The Sun Statement- Not Enough

[Skelf 1,153]

As The Scottish Sun reel on the ropes from a determined and active Rangers support threatening a long term boycott after their revelation yesterday that they were due to serialise a new book from bigoted blogger Phil Gillivan, their reaction today following their decision to cancel the serialisation is not enough.

It’s worth taking a step back to analyse just what has happened over the last couple of days.

As soon as the story broke yesterday, Vanguard Bears took a decisive piece of action and posted an article requesting that the Rangers support boycott the Scottish Sun. We also contacted the club, the Rangers Supporters Assembly, the RFFF and influential Rangers supporters “Rangers till I Die Northern Ireland”

Yesterday’s Sun on Sunday carried a story from journalist Simon Houston about Gillivan, also known as - The Failed Journalist, prior to the release of a book by the blogger.

I wouldn’t wish anyone to think that we here at VB would just be happy with the headline news that Gillivan has been thrown to the wolves by the Sun. Yes, there is a vindication not just of our calls for a boycott yesterday, but our longer term campaign against hypocritical bigots, of which Gillivan is perhaps the most extreme.

It’s also vindication that the Sun Editorial explaining their reasons, states emphatically that Gillivan is a bigot whose blog undermines the (newspaper) industry

It’s still not enough.

If the Sun believes we will be silenced and palmed off as they attempt to quietly move on, they can think again.

The article itself that was published yesterday was riddled with inaccuracies, lies and misinformation. It most probably contravened the PCC Editors Code of Practice.

It’s worth re-printing it in full:

Phil - The Failed Journalist ... blogger who rocked Scottish football

I broke the story about Gers going bust ... now I live in fear of my life

By SIMON HOUSTON

A SCOTS blogger who broke one of the biggest stories in Scottish football history has revealed how sinister death threats have left his family living in fear.

Police are probing a series of online threats against Phil - The Failed Journalist, who was first to report on the huge tax bill which led to Rangers going to the wall.

The 53-year-old Glasgow-born writer has been given specialist security advice by cops in Donegal, where he lives with his wife and three children, and has been told to keep his movements secret.

Blogger - The Failed Journalist has spent four years investigating the financial crisis at the Ibrox club, producing a string of exclusives, but the stories have come at a huge personal price.

He has become a target of sectarian hate from extremists in the west of Scotland and Northern Ireland and now spends his life looking over his shoulder.

- The Failed Journalist said: “Almost like turning a tap on, the abuse, smears, libels and threats started the moment I began writing about Rangers and it has never gone away.

“One came through the other day, about bullets and wishing my family dead and how ‘we’ll start with your daughter’.

“Some of the obscene threats and comments made about my family I can’t really begin to talk about.

“I’ve made full statements to the police in Ireland, who have advised me on my personal safety and that of my family.

“The information has been passed to Strathclyde Police.

“All because of a football story.”

His new book Downfall: How Rangers FC Self-destructed is out next week and will be serialised in The Scottish Sun from tomorrow.

It charts the club’s remarkable fall from grace and is tipped to shoot straight to the top of the Scottish bestsellers list, with pre-sale orders already through the roof.

- The Failed Journalist became an internet phenomenon four years ago after writing about the controversial Rangers anthem The Famine Song, which was later ruled as racist by the courts and banned from Scottish football grounds.

Then in May 2010 he handed now defunct Sunday paper the News of the World the story which rocked Scottish football — by revealing that the taxman sent Rangers a demand for a staggering £24million.

It was one of a string of predictions - The Failed Journalist made about the Glasgow giants’ perilous financial state which came to fruition.

Speaking exclusively to the Scottish Sun, the self-confessed Celtic fan denied being motivated by a hatred for Rangers and insisted he would investigate the Parkhead club with the same vigour if information came his way.

The former social worker and mountain rescue team leader, who moved to Ireland 15 years ago, says he won’t be put off by the threats — but has to take special measure to keep his wife Kathleen and his three children safe.

He said: “Obviously I can’t talk specifics but we have to be very mindful about our personal security and it has had an effect on our lives.

“Fortunately my son and daughters are old enough for us to sit them down and explain how it is. The highest risk is when I’m coming to Glasgow when I have to be mindful about where I’m going, what I’m doing and who I am telling.

“But it won’t stop me. If that stuff was going to stop me, it would have worked by now — maybe back in 2009 when I was starting out on this road.

“As far as I’m concerned, an attack on a journalist is an attack on journalism and an attack on journalism is an attack on democracy.

“In Ireland, where I live and work, threats against journalists are taken seriously — particularly after the murders of investigative reporters Martin O’Hagan and Veronica Guerin in recent years. My wife has always been really supportive and she told me she was really proud of me.”

- The Failed Journalist has become in internet phenomenon with more than 15,000 followers on Twitter.

The writer, who started using the Irish version of the surname Gillivan to identify himself as an Irish-speaker, put his head above the parapet while writing about the notorious Famine Song.

And while abuse quickly followed from some angry Rangers fans, so did the story tips from people in the know, including well-informed Ibrox sources.

In January 2009 he began blogging about the financial woes of the Rangers parent company Murray International Holdings.

