ALEX Salmond has been accused of acting like Donald Trump, after accusing the “yoon media” of presenting an “alternative reality” to Scots.
In an echo of President Trump’s attacks on the US media over "fake news", the former First Minister said people should not trust Unionist papers that always criticised the SNP.
Short for Unionist, yoon is a term of abuse for No supporters on social media.
Despite previously asking SNP supporters not to denigrate their opponents online, Mr Salmond used the term himself in a video blog for a north-east paper on Monday.
On Friday, the Gordon MP used the same outlet to acknowledge local firms had “very legitimate” concerns over a costly business rates revaluation starting in April.
This prompted Mr Salmond to post a “sequel” to deny an SNP split.
Holding up English and Scottish editions of the “Tory-supporting Daily Telegraph”, Mr Salmond said a parallel rates revaluation in England was having an even more grievous effect there.
He said: “So what’s the point of the sequel video today? It’s the Scottish press today, or some elements of the Scottish press.
“Now, I won’t call it the fake facts media, or the fake media, or the alternative facts media, because that would be to quote the President of the United States, and you don’t have to be a racist or a misogynist to know when stories are being distorted.
“So I like to call it in Scotland the yoon media. That’s that element of the Scottish press who interprets any story, any issue, and makes it an attempt to either attack or discredit the SNP.”
Holding up another press cutting, he went on: “So therefore you get ‘SNP split over business rate row’. Which SNP split is that?
“One of my other favourites is one of the yoon media says Alex Salmond gave some credit to the SNP government for the Small Business Bonus Scheme. Some credit? I introduced the Small Business Bonus Scheme.
“So it does provide a fantastic example of, not what we’re going to call fake facts in Scotland, but the alternative reality which is presented by elements of the yoon media.”
“The business rates issue - an important issue in itself - actually provides a spectacular example of why anybody looking for reality in the politics of Scotland will have to look beyond the column centimetres of the yoon media.”
Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said: “While he might complain about ‘alternative facts’, it seems as if Alex Salmond is the one trying to distort the truth.
“Just days ago he said there was legitimate argument against these rate rises, clearly putting him at odds with Nicola Sturgeon and his party, who are determined to push them through.
“It seems as if he’s been told off by the First Minister and is desperately trying to backtrack.”
LibDem MSP Mike Rumbles said: “Alex Salmond seems to have adopted a strategy of Donald Trump in trying to discredit the media. His argument that the media are presenting an alternative universe is a slippery slope to what we are seeing in America.”
A Labour source said: “It looks like Alex Salmond taught Donald Trump all he knows about sowing division. After all, it was Alex Salmond who first attacked the BBC, criticised journalists for reporting facts he didn't like, and attacked an independent Supreme Court judge."
An SNP Government source said Nicola Sturgeon did not believe there was a “yoon media”.
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