YOU gotta to hand it to The Scottish Sun for its reporting of a live broadcast last week by STV’s Rachel Stewart, while – ‘behind her’ – a streaker was baring his bum.
Stewart was talking about Aberdeen’s bid to be named City of Culture 2017 and, of the papers that covered the ‘mooning’, The Sun excelled itself with the headline… Crack of Don.
PS Aberdeen missed out on being shortlisted, while Dundee made it to the final four.
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THE next day – not content with coming up with its ‘cracking’ headline – The Scottish Sun offered readers a summary of recent live TV broadcasts in Scotland that have been hijacked by pranksters.
For instance, BBC Scotland’s Catriona Renton, in a Dunblane hotel, in the immediate wake of the town’s tennis star, Andy Murray, losing the final of the 2011 Australian Open. As Renton spoke, behind her, one of the pub’s customers started pulling funny faces.
Or STV’s Karen Greenshields airing a report from central Glasgow only for someone to start whispering ‘sweet nothings’ into her ear.
Or BBC Scotland’s Pauline McLean reporting from Coatbridge, while trying to resist the ‘charms‘ of a foul-mouthed, young lad.
Or former Hibs goalkeeper, Graham Stack, dropping his shorts as two of his teammates were being interviewed on BBC Scotland’s Reporting Scotland – with the programme’s host, Sally Magnusson, apparently reacting by saying: “I hope we haven’t put the nation off its dinner.”
Or STV’s Bernard Ponsonby reporting a local government story in January, only for a passer-by to brandish a sign, ‘Lynn Brown Call Me’.
Or BBC Scotland’s Laura Bicker reporting from a snowbound Auchterarder, and doing magnificently well to keep her cool as two young men run into view, semi-naked.
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THE Herald’s Unspun column on Saturday just couldn’t resist, as it noted how it had reported, in February, the observation of economist, Professor John Kay, that an independent Scotland would most likely have to introduce its own currency.
It continues: “In fact, his speech in Glasgow was so good he delivered it again, to an audience in Edinburgh, earlier this week. Which is when some other papers got round to covering it.”
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IF STV’s head of content, Alan Clements, had second thoughts about visiting Istanbul, because of recent civil unrest, it didn’t prevent him and three friends journeying to the city to celebrate 30 years since they graduated from the University of Glasgow.
Which meant, for yesterday’s Sunday Herald, an, ahem, eyewitness account of being… tear-gassed.
He is quoted, as saying: “This isn’t the kind of thing you expect to see when you’ve been the Hagia Sophia (a former mosque and now a major tourist attraction in the city) and gone for beer and kebabs.”
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