He said: “Then in early 2010 I took a phone call about Employee Benefit Trusts and how the club had been hit with a big tax bill, so I did some digging and when I realised I had a story, I cultivated a couple of sources — people who took professional risks to bring me information, who I will never name.

“But I had enough to take the story to the News of the World because the story needed to be told in the mainstream media and they splashed it on the front page.

“It ran in May 2010 and was the first in a series of articles.

“Then all sorts of stuff came my way, from the same sources and other new ones, about a tax tribunal and how Rangers had offered to settle but that had been rebuffed by HMRC.”

After the Craig Whyte takeover in early 2011, - The Failed Journalist was among the first to report on the disgraced businessman holding back PAYE and VAT payments, which was the final straw for the taxman.

He also reported on sheriff officers turning up at Ibrox over unpaid taxes.

He added: “Once I started writing about Rangers and my name became known, people started to contact me — some were genuine and some weren’t. Throughout it all, - The Failed Journalist has had to contend with an online smear campaign.

He said: “There was a clear campaign to discredit me and the message I was trying to make about the Famine Song in 2008, which if it was about any other ethnic group it would be on CNN.

“There were various fabrications made about me which if they were repeated in a newspaper, for example, I would have wealth off the radar.

“They invented a reason for why I left Scotland.

“The simple answer is we wanted our kids to grow up in Ireland.

“My dad’s from Mayo and my wife’s mother is from Derry and it felt like home.

“But I like coming back to Glasgow because it’s my home town. Take Ireland out of my personal story and replace it with Italy, and suddenly it’s not controversial.”

He added: “If the Rangers fans had read what I had been predicting three years ago — even if they had pretended it was written by someone else — and taken it on board, maybe the club wouldn’t have gone to the wall.”

Strathclyde Police confirmed that a complaint had been received about threats against the journalist.

A spokesperson said: “There was an investigation and a report was made to the procurator fiscal.

“However there was insufficient evidence and no arrests were made.”

When you read this clap trap, that the Sun have now pulled, you can understand why we decided rather than dissect it immediately, the most effective course of action was to apply the necessary pressure to the Sun to “pull” the book serialisation.

Now that that has succeeded, we will return to the article in detail.

- “A SCOTS blogger who broke one of the biggest stories in Scottish football history has revealed how sinister death threats have left his family living in fear.

This would of course be the Scots blogger that claims he is Irish, and has an Irish name.

“The 53-year-old Glasgow-born writer has been given specialist security advice by cops in Donegal, where he lives with his wife and three children, and has been told to keep his movements secret.”

Why no comment from Donegal police?

Why no pictorial evidence?

Do his Wife and three children still live in Donegal with him, or are they in Clydebank following an acrimonious split? I think we should be told

If he has been told to keep his movements secret why do most of the events he attends in Scotland get publicised prior to the event?

- The Failed Journalist said: “Almost like turning a tap on, the abuse, smears, libels and threats started the moment I began writing about Rangers and it has never gone away.

It seems that anyone who challenges a known bigot is guilty of abuse, smears libel and threats. To Date, no one has been charged with any such offence, or even arrested. Is this then just a lie, and didn’t the Sun think to check these claims for themselves?

“In Ireland, where I live and work, threats against journalists are taken seriously — particularly after the murders of investigative reporters Martin O’Hagan and Veronica Guerin in recent years. My wife has always been really supportive and she told me she was really proud of me.”

Was that before or after she left him?

As Simon Houston then recounts several of Gillivan’s “successes”, it should be noted that most of these events were first reported on the Rangers Tax Case blog, not Gillivan’s blog.

He said: “There was a clear campaign to discredit me and the message I was trying to make about the Famine Song in 2008, which if it was about any other ethnic group it would be on CNN.

“There were various fabrications made about me which if they were repeated in a newspaper, for example, I would have wealth off the radar.

“They invented a reason for why I left Scotland.

Vanguard Bears are aware of this story, printed on other forums, and should make it clear, as we know the truth, that Mr Gillivan was not responsible in any way shape or form for the death of William Smith, in his previous job as a Social Worker. It was just an unfortunate coincidence that Gillivan worked for Shettleston Social Work at the time it happened, however, we are informed that Mr Smith was not on Mr Gillivan’s “beat”.

So, now that we’ve made it clear we are only interested in the truth, we should crack on.

The crux of the story here is this. Gillivan is a apparently a good guy threatened by big bad bigots for daring to write about Rangers, but Strathclyde Police state there is no evidence. Why then run the article?

McGillivan is a bigot and there is no football fan online who hasn’t heard of him. Most know his recent background.

It’s his more distant history that is disturbing.

Gillivan, who first rose to prominence on the Slugger O’Toole blog, used to write for IRA Publication An Poblacht

http://sluggerotoole.com/profile/phil-mac-giolla-bhain/

He was also co-founder of IRA Fanzine TALFanzine

His sick rant about Rangers, as replicated in David Leggat’s blog, http://leggoland2.blogspot.co.uk/2012_08_29_archive.htmlshows that Gillivan is a sick individual that who should have no place at a mainstream news outlet.

