Alex Salmond Insists BBC Bias Affected Outcome Of Scottish Independence Referendum

Alex Salmond Isn't Letting His Grudge With The BBC (And Nick Robinson) Go
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It’s one year on but Alex Salmond is still insisting that the BBC "bias" played a “significant factor” in deciding the result of the Scottish independence referendum.

Speaking to the Independent, the former Scottish first minister blasted the BBC for “institutional bias”, saying it was his “biggest regret” that he had not foreseen the extent of it.

Salmond said that he thought that the result of the referendum was decided by a “scaremongering campaign”.

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Alex Salmond still isn't letting this one go

A BBC spokesman responded to the claims, saying: “As we said at the time, we believe our coverage of the referendum was rigorously impartial and in line with our guidelines on fairness and impartiality.”

Reaction to Salmond’s comments were mixed, with some labelling him a bad loser…

While others agreed with his views…

Salmond’s ongoing grudge against the BBC shows no signs of burning out, with his grudge against the Corporation’s outgoing political editor Nick Robinson continuing.

At the end of last month, Salmond responded to a line from Nick Robinson, who told the Edinburgh International Book Festival last week that the protests outside the BBC's Glasgow headquarters during the campaign were “Putin-like.”

Snapping back in column for the Courier newspaper, Salmond called the comparison “ludicrous,” adding that he had not commented on the remarks earlier due to Robinson’s cancer diagnosis.

Salmond continued: “The BBC's coverage of the Scottish referendum was a disgrace. It can be shown to be so, as was Nick's own reporting of which he should be both embarrassed and ashamed."

The grudge began when Robinson and Salmond became involved in a spat at a press conference in Edinburgh during the referendum campaign, which sparked a wave of pro-independence supporters gathering outside the BBC's Scotland HQ demanding the BBC man’s resignation.

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Protests over Nick Robinson's referendum coverage last year

If Thursday night’s Question Time was anything to go by, the wider media are also still in Salmond’s bad books.

When Daily Telegraph journalist Tim Stanley suggested that new shadow chancellor John McDonnell was too extreme, the SNP man was having none of it, replying that he thought the Telegraph was too extreme.

Many cheered on his response on Twitter: