Thursday, January 28, 2016

Mafia? No! Spiers, The Herald and something within Scottish football

The Scottish media are a curious bunch. The newspaper market, in its heyday, was described as the most competitive in the world.

And the tag was probably accurate. Scotland has had a plethora of news titles in a country with a small population and high levels of literacy, at least amongst potential readers.

Add to the local inks, “Tartan” editions of the London titles and you should have a vibrant, not to say, cut-throat scene in which only the best would survive, through ever-increasing standards and innovation to fend off relentless competition.

That's the theory, anyway. But Scotland is a unique country in more ways than one and one of the things that sets it apart is the ability of its institutions, official and cultural, to defy the normal rules of operation that govern commerce, sociological change, the media and more.

Of course, such isolationism can be romantic. Read Heinrich Harrer's Seven Years in Tibet to discover a world in which people once lived blissfully unaware of the outside world, lovingly worshipping their deities and beatified leader, slow to anger, quick to laugh, and all while observing medieval norms of existence.

The Tibetan equivalent of the Enlightenment was a 20th-century appreciation that heritable debt was an indefensible wrong – something to which Scottish society did not awaken until 2012.

But if Tibetan society was hamstrung by a lack of democracy, for example, waiting for their leader to be “discovered” after a sign-driven search by a small pool of qualified monks, Scotland was able to nurture thinkers such as David Hume and Adam Smith; engineers like John Loudon MacAdam and Thomas Telford; scientists like William Thomson (better known as lord Kelvin) and Alexander Fleming.

We could go on – painting from Raeburn to Howson; literature from Scott to Welsh, architecture from “Greek” Thomson to Rennie Mackintosh.

The list seems inexhaustible – philosophy, art, innovation, engineering, design – all unencumbered by the fatalistic whims that may divert well-meaning monks, guided only by sign and by symbol, from their discovery. In such fertile land, even the broadcast seed (without which, in a sense, we may never have had Chi Mi`n Geamhradh) could scarcely fail to thrive and bear fruit.

A newspaper industry going back more than 250 years; the possible inventors and indisputable propagators of the worlds most popular sport. Did I omit to mention television, in which John Logie Baird planted a saltire in Glasgow's Central Hotel 90 years ago this week?

Imagine the envy of our “peers” – of whom there are damned few (and none surviving) – when considering Scottish football's first-mover advantage, supported by a highly-developed media machine. Pity those in other countries, resentful of our dominance because they never stood a chance.

Imagine some enclave of our heritage had been left to the fortunes of monks.

If that prospect caused a bead of sweat to pearl on your brow, I apologise. I can only offer the warm milk of a modern, objective, fearless and favourless, media, football and cultural plurality that can scoffingly withstand the adrenal scrutinies of the paranoid.

Oh, did I mention the Scottish football “media”? That uniquely erudite brotherhood (rarely invaded by annoying little sisters, for a multitude of obvious reasons).

They are an oft-maligned class but few of their detractors fully appreciate the pressures attendant to their endeavours. Public scrutiny, visceral criticism, occasional whiffs of smelling-salt-like innuendo. Scorn, derision, abuse – and then the unfair reactions.

No wonder they close ranks, defend each other to the hilt, communally hone swords to wield as one against all attackers.

Except … there is (and a plague on Latin) always a caveat.

Should you inhabit that stateless land of the ethereal Internet, national stereotypes will be applied to your buffoonish insomnia. You are a raging partisan, your views to be dismissed because whatever love you claim to speak of dare not utter your name.

And standing strong as a unit is not a flaw in character to those who recognise the value of solidarity. So external attackers can expect to be rebuffed – witheringly disdained as “online”, as the common fashion dictates.

We could call this “closing ranks”, protectionism or use many other terms intended to describe people “looking after their own”, without regard to ethics.

But there is another, more easily-identifiable threat that sniffs the polluted air that the Scottish media would seek to occupy. It represents an overbearing constituency, driven by self-delusion, narrow-minded resentment and supremacist aggression.

Its geographical bases are known, as are many of the ranks of its personnel. And yet, somehow, this entity escapes retaliatory, never mind pre-emptive strikes. Defensive actions are of the type that are likely to leave loyal footsoldiers disillusioned.

Because accusations of cowardice are as absurd as those of infiltration. And charges of hypocrisy would surely be rejected as the rantings of an unruly mob without legitimacy.

So, what should we make of The Herald's proud apology for and on behalf of the title and Graham Spiers?

Spiers questioned the will of some at Ibrox to challenge the increasingly loud, guttural roars of legions of customers who believe that spleen-venting expressions of eye-popping prejudice are the best way to prove that 144 years of tradition are alive and in rude health.

He alleged – as noted in the Herald apology – that “at least one member of the current Rangers board thinks that The Billy Boys is a tremendous song”.

He went on to mention managing-director Stewart Robertson (without any reasonable accusatory allusion to him): “There has been real progress made at Rangers in recent years. Mr Robertson and your ilk, please don’t slow it down.”

The Herald chose to use a picture of Mr Robertson, to illustrate the story.

The result has been that, at the time of writing, the apology is the most-read “story” on The Herald website.

It could be inferred from Spiers's comment on Twitter, “Is my opinion - doubting the Rangers FC board's mettle to fight bigoted chanting – 'inaccurate'?”, that he did not authorise the apology on his behalf. That in itself – a news title putting words in the mouth of a writer – seriously questions a title's journalistic ethics.

When one of the leading Scottish sportswriters feels the need to go to social media to have his view heard, we are facing something dramatic.

We can imagine, especially from the statement, that Spiers is anguished by this but that is something we can choose to care about or not.

