The day after I publish my article accusing the corporate media of being an active part of the conspiracy against Alex Salmond, and of giving disgracefully selective, slanted and biased coverage of the evidence of his trial, the Daily Record has decided to investigate my home and personal finances. Is not life full of little coincidences?
I received this email from the Daily Record’s political editor.
I replied to him politely. This was probably a mistake – I should have just told him where to go.
But I cannot get over the idea that this is absolutely illegitimate. It is a plain attempt to bully and harass me for having published the truth about what really lay behind the Alex Salmond case. Who put up the Daily Record up to launching an investigation into my personal circumstances? It is of course the paper to which was leaked the very detailed and most salacious of the false accusations against Salmond. Who trawled the land register to find my home purchase?
The key point is not one mainstream media journalist has even attempted to refute the facts of my article J’accuse. It is packed with facts. Might not the political editor of the Daily Record better spend his time researching the conspiracy against Alex Salmond, rather than threatening an independent journalist for the crime of doing journalism?
I greatly dislike bullies. I do hope you feel the same. Mr Hutcheon’s contact details are there. If any of you feel like phoning, texting or emailing Mr Hutcheon to suggest he might be better employed investigating the facts of my article about the Salmond fit-up, rather than pursuing a journalist, you would earn my eternal gratitude.
It goes without saying that this blog is free to read. I have always stated that I do not wish anybody to support my work if it costs them the slightest personal hardship. If anybody wishes to cancel their subscription because I am doing up a house to run as a b & b, I shall not be in the slightest upset.
UPDATE the Daily Record have now published their stunning investigative article, together with a large picture of my house. My wife and family are very upset by this.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/alex-salmond-blogger-trial-high-21789285
What I am now waiting for is all these people to step in and condemn the publishing of my home and the subsequent risk to the security of my wife and family, with as much vigour as they today defended the privacy of the Edinburgh third house of the Head of MI6.
Tumbleweed rolls by.
With grateful thanks to those who donated or subscribed to make this reporting possible.
This article is entirely free to reproduce and publish, including in translation, and I very much hope people will do so actively. Truth shall set us free.
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Well, as far as the Daily Record is concerned, they can f**k right off and I shall write and tell them so.
What you do with your income (and how you get it) is noone’s business but your own.
The Record’s attempt to try and and somehow humiliate you by suggesting dishonesty at worse or hypocrisy at best shows that their scribblers are incapable of engaging with your arguments. Their email to you is totally inappropriate but nothing less than I’d expect from the UK’s press.
Craig I admire your courage for writing and printing your articles. The daily paper in question has abandoned all forms of truthfulness. I have not bought a newspaper since the witch took over britain and have believed what I have choose to believe. Truth will prevail and God Bless to you for all your good work. As I don’t have a bank account and haven’t had one for nearly twenty years I cannot subscribe to your cause. But if and when we meet I will gladly have a large glass of the best malt on offer with you. Keep the faith.
If ever there was a slimeball in Scottish journalism, it’s Paul Hutcheon, not that we’re short of them. (That’s not libel BTW, it’s common abuse.)
The man has form though he used to display it in The Herald, not The Daily Record. See e.g. his writing about the Tommy Sheridan case. (I’m even less an admirer of Sheridan than I am of Alex Salmond but that’s not the point. The press treatment of the Sheridan libel case was, with few exceptions, every bit as dire as we’re seeing now. To this day, few are aware, e.g. that on the substantive issue of Sheridan’s allegedly sexually abusing a drug addict, he won his case – the NoTW HAD libelled him. His perjury – which was spectacularly stupid – concerned a trivial consensual affair that IMHO verged on entrapment.
As I wrote in a book review some years ago, “McPlod spent an impressive 52,000 hours turning Tommygate over good and proper no expense spared, News International lodged an appeal and paid potential witnesses aplenty amid rumours of the Digger lobbying to ensure No Slacking”. The rest we know.
In short, watch your back. If Hutcheon were to ask me the time of day, I’d “no comment” him.
Dave, re the issue of common abuse. You could plead veritas, as an alternative,
before Nicola outlaws that too, that is.
At least the Record’s readership now knows of Craig’s blog.
I will be sending you a monthly fee-your blog is enlightening and well researched, the opposite to Hutcheon, whom you should sue for harassment if he keeps this underhand creepy stuff up.
