Newsnet loses sense of humour, the horror!

Hullo, first off, let me begin by saying, I come to praise Newsnet not bury her. I welcome the growth of Newsnet as a place where Cybernats, aka any Independence supporter with access to a keyboard, can gird their loins, gnash their teeth and roar their terrible roars about the injustices and slights perpetrated by those freaky voodoo adherents in that there Westminster.


However, today similar to many others, I followed a friends tweet to their site wherein I found an article cogitating over the aims and ambitions of Rory Bremner's plans to make a programme about the Tartan Overlord and his unlikely similarity to Iranian president and well know beard wearer, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In a rambling description of the Unionist diktat that Salmond is a democratically elected dictator with an overwhelming public mandate, poor old floppy faced Rory has decreed that it is his duty as a father to make the FM a target for his sharp barbs of wit, via the woefully misnamed Comedy Unit, formerly property of BBC Scotland. My oh my what japes lie ahead if he scores a commission.

There among the mass grumbles and groans of the perennially angry commentators were a few sensible comments from some sensitive souls who saw the futility of an overtly Anglicised mimic presenting himself as the last chance to save the Union via his powers of comedic mimicry. I'm envisioning a full frontal attack in 2014 with Eddie Izzard, Bill Bailey, David Mitchell, that tosser Michael McNotfunny and Sir Billy Connolly joining Rory for a benefit concert to save Blighty: 'Union Aid' or perhaps 'Union Jack Red Nose Day', if you will.

Now, being a chap who enjoys a chuckle and is quite willing to be hoisted by his own petard, I decided to leave a comment and join in the knockabout fun, opining that perhaps Mr Bremner might be better suited to turning his impressionist talents to that of Mrs Lamont. I added a link to the following image from those clever coves at www.scotlandsaysyes.com 

So far so normal. Imagine my surprise, when I returned to the site on an ego trip shortly thereafter and noticed that the comment had been mysteriously removed. Pondering whether I'd posted something vile and objectionable from the NSFW folder that I don't actually have, I scratched my baldy head in puzzlement. No explanation, no comment other than someone else complaining that their post had also vanished. Perplexed I decided to ask on the board why such an innocuous, mildly amusing but pertinent post had been removed. An answer none there came. Eventually as the hours dragged on, a curt response asking me to enquire through proper channels was issued. I duly responded and waited for a reply, and waited and waited.  Finally a mere five-and-a-half hours after my first request an answer finally landed with a delicate thud in my in-box.
 

Dear Mark,

Thanks for getting back to me.

When someone posts a link to the site, we always check it out.  Sometimes this means that we need to pull a post until someone has had a chance to check it. If after checking, they feel that there is an issue surrounding publication, they check with a number of other moderators.  As we are a volunteer site, this can take some time.  Everybody is not available all the time.  What may seem like a wait for you can in fact mean that someone is giving up their lunch hour or afternoon break to look into this.  Making comments on the site because you have not yet had an answer will not make it come any quicker.  We answer as quickly as we can and will give you an individual answer rather than a stock one.

Moderators were all in agreement that this post should be pulled.  We do not allow links to pages which are making fun of people’s appearance. 

Kind regards,

Newsnet Scotland Team

In order to alleviate some of the more tedious hours in my life, I run a facebook site that I set up about a year ago. It has 11,000 members, I'm ably assisted by a diligent team of wonderful volunteer administrators who agree with the ethos of the site and the aims of helping folk in Dumfries and Galloway through the worst of these Unionist inspired austerity times. I know and understand that often readers presume you must be at their beck and call, despite the fact that you're helping them for FREE, so I have every sympathy for the 'hard pressed' Newsnet team of volunteers. 

Where there is a gaping chasm of epic proportions in our understanding is the following:

"We do not allow links to pages which are making fun of people’s appearance."

Where do I start to declaim the irony in that statement? Pulling a link that satirises a satirist, who in turn is intent on satirising the First Minister, with a subtle unspoken nod to the real defender of the Union is not "making fun of someone's appearance." It's a piss take.

I like Newsnet, I even applauded them when they lifted some of my own photoshop adjusted posters without a credit. I believe we on the Independence side have a collective will and responsibility to skewer the Unionist debate with satire and humour rather than the po faced censorship that I encountered today. This wit has grown from the early days on the Scotsman and Herald forums where a valiant few would take on the worst of the anti-Independence scaremongers with surreal humour, that sometimes verged on genius and additionally earned many posters multiple monikers as the poor moderators struggled to keep up with the plethora of ever changing identities. Whatever became of the poor Geordie lass whose lovers forehead, evil Scottish thugs had scrawled the word 'SNP' on, with a BiC pen?  Humour aka 'taking the mickey' is our greatest weapon when confronting outright lies and propaganda from the vested interests of the labour, Tory and Lib Dems. It actually works. Our national character is often portrayed as dour and humourless, how wide of the mark is that? There's fantastic humour on every street corner and bar room in the land. If we're too sensitive to a bit of wind up, then all is lost.

Its very success has made Newsnet a bit of a sacred cow. Mere mortal cybernats find themselves wary of saying anything too controversial lest it rock the love boat for the SNP. Even typing this I'm wary of the old divide and conquer ploy, however, what Newsnet singularly fails to understand, is that not everyone who supports Scottish Independence is an SNP supporter or even member. Here's a newsflash Kenneth, the Independence referendum will not be won solely by the SNP and its ever increasing army of members. Rather it is persuading the vast numbers of undecided voters who are looking for arguments they can relate to that will win the day, not regurgitated vapid press releases from Jackson's Entry. So Newsnet, take my advice, it's free. Lighten up.