So, while Scottish Sun Editor Andy Harries can throw Gillivan to the wolves to protect himself

“…But because the author — previously unbeknown to us — is tarred with a sickening sectarian brush.

We believed Phil - The Failed Journalist to be a proper and sound journalist. Channel 4 News chief correspondent Alex Thomson obviously agreed and wrote the foreword in the book.

He was wrong and so were we..”

He can’t just walk away from this and pretend a quick apology excuses the book being chosen and the background of the author ignored.

The Journalist who wrote Gillivan’s sob story yesterday morning is also a Celtic Supporter. Simon Houston.

Upon the article being published, it was noticed very quickly that Houston’s twitter account followed a Who’s who of Rangers haters, with the journalist in regular contact with various anti Rangers activists. He has since deleted his Twitter account

The Editor Andy Harries, formerly of the right wing Daily Mail rag, would have made the final call on running both the original fantasy piece from Celtic supporting Houston. He would also have made the call on serialising Gillivan’s book about Rangers.

The fact he sanctioned both calls his journalistic integrity in to question.

He should now sack Houston and resign

Anything less would be a whitewash, and no Rangers fan should buy the Scottish Sun until such time as a tangible decisive step in favour of integrity is taken.

Calling an occasional freelancer a bigot hasn’t cost Harries anything more than a source. It should cost him and Houston his job.

[corkinator 611]

Excellent, keep up the fight, this is the start of many battles I believe.

[Blue Knight 9]

Once these bastards start losing their jobs as a result of their dishonesty they may become better people and make a living that does not involve abusing and insulting the intelligence of the people.

[Carsons Dog 9,878]

Someone in HMRC has breached the Data Protection Act on numerous occasions

Are the Police going to investigate this?

[corkinator 611]

Someone in HMRC has breached the Data Protection Act on numerous occasions

Are the Police going to investigate this?

THIS......you may find fhilthy ends up in the pokey too.

[Redwhiteandblue 3,330]

Brilliant stuff there. I can't see the editor handing in his resignation though.

[bigmunsen 64]

I have to say alot of this stuff is new to me but i am shocked that these people are getting away with things like this, if this was a rangers fan who had any connections to this or that it would front page headlines and we would be yet again the scourge of scottish society. While the poor celtic fans are victimised. Glad to see that there is people out there fighting this.keep it up guys.

[delamonty 992]

Excellent work as per usual VB

[stefmartin16 121]

Excellent article. Keep up the good work. WATP

[Kaiser Wull 203]

More good work by VB. The truth needs to be known.

[LaudrupNIAR 5]

Brilliant response. I will never ever buy the Sun again.

[cooper1972 29]

Brilliant artical, well done m8, I wouldnt be buying the sun

[Skelf 1,153]

Please stop Pos repping the OP, its not my work, just copy and paste

[GeneralCartmanLee 313]

so three names no longer killed somone in his care.... interesting

[thiepvalwood 33]

so three names no longer killed somone in his care.... interesting

What a very strange part of the article to focus on.

Well, possibly not in this case.

[GeneralCartmanLee 313]

What a very strange part of the article to focus on.

Well, possibly not in this case.

it was the only new bit of information contained within....

[ritchieshearercaldow 22,241]

Harries won't quit but if his circulation figures drop then Mr Murdouch will be asking questions, he hasn't forgotten what Liverpool fans did to his rag

[Bear78 96]

Excellent work

[crabbit bear 139]

Thats excellent work VB. Weve been letting these cunts away with this shite for too long, with the dignified silence shite. Look where thats got us, theyre running the whole fucking country. Its now just about a criminal offence to be a Rangers fan, we cant sing a song or shout anything a little controversial at a football match.

But they smellie bastards can sing and chant with fucking impunity, or hang a few banners with murdered protestants on them, but thats just for the craic.

Well done guys we need people like you more than ever.

[crabbit bear 139]

DP

[lathos 21]

Harries won't quit but if his circulation figures drop then Mr Murdouch will be asking questions, he hasn't forgotten what Liverpool fans did to his rag

I know Andy Harries from his time at The Daily Mail....arrogance doesnt even begin to describe the guy....he is someone who wont be losing sleep over this, it will take someone else to make him resign over this, he doesnt have a conscience.

[Davy 68]

Great work again by the VB lads.

[Agentorange 17]

Thinking about this depraved story and how it ever got to press astounded me. If I call the sun and say I'm a journalist would they take my word? After what happened with the NOTW I would have assumed that any story would have to be triple checked and sourced . So is the editor of the sun saying he has a lazy journalist on his staff or more realistically a deep rooted bigot?

[baxfanalex 113]

Please stop Pos repping the OP, its not my work, just copy and paste

Like many who have left a rep I'd just like to thank you for the work you put in to pull this together. We get snippets of info and the constant drip feed of bile from those without the guts to openly attack. I have noticed that we're all settling down to enjoy the Rangers Journey and the support for the team is incredible. I also detect that a line has been drawn and I believe our directors are atune to it too. Nemo Me Impune Lacessit. At long last the fight's not just on the pitch.

[MisterC 12,377]

Please stop Pos repping the OP, its not my work, just copy and paste

Neg repped you to help even things up