They’re terrified of you, Craig. We all know that The Daily Redcoat is more stridently unionist than most Scottish dailies, hence most heavily on the payroll of the UK establishment and their MI5 lackeys. The Redcoat makes most of us in the Yes movement puke.
On an entirely practical note, can I suggest you introduce a Paypal button beside the rest so that people can pay directly through that? That saves them having to pay via having to go to the Paypal site separately and should earn you a few quid more.
Thank you Craig for your invaluable contribution to proper journalism. Without your blog pieces regarding the Alex Salmond show-trial., many of us would be no more informed than your average Daily Heil or Sexpress reader.
Dina fesh, your blog will be up and running long after Hutcheon’s rag has folded.
I have also decided to subscribe.
Craig, you may find that your subscriptions actually *increase* after readers know Daily Record is starting this very harassment of you.
Absolutely fucking outrageous! This is harassment not journalism. I’m furious. I’ve doubled my monthly subscription to you… it has been deserved for some time. Your treatments of the Assange and Salmond court-cases have been stellar. I don’t necessarily think you always get it right, but if a topic needs a light shone on it from outside the mainstream-media group-think, then there is good chance you have the requisite credentials to do the job. And on a personal note I recognise that taking a stand against the status quo must have a stressful impact on you personally and on your family. You have my profound thanks.
My reaction to Hutcheons’ letter was very simple. I started a paid subscription to your blog. You just keep up your good work!
Regards from Norway!
Big thumbs up from Florida.
Thing is, are you afraid of publicity? This might turn out to be a blessing in disguise. IF they decided to run a few articles on you, would that not increase visits, if not readership to your blog? This may in turn, lead to an increase in subscriptions.
You might get VERY lucky and they end up slandering or libelling you.
Paul Hutcheon might actually be doing you a favour, only he doesn’t know it (though he will if he reads this comment!)
What I’m saying is, you have nothing to hide so all publicity is good publicity.
Indeed.
The top of the Daily Record website now features, in large type, “…state tried to frame Alex Salmond….”
It doesn’t matter what’s in the ellipses, getting those six words featured is progress, is it not? A fair number of people who hadn’t even gotten around to speculating about whether this was a stitch-up are now asking themselves what’s going on, and a decent proportion of them may even find their way to this blog.
Well, here’s my emailed letter to this Mr Hutcheon
Dear Mr Hutcheon,
I note with alarm that you or your publishing group appears to be ‘launching an investigation’ into Craig Murray, someone who had carried out some sterling investigative journalism work into various infractions of the UK and Scotland governments, and at some personal cost, not to mention past UK government inspired smear campaigns.
The implied threat in the email you sent to Craig Murray, and specifically the timing of the email, coming a few days after the Alex Salmon not guilty verdict and Craig Murray’s ongoing investigations and publishing of what may turn out to be a major scandal, are particularly concerning.
Craig Murray gets his income from donations, personally speaking, it is of no concern where else from, if anything. Of far more consequence for press reporting and journalism reporting in main stream media, would be the so-called oligarch ownership and private capital funding and government manipulations of said MSM.
Sincerely,
Chris Whittington
Thankyou for your informative blog, it is becoming ever more popular and giving its readers valued information regarding the lies against Alex Salmond. Never for one nanosecond did I believe these accusations. Nor do I approve of all this crap rising to the surface regarding your personal situation. You have a right to a private life, as do we all, and it shows the lengths the current spate of so called journalists will stoop to in order to ruin a reputation. As if you had not already been through enough. You have the support of a great many people and scumbag journos wont change that
When and if Hutcheon climbs out of his gutter, he can start sweeping it clean.
How about complaints to these two at Reach plc which owns the rag?
Nicholas Prettejohn (Chairman of the board)
Jim Mullen (CEO)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reach_plc
The SNP government in Scotland is seeking to suspend trial by jury.
They also want to allow witness statements to be admitted in court without being open to cross-examination.
And lest anybody think they are simply aiming to “relieve pressure on the system” (which in itself is a vile angle from which to approach this if you believe that defendants should have rights), they are seeking to remove the time-limits that set deadlines by which cases should come to court.
Presumably the SNP’s Green lackeys will support them at Holyrood tomorrow. What about the other parties that are represented in the Edinburgh parliament?
