Journalist; Born April 6 1976; Died October 2 2008.
MALCOLM "Calum" Macdonald, who has died of cancer aged 32, was a journalist of immense esteem, integrity and ability whose brief career spanned some of Scotland's leading newspaper titles. In just eight years, his charm and persistence combined to produce some of the best remembered stories in the Evening Times, Daily Record and The Herald since the turn of the decade.
Born in Dumbarton, Macdonald attended Bonhill Primary and then secured a scholarship to Keil School in the town, becoming dux in 1992 and senior chief in 1993. There he secured the support of Labour MP John McFall during school elections, the member for Dumbarton personally addressing Keil pupils on why they should "Vote Calum".
Despite a newspaper round into his mid-teens, the legal profession, rather than journalism, appeared to be Macdonald's chosen path and he began a law degree at Aberdeen in 1994. But within a year he had switched to literature, attaining an honours degree.
He began his journalism career in 1999 at the Lennox Herald, where then editor Bill Heaney gave him work experience. Within months he was full-time at the Stirling Observer and already attracting the attention of Scottish national titles after securing an exclusive interview with leading Ulster Loyalist Michael Stone after an encounter with him in a Glasgow hotel.
In 2001, Macdonald joined the Evening Times in Glasgow but after just nine months he was poached by the Daily Record. There he is affectionately remembered for his declarations of "you'll never guess what just happened", which rarely disappointed.
On one occasion, he was taken into the home of the now-deceased Glasgow gangland figure Tam McGraw, following reports McGraw had been assassinated. While inside, the gangster - still clearly alive - dropped his trousers to show he had not been stabbed or shot.
Retaining a grip on his exclusive story, the reporter duly advised the anxious members of the press pack outside that they could find out what happened by buying the next day's Record. Typical of Macdonald's ability to move seamlessly between the populist and high-brow, the encounter was later recounted in the pages of The Economist.
Macdonald's courteous tenacity disarmed many, most notably the former Scottish Executive minister Mike Watson in November 2004. Hours after CCTV footage showed Watson setting fire to curtains at the Scottish Politician of the Year awards, he brusquely denied his culpability to Macdonald. Presented with images of the incident and informed he was being recorded, the former Labour peer answered: "I can't say that that's me. I'm not saying it's not me. It's not conclusive." At his trial, Watson's defence claimed the incident might never have reached court had the images not been published following the tussle with Macdonald.
Macdonald was unfazed by reputation. John Humphrys was once pursued after the formidable BBC broadcaster, in a book, listed the old Scots preposition "outwith'' as one of his pet hates, and a trendy new coinage. Macdonald proved the word had existed for centuries, then called upon an academic to comment, whereupon the Today presenter was described as a "blethering skite". The following day a penitent Humphrys wrote the journalist a personal e-mail, making a "terrible admission of ignorance".
In 2004, Macdonald instigated a Herald investigation into the prevalence of cash machines in deprived areas charging customers for usage, with the matter then raised in a Commons committee chaired by his old friend John McFall.
More recently, his involvement in an investigation exposing the immigration scams behind bogus colleges helped force a tightening of legislation by Westminster.
The culmination of his natural inquisitiveness, forensic attention to detail and fascination with the human angle was his coverage of the World's End murder trial. In the two years leading up to the trial of multiple killer Angus Sinclair, he had secured interviews with the accused's wife and officers involved in the initial investigations into the murders in Edinburgh of Helen Scott and Christine Eadie 30 years ago, as well as exclusive pictures of Sinclair's first victim in the early 1960s. His unsurpassed coverage of the trial's collapse provoked a fall-out between the Lord Advocate and senior members of the judiciary, and earned praise from the legal establishment.
Within a fortnight of what was the highlight of his career as a journalist, Macdonald was beginning a two-year law degree at Glasgow University, his natural aptitude for journalism giving way to a latent desire to enter the legal profession. At Glasgow he attained the highest grades in a number of aspects of the law. Although he secured a scholarship with leading practice McGrigors, where he was told he was unlikely to surpass the ramifications of his World's End coverage in his legal career, he maintained a desire to work for the Crown.
He also found a home for his pedantry by becoming a part-time sub-editor with both The Herald and Sunday Herald, where he would quietly confess to re-evaluating colleagues' work.
Macdonald had intended to revisit North Uist, where recently he traced his family roots in a journalistic exercise for The Herald, but was prevented by his brief but brutal illness, which was endured with stoic good humour and fortitude. He is survived by his partner, Lloyd, parents Calum and Jackie, sisters Mhairi and Laura, and four nieces and a nephew. His passing has been felt deeply across Scottish journalism.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article