Brig over troubled water

Stirling University’s other newspaper has been slammed by students for failing to mention busgate in its December issue and allegedly censoring itself.

There was also concern raised about whether Danny is really the frontman of McFly

President of the Debating Society Aodhan Byrne bashed Brig in an email, listing a litany of lows. He accused them of:

• A “lack of journalistic prowess” in failing to write at length about the infamous video of the men’s hockey team
• “Self-censorship” because the paper is read over by Sabbatical officers since an unkind article about Sodexo 18 months ago
• Not doing its job as campus’s only print newspaper, especially when it is “generously funded by our Students’ Union”
• Ignoring recent developments in the story: “The hockey boys have been forbidden to represent the university and have received a month’s ban from campus. This is something that is well-known but only on the grape-vine and ought to be have been properly reported by our student newspaper.”

Brig, which debuted in 1969 (the same year as the now-retired Concorde), included an allusion to the incident in its editor’s column and then a few paragraphs in a full-page article about lad culture in general. It did, however, post articles about busgate on its website.

A lady came into the store one day, asking for some news. She went home bitterly disappointed.

Although editor Graham Swann declined to comment on the matter, Brig‘s Facebook page responded to accusations of censorship by saying “Brig was not censored in this case and the newspaper hasn’t been at all this semester” – suggesting that it has been subjected to censorship in the past.

Byrne wasn’t the paper’s only critic. Politics Society member Maria Ristimaki defended the paper’s position that busgate was no longer news – before adding that “the front cover of Brig is hardly a source of news for people”.

Miriam Brett – previously a vocal critic of The Tab – took to Facebook to complain that a story about officer restructure had made the front page rather than busgate.

Her concerns were countered by Brig writer Sean Heron. “We “tackled” a controversial issue by reporting about it on the website when it happened with subsequent updates. What we didn’t do was drag an issue out that had nothing new just to remind everyone that it happened.”

Graeme Swann has been criticised by some for his recent performance.

Michael Wilson, the university’s Engagement Officer, sent a rebuttal email to Byrne’s (but not to all the original recipients) that defended Brig on the basis of its three articles about busgate and the lad culture debate that appeared on Brig‘s website. He also took the opportunity to criticise The Tab for merely “adding ‘gate’ to the end of a word and publishing an article about it (alongside graffitied toilets and Spencer Matthews’ penis)”.

Wilson then wildly, inaccurately claimed that Byrne is a friend of The Tab. (We’ve never even met him, but thank him for his praise in the Brig-bashing email.)