Beattie Media
Beattie Media was founded by former journalist Gordon Beattie. The company has grown to be one of the largest independent PR businesses in Scotland, and until a scandal related to the lobbying side of the business in 1999, Beattie Media enjoyed remarkable success in attracting clients from across the Scottish public sector.
Beattie Media launched Public Affairs Europe in April 1998, a joint venture of the commercial lawyers Maclay, Murray and Spens. Jack McConnell (now Scottish First Minister), the former general secretary of the Scottish Labour Party was recruited as a director, as was George McKechnie, a former editor of The Herald.
McConnell’s links with Beattie Media were later to become central to the Scottish Parliament Standards Committee’s investigation of the Lobbygate affair. He was recruited by Beattie Media because of his political connections and prospects:'We appointed Jack McConnell … to head up our public affairs consultancy, in the certain knowledge that Jack would get a safe seat from the Labour Party, and in the hope and expectation that he would also get a cabinet position within the new administration. So we knew that Jack was going to leave us. (Observer transcript 1999: 2). Concern centred on the probity of such an overtly political appointment given the history of sleaze at Westminster. Damian Killeen, Director of the Poverty Alliance in Glasgow, wrote to The Herald expressing his fears:
The growth in the number of lobbying companies in Scotland, in advance of the Scottish Parliament, is happening with relatively little critical comment. Some of these companies are staffed by people who recently or currently have occupied prominent political positions. There is little doubt that their access to senior politicians is an important part of these companies’ sales pitch. Government in Scotland has, so far, done little to disassociate itself from these developments. What signals does this send out to those who are looking to the new Parliament to provide a level of accessibility and inclusiveness? (Killeen 1998: 16)
National Semiconductor spy scandal
Below is a copy of the communications plan drawn up by PR firm Beattie Media and national Semiconductor and leaked to union activist Jim McCourt on whom the company was spying. This document was scanned into a text file from the original. Every effort has been made to ensure that it is an exact replica. consequently spelling and grammatical mistakes have not been corrected.
For further information about this document, National Semiconductor and their PR firms (Beattie Media and subsequently the breakaway BIG Partnership), see National Semiconductor Spies on Union Man US computer firm hired Beattie Media to spy on workers' By Neil Mackay Home Affairs Editor, Sunday Herald August 12, 2001
Spinwatch Resources
CONFIDENTIAL, NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR (U.K.) Ltd. (Greenock) COMMUNICATIONS PLAN 19 January, 1998 [1]
External links
- National Semiconductor [2]
- Beattie Media
- Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
- Global Semiconductor Health Hazards Exposed! CANCER CLUSTER DETECTED IN SCOTTISH HIGH-TECH WORKERS SAYS WALL STREET JOURNAL, DANGEROUS IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. WORKERS
- SVTC Action Archive Spring, 1998 Nightmare in Silicon Glen by Leslie Byster
