A leading Scots academic has claimed the BBC attempted to run him out of a job after he criticised its coverage of the Scottish Referendum.
Professor John Robertson was the author of a University of the West of Scotland report on BBC and ITV coverage of the referendum and concluded there was evidence of coverage “which seems likely to have damaged the Yes campaign”.
This week, however, the Director of BBC Scotland Ken MacQuarrie once again dismissed that finding when questioned by MPs at a meeting of Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee in Dundee.
He criticised the “methodology” used by the professor and said his findings had been flawed, denying any “unconscious bias” in the BBC’s coverage.
Speaking to The Courier in the wake of the meeting, Professor Robertson delivered a response to Mr MacQuarrie’s comments, in parts serious and tongue in cheek.
And he said that where his views had once been controversial, criticism of the BBC’s coverage had now become commonplace.
“I’ve yet to see just what aspect of my methods was flawed,” Professor Robertson said.
“The BBC hasn’t told me exactly nor has any academic written to me to correct the error of my ways and yet they must be awful, truly terrible, methods to have made BBC Scotland report me to my employer.
“I’ve been teaching research methods for nearly forty years but, luckily for the students, I retire this year as the damage I’ve probably done to those innocent minds doesn’t bear thinking of.
He added: “Briefly, in January 2014, I was afraid. I was petrified. I kept thinking I’d have to retire early.
“Two years later, to say that the BBC was biased in its coverage of the Scottish Referendum has become a more normal thing to say.
“Alex Salmond has repeated what I said and several of the new MPs feel able to do the same.
“Former BBC reporter, Paul Mason, described the BBC as being in ‘full propaganda mode’ in the run-up to the vote and the Guardian’s George Monbiot wrote that the BBC had ‘shafted the people of Scotland’.
“The latter two have no vested interest that I’m aware of in an independent Scotland.”