Journalists? don’t be fooled…

[jack1690 793]

I haven’t been on all weekend, but this morning I have noticed a fair amount of blocks directed at various journalists starting with sentences like “to be fair to Cosgrove…” or “well done Traynor”.

I really think some people should get there head out the sand in respect to this– these guys have been trying to bury us for the last months and simply because we won the BTC and they are backtracking doesn’t change that fact. Are we all so needy that when we see a positive article from Traynor we suddenly think he is on our side?

In our society one of the checks and balances that should be in place against rabid Internet based gossip and blogs such as the RTC blog should be a free and impartial press. They are supposed to be the people who do the actual digging about and get the facts and present them in an impartial manner to the general public.

Every journalist I have read failed utterly in that respect. Not only did they not do their job – they actually jumped on the Internet blogging bandwagon and effectively became a part of the very thing they should loathe. Additionally, sports journalists suddenly became tax experts overnight – or tried anyway - with laughable results.

I don’t know the reasons why they done this – some of them will be cellic supporters, some of them may simply not be very good journalists, some of them may be lazy, a combination of this or another reason all together. Some of these people may start to be issuing backhanded apologies, or trying to turn the whole tax issue into a morality question, (rather than a legal one, which they lost) or have started to write very positive stories about Rangers.

I don’t think for one minute these guys have suddenly seen the light – I think a light has been shone on their profession in the last 9 months and these guys were found utterly wanting and its slowly starting to sink in how shockingly they have behaved.

But I also think the backtracking is a lot more self serving than that. I really believe that MIH lawyers are going to be going after everybody they can who is in any way implicated in any leaked info from HMRC – and once you set lawyers in motion, they won’t stop. I hope the recent case with Lord McAlpine sets a very recent precedence in this respect. Here was a man accused of child abuse because someone on the Internet said so. He has successful settled out of court with the BBC and ITV and his lawyers are going after every twitter account they can find - with some high profile celebrities in the firing line.

So I think that some of these apologies from journalists will be them “getting there digs in first” - before the lawyers come calling, just as some of the positive stories now will be an attempt to try throw MIH lawyers of the scent. However, I really hope that for a lot of these journalists things are going to get a lot worse as the Scottish press failed the general public and failed the Rangers support (who by and large didn’t know the facts either and were themselves desperate for information) - when all they had to do was their jobs.

One of the mantras I have seen in the last 9 months was “never forgive, never forget”. We appear to be half way down the path to ignoring that – and it’s only been a week.

Well said mate. Too many of our fans are taking the "lets forget this and move on" attitude.

This is precisely the attitude that has got us where we are now, though that was called "dignified silence". Both same in my book.