Once upon a time Karl Liebknecht said it all in eight words, for which he got imprisoned:
Down with the
coronaviruswar!Down with the government!
Big kudos will be earned by any MSP, from any party (including if they are an SNP backbencher or a frontbencher who resigns), who votes against the proposals that Nicola Sturgeon and her crew are trying to rush into law.
Defend jury trial!
Don’t let prosecution testimony be accepted as evidence unless it is open to challenge by cross-examination by the defence.
Here’s a job for Alex Salmond – oppose the government on these two points.
Getting close to tooth nerve I think.
So cheesed off with all this crapola, Craig, that Mrs Tinto and I have chipped in some dosh on a monthly basis. Despite objections from the legal establishment in Scotland, jury trial is to be suspended and today we have this intrusive “investigation” into your finances.
I wish you the best of health and I’d toast you with Lagavulin if I could find a bottle.
Costco sell Lavagulin
Great news, thanks. Unfortunately, have been out already this week. I have some sweet corn to trade…..
Tinto, please tell me it’s not true that Jury Trial has been suspended in Scotland? If it has, Why?
I believe as part of Coronavirus response by the SG to protect jurors, as the official reason goes.
See here in latest article
https://off-guardian.org/
‘Scotland’s “Sinister” Covid19 Response – Suspend Trial by Jury’
That’s not the half of it!
That’s me also subscribes, I have been reading your blog to get the real information for ages, and feel this latest attack form the MSM ,the least I can do if give you some financial support
Craig, you are obviously getting somebody worried. The Daily Record is owned by Reach plc. I wonder what would the reaction be if someone sent a similar email to Nicholas Prettejohn (Chairman of the board)
Jim Mullen (CEO). Perhaps someone could dig the dirty on them. Just a thought.
I’ve set a standing order of £10 into your bank acc on the 1st of every month starting tomorrow .
A E Mackay
Proof positive that the MSM is a government shill for suppressing independent thought, is not using its position in society to disseminate proper journalism and creates the fear, loathing and hysteria in society that we are currently seeing with CV-19 – irresponsible, presstitutes peddling government propaganda, creating fake news and suppressing dissent. They now willingly serve a Government recently elected who have made numerous statements over the years (all Tory Governments since Cameron have done this) about stifling ‘disinformation’ (aka as the truth unless it is peddled by them), picking of and savaging publicly individuals who do not conform to their narrative (murder of three innocent men in Gibraltar anyone in which the witness, a woman, was dragged through the gutter, an ordinary civilian, by them) I could go on. Look at the absolute savaging Jeremy Corbyn was subjected to – unprecedented for a politician or the Leader of the Opposition in UK Parliamentary history just to get this Fascist, irresponsible, incompetent Government elected. If you can Craig, use your blog to keep highlighting and post on other blogs too. I have been looking at Peter Hitchens on the CV-19 it is brilliant and is on the Mail Online blog page. I hope you and your family can weather any storm that is brewing around you.
@ Jo Dominich March 31, 2020 at 18:50
Have to correct you, Jo, on a couple of points there. It was two men and a woman assassinated in Gibraltar, and they certainly weren’t innocent, though the authorities in Gib knew that the car they had parked in Gibraltar was not loaded with explosives, and that they were not carrying ‘button jobs’ (remote detonators).
They knew they had parked the car in a spot to reserve it, for it to be replaced later by the car containing the bomb, which was if I remember parked in Marbela in Spain.
The Spanish police knew the IRA’s plans, and had followed the three in cars and a helicopter, and kept the Gibraltar authorities fully updated – they could have arrested them when they drove into Gibraltar, but chose to let them park the ‘marker’ car so they could assassinate them when they where leaving.
You are right about the woman witness’s character being rubbished through the press.
I had gone to Gib specifically to witness the ‘Inquest’, and got harassed by Special Branch in the Inquest building, had my film confiscated while out-and-about in Gib by someone I recognised as being a border guard (the day after I had taken pictures for an Irish magazine (the journalist had asked me to, as he did not have a photographer with him), but much to the plods’ chagrin, I had already given the negative film to the journalist, and had a new film in my camera), and I’m pretty sure they also tried to fit me up in La Linea (just across the border in Spain). An English-speaker befriended me, and invited me to his ‘friends’ house; when his ‘friend’ opened the door, the smell of hashish was overwhelming, and I walked off, to his anger.
Ha! It seems that this heavy-handed attempt to embarrass and discredit Craig may have backfired upon the perpetrator– the comments already reflect a decided “Streisand Effect”.
For those unwilling or unable to view the linked “Mental Floss” article, here are salient excerpts:
In 2003, [“superstar” Barbara] Streisand sued photographer Kenneth Adelman for distributing aerial pictures of her mansion in Malibu. At the time Streisand sued Adelman for $50 million, the picture in question had been accessed a whopping total of six times—twice by Streisand’s lawyers. Nonetheless, her lawsuit stated that the photos explicitly showed people how to gain access to her private residence.
Of course, news outlets around the world reported on Streisand’s outrage, and before long, the photo on Adelman’s website… had received well over a million views. The photo was also picked up by the Associated Press and was reprinted countless times. […]As if single-handedly causing the exact thing she didn’t want to happen wasn’t bad enough, Streisand also lost the lawsuit; the judge ordered her to cover the $155,567.04 Adelman incurred in legal fees.
Craig, I sent a message to Paul H to ask him to cease and desist.
Thanks for your dedication to Truth & Democracy
Sounds like Hutcheon is jealous of your journalistic skills, and the fact that you do what he cannot, dig out the facts and report the story properly.
Is it any wonder then the shitrag he works for is circling the plug hole with regards to sales figures. Then again who’s to say the British state isn’t secretly funding the propaganda news rag.
You should indeed have told the gossip columnist where to go, in fact I would be tempted to involve the police as this is harassment and not even the snivelling Scottish media is allowed to indulge in that, not to mention that if a complaint is made I have come to understand that the police must investigate – so they’d have us believe over Mr Salmond’s accusers.
I wish you all the very best and take great care of you and yours .
Craig, I used to have some respect for Paul Hutcheon. However, when I learned about his “private proclivities” which a real journalist should investigate, and as a former police officer bothers me, I would suggest he now go back under the stone from which he crawled.
Better than that, I recently subscribed to your website and shall be asking my friends subscribe to and consider getting a slice of their news from a decent, honourable (and forgive me) you as a brave journalist.
One last thing Craig, when Covid-19 is over, if you will name one of the rooms in your B&B the “Hacked Off With Hutcheon” suite, I and my partner will come and visit as your first paying guests. Better still, my website has between 60,000 and 135,000 visitors depending on what we feature. It is a propert based blog and I would be happy to feature your new B&B for free.
Don’t let that slithery littl creep and his dying dead-tree media rag spoil your day. It is a badge of honour when the intellectual insects start nipping and your toes.
Best wishes, Al.
Dreadful behaviour from Hutcheon of the Daily Record.
There are reasons why Clegg left the Record and Hutcheon left the Herald and joined the Record. Should Hutcheon wish to tell us? Did he know Alex Salmond’s accusers, does Clegg’s move sideways a way to distance the Record? Maybe they could tell us.
Which journalist had a tete a tete at Bute House. Reason I need to know? Just wondered what it is like to be a journalist in the 21st century.
I could point the disreputable journalist toward ‘heroes of the NHS’ who were junior doctors in London, before relocating as consultants to work in Hull. They bought, mortgage free, 6/7 bed town houses in Beverley after selling their London pads the best part of 20 years ago.
It is not exactly an unknown occurrence folks leaving London and acquiring bigger properties elsewhere.
But I doubt your furry friend will do any kind of broader trawl of ‘south-north relocation plans’.
What was the Daily Record’s output like on the Salmond trial? Full of scurrilous innuendo which had to go past the lawyers to be sure that it would not be libellous?
Also not sure that entry into journalism requires you to live in a rat-infested hovel formerly used by junkies to shoot up on smack.
I do wonder how many employees of the Daily Record would fail drug tests if they were monitored by satellite prior to a timely raid to take blood samples?
This proves you are hitting the target you should be pleased and flattered. By the way good luck with the B&B not easy work by any means.
A lot of people are bored right now. Joy riders have worked out with less traffic on the road they can go through red lights.
Newspaper editors have worked out that if they want some news stories they have got to invent them.
Your private finances and Salmonds private life are not news, but they calculate you might get riled and produce an incident.
Instead the only story he’s got is his own insolence.
Nil carborundum. Good luck with the building works.