I think regular readers will attest to the fact that I do not expect much of the Stenography Corps.
For the avoidance of doubt, there are honourable exceptions in the Fitba Fourth estate and they know who they are.
However, many on the sports desks fall within the “we were told to call him a billionaire” category of pseudo-journalism.
It is perhaps ironic then that I read the recent plotline on Planet Fitba in a small country that suffered a Stalinist Anschluss, occupation by the Third Reich and then an enduring Soviet colonisation during the Cold War era.
The guided tour around the National Library of Latvia on Monday afternoon was inspiring on so many levels.
That there are today Latvians speaking Latvian is a triumph of the human spirit and it made me think of my parental decisions that put three Gaeilgeoirí out into the global Gaeltacht.
I was in Riga wearing the green jersey at a conference for European writers.
Explaining mo sloinne was a perfect point of connection for my new Latvian friends.
Some of our hosts were able to provide me with personal testimony to the crimes against truth during the Soviet era.
It reminded me of the brilliance of NUJ member Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell.
In the last decade, I have come to terms with the fact that when matters Ibrox are dealt with by the Stenography Corps the hacks morph into functionaries of the Ministry of Truth on Planet Fitba.
However, even my cynicism took a battering as I read the recent the reportage on the Celtic Boys Club (CBC) issue.
I found what I considered to be the salivating glee being dressed up as faux concern for the victims to be utterly nauseating.
Moreover, the fact that Peter Lawwell made reference to the club’s insurers should make it clear that there could currently be legal restrictions in place.
However, it would appear that such realities matter not a jot if there is an opportunity to smear Celtic.
My information is that the Parkhead club is on very firm legal ground apropos their corporate separateness from CBC.
However, for many that is a distinction without a difference and the club is, in some way, morally liable.
That is a perfectly respectable view to hold on this matter and one I have a great deal of sympathy with.
Although Celtic may have acted correctly from a corporate responsibility stance, the optics are terrible.
There is, to my mind, the need for a fully open and independent judge-led inquiry into the whole of Scottish football on this issue.
This IS a huge story here and it is almost certainly much bigger than the CBC aspect of it.
The public interest is undeniable and requires further investigation and greater transparency.
The fact that Celtic carried out a secret probe into allegations over a two year period also needs to be addressed.
So far, the public utterances of victims would point in that direction and I’m with them totally.
They are the most important people in all of this.
However, the motivations of many who have recently entered the public arena as champions of justice for the victims and their families have to be questioned.
Quite frankly this subject is, in many ways, above the pay grade of the average football scribbler.
Indeed, I doubt that there are many on the sports desks of Glasgow are educated to post-graduate level on anything at all let alone Social Work or Psychotherapy.
Of course, there is no need for that CV to be extant in a newspaper department that focuses on intellectually taxing matters like offside goals and transfer stories.
To those of us who are qualified in child protection, we silently carry the scars of what we became aware of during our careers.
I am regularly haunted by the memories of child abuse investigations that I took part in and the deviousness of the offenders that I supervised on probation.
However, my main memories of that career are of the broken lives that I tried to assist within the bureaucratic structures that I had to operate within.
During that time I had statutory power as a Mental Health Officer (MHO) under the 1984 Mental Health (Scotland) Act.
That piece of legislation, despite the Orwellian year, was positively humanitarian in the concern for those with mental health problems.
Many of the adults I cared for had childhood experiences similar to those innocent kids who came into contact with people like Gordon Neely and Jim Torbett.
Dear reader, I never thought that when I started writing about Scottish football that I would have to bring any of this to the table.
The Stenography Corps failed as journalists a long time ago and I stated that at the time in 2009.
I accurately predicted a decade ago that there was a financial tsunami heading towards Ibrox.
Since 2012 they have simply pretended that it didn’t really happen the way that it did.
Here is what a professor of journalism thought about the Daily Radar back in 2014.
It was after this piece by Roy Greenslade that I started to use the term “Stenography Corps” to describe the chaps on the sports desks who fitted the description.
However, in gleefully delving into his subject with scant regard for the emotional well-being of the victims they also fail as humans.
The wounded souls who had their childhoods stolen as they dreamed of sporting stardom really do deserve better than to be unwitting props in a Two Minutes Hate of Celtic on the back pages.
We know abuse took place and as a club we are morally if not commercially connected. We as fans should be holding our club to account.
There was a connection, of that we cannot deny. To otherwise distance ourselves is corrupt.
Legally we can distance our club of this I am sure.
Morally we need to do the right thing.
Totally agree with all the sentiment. The whole of Scottish football should be investigated. Do think we have a moral duty though, no matter. I also think that all other clubs should face up to the past. Our club has been dragged through the mire for heinous crimes from the not too distant past. As Phil says the media are loving it to get at Celtic pretending to be concerned of the victims.
I remember the old 8 page Celtic view newspaper format in the 1970s and they would give you match reports on all the Celtic boys club teams and the impression they left was that it was Celtic FC . Celtic should face up to the past and face up to what happened under their name and pay compensation to the victims instead of Lawwells embarassing denials .
