It has been a feature of the Rangers saga that the Fitba Fourth Estate hid under the duvet while outsiders reported the story.
Alex Thomson of Channel 4 News is an outsider to the cosy cartel of Glasgow sports hacks and so, of course, is Professor Roy Greenslade the Guardian’s media blogger.
They are on the klan’s hate list because they both saw the value of the work on this site and provided supportive words to be included in Downfall.
The Sevco sitcom was a chance at journalistic redemption for the Glasgow hacks, but quelle surprise, they failed again.
In March they churnalized breathlessly about Dave King’s imminent take-over of the new club.
The common dominator appears to churn out whatever they think will (1) please their main demographic and (2) allow them succulent access to Ibrox.
The central tenets of journalism just seem to be acceptable collateral damage to what they do.
The lexicon of denial about liquidation is now firmly in place with the Glasgow hacks.
Rangers ‘exited from administration’ then they were ‘demoted to the bottom tier of Scottish football’ and soon they ‘will be back in the top tier’.
This is what the Ibrox home crowd want to hear. The club company myth is pleasing to them in the same way that life after death seems an appealing thought to a chap in the condemned cell.
The club/company myth is central to the marketing strategy of the people now running Scottish football.
That is why RIFC/TRFC would be wise to settle on two years compensation for Charlie Telfer and not take it to the Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS).
There, in forensic detail, the reality of death and taxes would be laid out in open court and no amount of spin from a Glasgow based hack could deny it.
Best to take the sixty grand lads and you’ll be grand.
There would probably be a stenographer in that court taking down the proceedings verbatim.
However, it would be risible if the note taker pretended that they were carrying out the functions of a journalist.
What Professor Greenslade had laid out today in the Guardian are more inconvenient truths about the coverage of the biggest scandal in Scottish football.
For the record Roy does not have and nor does he require a seat in the Press Box at Ibrox and he will not cry himself to sleep if he never gets an ‘exclusive’ from Super Ally.
For the avoidance of doubt his Guardian media blog is the most influential within the British media and when he calls you out like this:
“The reporting of the Rangers’ saga over the past five years has been a classic example of reporters being no more than stenographers for PRs offering them stories they didn’t care to verify.”
Well then you really should know that your journalistic credibility is simply off the radar.
