Bill Wallace
My deleted message

Bloggers and those that respond to them, or the public as they are better known, have exercised the thoughts of traditional media more and more recently. Either the newspapers use the maunderings of the internet as a source of cheap material or they decry the great unwashed as the Sunday Herald recently did when their readers pointed out a certain inconsistency in their treatment of politicians.
     The esteemed Mr Roy of the Scottish Review also commented on the public, referring to the high proportion of deleted messages on a blog briefly discussing the resignation of Steven Purcell as Glasgow council leader, the inference being that these comments were no doubt full of libel of the most vicious kind.
     I cannot speak for the 13 others mentioned, but I can speak for myself. I made no comment on Mr Purcell's situation. How could I? I was, and am, ignorant of the circumstances surrounding it, but what I did have removed in three separate places were comments referring to how the story had been released to the new media and subsequently treated.
     More than that, it was instantly managed. The discussion conducted by Gary Robertson on Good Morning Scotland was provided with impartial observer Lorraine Davidson of the Times (former director of communications for the Labour Party in Scotland) and Hamish MacDonnell, a 'political commentator'. I can't comment on the qualifications of Mr MacDonnell but Lorraine Davidson is not noted for her trenchant criticism of the Labour Party.
     This piece set the tone for coverage on all media outlets for the day. It was a hagiographic description of Mr Purcell's career and impact. Some have likened it to an obituary, as there was no hint that Mr Purcell might have any human failings or ever have made a misstep, even considering that the resignation was put down to stress. In fact Lorraine Davidson earnestly hoped that Mr Purcell would remain on the scene for big projects like the Commonwealth Games, the impression being that there was no one available to step into Mr Purcell's shoes.
     What happened, not only to the spectators and speculators of us groundlings, but to the professional media and publicity officers, is the use of lawyers, in this case even deployed against Mr Purcell's own press officers in Glasgow City Council. It is obvious that the BBC erred on the side of caution referring post after post to their moderation process. I will point out that Brian Taylor posted more blogs in this week than he had in the previous two months which had the effect of removing the discussions on both Mr Purcell and the announcement process. That may be coincidental, but if we blogosphere types cannot indulge in a little conspiracy theory now and again, then where is the fun?
     This is not an isolated case. The threat of libel laws have been used to shut down peer review and criticism of scientific research and there has been much discussion of libel tourism and the contingency fee system of libel laws where the loser ends up paying costs to lawyers of 40 times the award to the winner.
     Events of the last year, with MPs' ludicrous expense claims and large pay rises at a time of national stringency, have already portrayed a culture gap of propriety between the electorate and their representatives. If the media-integrated politicians are now using the tactics of foreign despots, holocaust deniers and multinationals to repress reporting, then no wonder people turn to other outlets. Some of the forums and blogs may be unfair, but if the press does not provide a trustworthy forum for debate then people will go elsewhere.

Bill Wallace is 'middle-aged, married and lives in Glasgow'.