On The Scotsman iPad app: Brian Wilson explores Alex Salmond’s battle with the BBC

IT STARTED out as a minor affront, but escalated into a major public affair. Alex Salmond’s reaction to being ‘banned’ from appearing on a televised rugby show has certainly been well-documented.

In a month where two of his fellow MSPs, Joan McAlpine and Mike Russell have been criticised for ill-advised comments, and he himself was the subject of a parody video depicting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, perhaps Mr Salmond could have chosen his words better when he used the word ‘gauleiter.’

Brian Wilson writes: ‘However, for any politician, it is a bridge too far from such innocent collateral exposure to an assumed right of omnipresence. And it is the duty of broadcasters to protect themselves and their audiences from being used and abused in this way. Someone has to make that call and not everyone shares Mr Salmond’s view that the nation is cruelly deprived of seeing enough of him.’

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