G8 Scare Story: Update. posted by Richard Seymour

After Justin Horton drew my attention to this story by the Barclay Brothers' newspaper Scotland on Sunday, I got in touch with the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service to see if the claims contained in it were true: namely, it claimed that the possibility of violence around the G8 summit had prompted a "blood supply crisis" and cited conversations with an SNBTS spokesperson to back up its claims.

I blogged the reply I received:

Contrary to the headline in the newspaper last weekend, SNBTS is not expecting a "blood crisis" to coincide with the G8 Summit and is not expecting a blood shortage as a result of G8.

Unfortunately, we believe there was a misrepresentation of the
conversation which our spokesperson had with the journalist. However, what we did actually say was that the demand for blood never stops and that we were more concerned about the blood stocks over the entire summer period. Summer is always a challenging time for SNBTS, as donations can drop by up to 10%. This is because blood donors can be busy during the holiday period with annual leave, outdoor activities and generally enjoying the nicer weather.

Having done so, I then wrote to the paper to ask for a retraction. Answer came there none: I sort of expect that someone filed it under 'nutter' and moved on. I gave it more than a week, then decided to contact the Press Complaints Commission. I explained the situation to them by e-mail and with the use of an online form. I got the reply this morning:

The PCC will normally consider complaints from people who are directly affected by the matters about which they are complaining. Occasionally, the Commission may at its discretion consider a complaint from somebody who is not directly involved - but only if it raises a matter of significant public interest. In this instance, therefore, before we investigate your case substantively, we would be grateful to receive the signed authorisation of SNBTS confirming that they are happy for you to complain on their behalf. We look forward to receiving that authorisation within the next ten days.

Piss take. Naturally, I have no such authorisation, principally because I wasn't complaining on behalf of the SNBTS, but on behalf of millions of likely demonstrators who don't deserve to be vilified by Scotland on Sunday, especially on the basis of lies (which is a fancy way of saying I did it Billy-No-Mates). I will not even attempt to seek such authorisation - why should I complain on behalf of the SNBTS? Have they not mouths, and pens? If they wished to complain, they would have done so.

Nevertheless, I've had enough of playing Disgusted of Lenin's Tomb. Fuck em. The PCC are there, one lazily assumes, to try to ensure fairness and accuracy in the media. I had always thought they were weak, lacking real authority, and packed with the wrong sorts of people - the letter says that the Members of the Commission include Roger Alton, editor of the Observer, and Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail. I hadn't expected to discover that they (their rules) were deliberately obstructive as well.

Still, worth noting that the PCC has very nice guidelines that would be endearing if they weren't so hollow. The first guideline, which I believe SoS broke, is as follows:

"i) The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information, including pictures."

Far more enlightening, however, is this, from Marc Blitzstein's play The Cradle Will Rock :

Oh the press! the press! the freedom of the press!
They'll never take away the freedom of the press!
We must be free to say whatever's on our chest.
With a hey-diddle-dee and a ho-nonny-no
For which ever side will pay the best.