As a foster carer I have seen the devastation that sex abuse can do to children’s lives, whenever I go to social work training usually about 40% of the carers present are looking after children who have been abused by their own families so this issue is far more widespread than we can imagine, my issue is with the previous board members who were obviously very close to Torbett & I can’t figure out why he was ever allowed back to the boys club & I hate to say it but the whole thing stinks & needs addressed.
I haven’t seen the article referenced, I couldn’t care less what the writer has to say on any matter. However, J. Mather is spot on in much of his analysis. To pretend there was never any association between the boys club and the Club is fantasy at best and morally corrupt when referring to the institutional abuse that permeated the boys club. If indeed that fantasy was true, then why as stated would Celtic have carried out a 2 year covert investigation. Yes, there needs to be a wider lens on institutional abuse in children,s clubs in all sports but you do a disservice to all the victims by focusing on the miscreant endeavours of a rancid breed of tabloid reporters. If there is any comment to be made then just call out the supposed custodians of our club for their morally corrupt stance or in their language, their PR/business incompetence! Anything else could be misconstrued as carrying the whiff of unnecessary deflection.
Paedophiles went wherever they could have access to children. No religion, nationality or culture had a monopoly on this.
Jackson and his outrageous rantings are only the start of the off-season onslaught against Our Club,this will gather traction as We approach season 2019/20.Not to mention their distortion of anything newsworthy coming out Celtic FC.
Very difficult and serious subject but,well written and maybe even a wee ‘faux pas’ Phil as you stated;
‘Indeed,I doubt that there are many working the Glasgow sports desks…’
For me that ‘many’ has an extra m.IF the cap fits…
HH🍀
If a stranger was to arrive in Scotland to investigate child abuse they would initially discover that this evil practice was the sole preserve of the Catholic Church and Celtic Boys Club such is the portrayal in the media.
Other cases have been reported briefly and swiftly forgotten as the editorial and political slant in this woeful country is pointedly anti Catholic and, as they see Celtic as the sporting wing of Catholicism, anti Celtic.
The focus of these I’ll advised and defamatory articles are aimed, primarily and vociferously, in one direction.
These poor victims being publicly used as pawns in the hate game.
The thousands of supporters of many football clubs in this land who wallow and revel in using child abuse as a twisted point scoring exercise care not one jot for the victims. For all they know they are sitting next to a person who is a victim themselves. It is disgusting to behave in this manner and should be pilloried by the press. The press don’t see this as a problem as they themselves act as cheerleaders for these fools.
This evil practice of child abuse is to be found in all areas of life and has been particularly covered up in the higher echelons of society. Not that the Scottish media will ever be interested in the slightest about investigating that.
Shame on the twisted hypocrites and may the poor victims find peace.
Sports ”journalists” should stick to the subject they know best (mugging off Celtic whilst bumming up the zombie cheats) and should be nowhere near the topic of child abuse. Their lack of knowledge and empathy shines through and with no Jabba to assist them here they are obviously out of their depth and lost.
They should just stick with gossiping about transfers and brown-nosing Glibby. HH
The term ” GUTTER PRESS” could have been coined specifically for them. Their insensitivity knows no boundaries. Their intellect has many!
Hi Phil, What you suggest has to be done. Until then, the Jabba mob who print their bile to the tunes of hate, popping off pages of inuendo, are never going to relent. There are many more “clubs” who fall under the magnifying glass, who need looking at. When I was a wean, pals told me of shenanigans in the **. Never a word spoken of them or similar organisations who had children at their disposal. Sick minds and sick people, do these kind of horrid things to children. Time to disinfect the system, once and for ALL.
The article written by Jackson is an affront to journalism and I hope that Peter Lawwell has his legal team all over it.
I doubt if a low feeder like Jackson has any empathy for the victims as he delights in having a pop at Celtic.
Let’s not forget that this is the eejit who introduced Craig Whyte to the Rangers fanbase as ‘a billionaire with wealth off the radar.’
We know how that turned out but it begs the question as to why an award winning journalist, wow, would pen an article without an ounce of evidence to support what he had written.
Like SDM, was he also ‘duped’? Nope, no one believes that for a minute.
Just what incentive or motivation did Jackson have to scribe such a huge lie which should have seen his employers booting him out the door?
There are at least 2 issues here. Firstly, most of us do not actually understand the legal/corporate relationship between CBC and CFC, myself included. In fact, we don’t have a clue. That includes why this organization was ever allowed to use our name in the first place. This cuts to the issue of why we are investigating an organization to which we have no corporate connection in the first place. The more we involve ourselves, or even talk about it, the stronger that connection appears. Especially to the uniformed. Secondly, given the fact that we were associated or connected in some indeterminate fashion what is the degree of our moral culpability here? I suspect there is some, or much. The legal/moral implications of this are as yet unknown. I think the club needs to make a statement on the “connection” between CBC and CFC, its extent and nature.
Phil, i played for Celtic boys club. Jock Stein’s son George played in my team. Jim Torbett was the manager. Do people honestly think that if Jock Stein knew he would have allowed his son to be part of the boys club. We also knew we were not affiliated to Celtic.
Like Bhoy 67 I also played for Celtic Boys Club (cbc) at that time I was in the under 13s I remember Mr Stein standing on the sidelines watching his son George play for the under 16s, and like Bhoy 67 I was told that the boys club were not affiliated to Celtic F.C.(CFC). This was back in 1971