Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp responds to common criticisms of The National

I WANT to address recent criticism of The National I have seen on Facebook. I don’t always agree with the paper’s take on things and I also sometimes think some columnists’ views are unhelpful to the movement, but more because they play to the Yes bubble and try to get people whooping and hollering about independence rather than patiently following the strategic route to independence that we are now on, as we head for a 2022 or 2023 referendum. 

Let’s address some of the common concerns raised:

It’s owned by the Herald
No it’s not, it is owned by a large international corporate Newsquest, which amongst many other papers also owns The Herald. It allows the newspaper editors to follow their own paths politically.

The people that write it are not pro-indy
That is nonsense – take my word for it, the people who edit The National are as dedicated to independence as you or me. Callum Baird is dedicated to the paper helping the Yes movement and Richard Walker, the founder of both The National and the Sunday National, is now head of content for Business for Scotland/Believe in Scotland and is therefore a key figure in the independence movement.

It needs to make money and so plays to its audience
Well you’ve got me there – yes it does – it has reporters and editors and photographers to pay, marketing people’s wages and even the print costs of the newspaper to meet. So just like all newspapers of all political outlooks and of none, they have to make a profit or go out of print. They put content behind a paywall and so they should – but you can get free articles every month even without subscribing. 

The National are Believe in Scotland media partners for the mass day of action coming up to kickstart the new indy campaign and they see themselves as a part of the Yes movement. The newspapers that support the Union are all businesses too and they behave in exactly the same way – none can exist without making money. As a criticism, this seems beyond daft to me. You want a pro-indy paper but you want it to be bankrupt!!!

They criticise the Scottish Government
The Guardian criticises the Labour Party, so does the Daily Record – I’ve seen the Mail and the Express from time to time criticise the UK Government. When they need criticising the newspaper must be able to criticise – it doesn’t mean they don’t share the same goal. I was critical of the Scottish Government on business rates policy a few years ago and helped force a change after The Scotsman ran my attack on the front page (offered only after I was blanked by the SNP) – that change to the business rates policy saved a heck of a lot of Yes votes. Sometimes friends have to point out the mistakes we are making. Sometimes they go too far, but that’s life.

We need at least one pro-Yes daily paper and one pro-Yes Sunday paper to fight our corner and also tell the Yes movement what is going on, publicising the activities of groups such as ours. Other newspapers have pro-Yes editors but if they publish hugely pro-Yes articles their sales drop. If you don’t like The National’s letters page because you think it’s full of trolls, then don’t leave it to the trolls to fill the letters page; write your own. If you want articles that are uncritical of the SNP you can read Mike Russell’s excellent new newsletter, not an actual newspaper.

The National isn’t perfect but it’s good enough, and it was a brave move for Newsquest to meet that market need when no-one else would touch it. It shows older folks when they go to buy their newspapers every day that there is a Yes paper that opposes the Unionist mainstream media hegemony, and that’s a good thing.