03/03/2008

Sunday Herald political columnist, Iain Macwhirter, came up with a brilliant pastiche on the Prince Harry story yesterday - at the expense of  LibDems leader, Nicol Stephen.

Under the heading, ‘Cover is Blown on LibDems - About Private Stephen’, Macwhirter reported: “Newspaper editors and readers have reacted angrily this weekend to the lifting of the media blackout on Nicol Stephen. A voluntary understanding between the media and voters had led to news outlets observing an almost complete silence on the Liberal Democrats’ leader since his party lost power in the Scottish elections last May.

Macwhirter continued: “It is feared that following his ‘outing’, Stephen could become a ‘bullet magnet’ for political enemies.”

The merciless send-up continued in the same vein throughout the entire piece, which concluded: “A spokesman for the Society of Editors said that he was ‘very disappointed’ that a website had broken the voluntary agreement not to report anything about the Scottish Liberal Democrats.:

He finished with a 'quote', from ‘one editor’: “This is in stark contrast to the highly responsible attitude of the UK print and broadcast media as a whole who have entered into an understanding over coverage of Stephen.”

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