Sarah Smith

I think SS saying NS was 'enjoying' the pandemic was probably fine. NS wants to be a leader of the Scottish nation and the pandemic will have given her opportunity to serve. But I can imagine some people assumed SS meant NS was thriving on people's misery, if you're looking for bigotry. Who knows.

Aveline

Varian I completely recognise the fanatical pro SNP posters on here and understand exactly why Sarah Smith said what she did.

Quelle surprise.

What do you think of Murdo comparing the Greens to slave owning racists?

You haven't upset me JaneJudge. But perhaps a good example of how we shouldn't just take what we read at face value?

Varian I completely recognise the fanatical pro SNP posters on here and understand exactly why Sarah Smith said what she did.

Oh dear, I appear to have upset everyone in the space of a few hours

Driven from her home?

Dear god.

She's gone to the USA to report on politics there. She hasn't been driven from her home.

Dearie me!

Nobody here has posted anything but the truth. No vitriol, or personal attacks. Is this what we've come to?

Sarah Smith has been a very balanced reporter of Scottish news.

No, she has not. Sorry, but she hasn't.

JaneJudge

Poor Sarah

I thought she was just fine but if the level of vitriol on here is any indication of what she has had to put up with as personal attacks then I agree.
Poor Sarah
Driven from her home by zealots.

JaneJudge

Poor Sarah

Poor Kate.

Poor Janey.

Poor Lorna.

Poor Nicola.

Poor Ruth, even.

Poor Mhairi.

But some have their big girl pants on.

paddyann54

Varian where is your proof that she isn't ? Its in the tone of her "reporting" which is biased and bigotted.A bit like the tone of your posts .Are you denying YOU are a unionist?
That of course is your business and you aren't trying to influence the viewers of a supposedly neutral NEWS programme not an ANTI SNP broadcast. As far as I'm aware SNP members and supporters have to pay alicense fee to the BBC just like everyone else

I am a Unionist, Like most of the UK population and most of us Scots.

Sarah Smith has been a very balanced reporter of Scottish news.

There is a fanatical element amongst the SNP supporters who will never accept any opinion other than the separatist view, as we have seen on Gransnet.

So you think fake news is OK JaneJudge ? And we should just say och she's just a wee lassie who makes mistakes? Poor Sarah nothing ,Sarah Smith was using her own agenda against the
SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT .As far as I'm aware news Reporters are not supposed to do anything other than REPORT not make up their own version of events .

Poor Sarah

Varian where is your proof that she isn't ? Its in the tone of her "reporting" which is biased and bigotted.A bit like the tone of your posts .Are you denying YOU are a unionist?
That of course is your business and you aren't trying to influence the viewers of a supposedly neutral NEWS programme not an ANTI SNP broadcast. As far as I'm aware SNP members and supporters have to pay alicense fee to the BBC just like everyone else

Oh, here's a good one. Posted by the Scottish Tories Covid Recovery Spokesman, and one of the list MSPs for my area, God help us.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202202/medium-395388-smith-1.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202202/medium-1570-smith-2.jpg

No, she didn't "get what she deserved". Please read my first paragraph again, nobody deserves to be abused for doing their job, irrespective of their political stance.

However, she is using the abuse she got to try to paint a picture of a Scotland where anybody who doesn't support the SNP better watch their backs, and it's not like that. She's trying to say that she is a paragon of balanced reporting when she surely is not. And its not only the extreme ScotNats who indulge in this kind of behaviour, its anybody who think they can get away with it, including Tory MPs in Westminster and the slightly odd people on GN who think Nicola Sturgeon is a Nazi.

What I claim is most certainly correct; see attached for 2 pieces of evidence. I could find more but its Saturday night and I've had a gin

I guess I think she is looking for sympathy and has a bit of a chip on her shoulder.

volver interesting take on this. No idea if what you claim is correct but does give the impression of 'she got what she deserved' , if true. Are you saying the 'average' Scottish person would, or is that should, condone this?

Well, I’d best fulfil my expected role of tame Scot Nat, I suppose.

It goes without saying that nobody at all should be subjected to any kind of abuse just for going about their business and doing their job. In that, I agree with Sarah Smith.

However

Sarah’s reporting is far from unbiassed. She consistently made “mistakes” on the evening news which painted the Scottish government in a negative light. For example; she said Sturgeon was enjoying the pandemic; that Alex Salmond thought Sturgeon should resign (he didn’t); she used the annual figures for hospital waiting lists instead of the weekly ones; my favourite was when she asked a Scottish football supporter if he wasn’t supporting the English team because he hated the English. She apologised for her “mistakes” on twitter – quite a different demographic and reach to the BBS Scotland tea time news, where no apologies were made.

But most of all, I have to wonder at the excuse that people take against her due to misogyny down to her dad having been the Leader of the Labour Party, and thinking that she should be just like him. Her dad was a figure who commanded respect in Scotland, but he’s been gone nearly 30 years. It seems a bit weak to claim that people hate her because of her dad when he’s been gone so long and most young people probably can’t remember who he was. I remember though. And I used to watch Sarah’s biased reporting and say to myself, “Do you think your Da would be proud of you?”

Then there was her twitter post complaining that politician’s husbands get knighthoods, what about the wives? Quickly followed by the post that said something like “yes, I know, I forgot about my mum’s peerage…”

So finally, there is lots of very unpleasant abuse suffered by supporters of all parties in Scotland. When Kate Forbes announced on Twitter that she was pregnant, the first response was “S***, they’re breeding”. The Scottish Tories thought it would be a good wheeze to troll an SNP supporter currently receiving chemo for Stage 3 cancer. Ian Blackford has been told in the House of Commons to F*** off back to Skye, and just today I remonstrated with a GN poster who said that Sturgeon was Nazi with an unhealthy interest in underage sex.

We’ll see how Ms Smith gets on reporting on the US political scene won’t we? No excuses there for any "mistakes".

"Nicola Sturgeon says don’t blame me for abuse from Scottish nationalists aimed at BBC Scotland's former editor Sarah Smith and claims she 'does not have much in common' with those responsible"

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10530155/Nicola-Sturgeon-condemns-abuse-aimed-BBC-Scotlands-former-editor-Sarah-Smith.html

That’s appalling.

What is your evidence that Sarah Smith is in fact a Unionist.?

Lot of nonsense Ms Smith was using her position to spread fake news ..wheich she usually had to apologise for..but as we all know the apologies are in tiny letters at the bottom of a paragraph half way into a newspaper.Whereas her "fact" was headline news .Sarah Smith is an ardent unionist and that is fine as its her choice.No issue with that at all I do have an issue of her using her position as a "reporter" to broadcast things that are lies.PROVEN lies .

Sarah Smith as BBC Scottish editor attempted to be politically neutral.

I think she did a good job.

However she is the daughter of John Smith, the highly regarded leader of the Labour Party and a strong unionist.

Certain elements of the SNP assume that Sarah shares her father's politics and have therefore vilified her, subjected her to an onslaught of nasty abuse.

She did well to endure this vilification for so many years without ever saying how much she had endured from the worst elements of Scottish nationalism.

Mmmm, I’m not surprised either....

have you only just learned this? It was discussed on the radio news last week.
Judging by a few , fortunately only a few, of the posts on here, I am not surprised.