Scottish story wasn't even run in the Scottish edition?
My insider and his friends have also been wondering whether the "small number" of complaining athletes was really one - the self-same Telegraph insider. Surely not?
The front pages of the Daily Telegraph in England and Scotland were noticeably at odds today. Both carried articles about the Commonwealth Games, due to start in Glasgow next week, but the articles were very different.
The English version carried a front page story headlined What should we do if we get booed by Scots, ask English athletes.
But that bit of nonsense didn't feature at all in the Scottish edition. Instead, its front was dominated by the headline Superbug hits Games village.
The reported outbreak of norovirus, based on an NHS announcement that 12 members of the workforce at the site were experiencing possible symptoms, was a genuine enough story with proper sourcing.
But what are we to make of the other one about English athletes being briefed on what to do if they are booed by Scots nationalists?
I looked in vain for proof. The only source was that ever-helpful person, "an insider", who confided that a "small number" of athletes had raised the subject of possible booing and had been told not to react to it.
And then came a paragraph stating:
"Members of the Team England delegation who have been in Glasgow this week have been given such a warm welcome by their Scottish hosts that they do not expect the athletes to be barracked."
Exactly. So the story itself was - to quote my own Scottish insider - "ridiculous." Could that be the reason that a Scottish story wasn't even run in the Scottish edition?
My insider and his friends have also been wondering whether the "small number" of complaining athletes was really one - the self-same Telegraph insider. Surely not?