What is more deserving of our immediate attention is what is happening in Scottish football, with special current reference to stories circulating around the club claiming the history of Rangers.

We have “journalists” clearly, laughably, doing the bidding of Level5 PR. Representing Rangers. I was present at a social gathering during which one news hack angrily objected to the condemnation of the news media, outlining the threats – necessitating police communication relating to his family's activities and whereabouts – that he had to endure.

Recently, the BBC's Chris McLaughlin has been banned from Ibrox – again – at least keeping Graham Spiers company.

The Herald went far beyond a simple apology. Not only did they speak for Spiers (without his consent, as he says himself), they pulled the piece from their website. No minor edit with an explanation as their footnote.

They admitted that they should not have published the piece (that's what editorial responsibility is – and it is exercised pre-publication), they left their own writer marooned (the convenience of using freelancers – a staffer could have challenged them) and they completely capitulated without the least pretence at a defence of editorial integrity.

And, however the very vulnerable freelance Spiers tries to be diplomatic, the title has hung him out to dry.

Will the Scottish media professionals stand with Spiers? Will the National Union of Journalists? It may be rash to second-guess those stalwarts.

Did any BBC journalist question whether Jim Traynor may have breached the BBC charter in representing narrow, paid interests whilst still employed by the state broadcaster?

Did Graham Spiers – or did he, like every other mainstream journalist, ignore the inconvenient truth?

Cosa Nostra – “something between ourselves”, as a very loose translation.

Whether the personnel are monks or Mafiosi, we can see something that is being directed from above and the wise will observe “omerta”.
The Internet is inhabited by lunatics and fools. We should await the leadership of the real media – you know, the ones we can trust.

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Rangers must uphold progress by resisting return of 'the old songs'

2:05pm Wednesday 30th December 2015

Rangers FC, in whatever guise you recognise it in the post-2012 period, has made considerable strides to eradicate bigotry around the club.

Whereas as recently as 10 years ago – and it really was excruciating – Ibrox Stadium resounded to sectarian chants, in more recent times the atmosphere has been cleaned up, with erstwhile dodgy songs adored by many Rangers fans being put on the back burner.

It would be totally wrong to ignore this progress at Rangers. I remember the summer of 2006 when Paul Le Guen arrived at the club. Ibrox was mired in “fans issues” and bigotry, and Le Guen was utterly perplexed by it all.

One of the first things the Frenchman had to do was take part in initiatives set up by the club, begging Rangers fans to stop singing these songs.

To a large degree, many of these measures worked. Rangers made significant progress in quelling its bigoted sentiment, and the club made great strides in the years ahead. Ibrox, I believe, in time became a much healthier place in which to watch your football.

The Billy Boys, an anti-Catholic anthem beloved of Ibrox, was put on mute. Indeed, for a number of seasons it seemed to disappear completely, at least at Rangers home games. This, surely, was progress.

But few of us had any illusions about it. More than once I’ve been told that, if you venture onto a Glasgow subway train with travelling Rangers fans, their old anthems can be given quite an airing. The old songs appeared to have survived and thrived, being sung with gusto whenever a more guarded context will allow.

And then there were these occasional public eruptions of it, such as at the infamous 2011 League Cup final at Hampden, when some of the choral stuff exhumed by the Rangers support that day took us back to a pre-Enlightenment period.

It is staggering, in this day and age, to hear stuff about Catholics, ******s, *****s, the Pope and the rest emanating from thousands of people. It is as baffling as it is sad.

Now this Rangers FC board – and I am not convinced by their mettle on this issue – faces a fresh test.

At Ibrox this week we heard a further eruption of what might euphemistically be called the “old songs”. It was another example, amid all the progress that Rangers have made, of the cap being blown off, and of some Rangers fans getting back into the party mood in the way they like best.

Social media was very interesting following that Rangers-Hibs game on Monday afternoon. Setting aside some preposterous stuff from the Rangers Supporters Trust, who were in full denial mode, there were a number of Rangers fans openly lamenting the re-emergence of these songs, and condemning them.

I have said this often enough: there is a new generation of Rangers supporter that the club should nurture and cultivate. They want nothing to do with this old obsession with “******s”. They are modern, decent, football-loving fans who love the game and love their club.

Rangers need to embrace these supporters, and leave to one side those others – including some official fan groups – who said after the Hibs match (I paraphrase): “Well done, lads, terrific stuff, great atmosphere, great to hear the old songs…”

Will this Rangers FC board, as has been required in previous years, step up to the plate? I hope so, though I doubt it.

I write as a journalist who has been banned by Rangers. None of that aspect bothers me. Football clubs sometimes do these daft things. I want nothing but the best for Rangers as they ascend towards the Ladbrokes Premiership. Indeed, I want Rangers challenging for the Premiership title as quickly as their football will allow.

But when Stewart Robertson, the new Rangers managing-director, informed me of my press ban, I would say his demeanour was that of someone somewhat embarrassed by the action being taken.

I do not believe Mr Robertson is anything other than a decent man – but his pitiful reasons for my ban, which included my past criticisms of Rangers over bigotry issues, sounded distinctly unconvincing.

It also doesn’t help right now that at least one member of the current Rangers board thinks that The Billy Boys is a tremendous song. This being the case, the club may well go backwards, not forwards.

On their dreaded songs issue, I hope this Rangers board go forward, not backward. I hope they are pro-active, not passive. I hope they acknowledge a potential threat, and don’t lapse into denial.

But, frankly, I’ll believe it when I see it. Banning writers who write about the issue is an ominous start.

It is now 39 years since Willie Waddell, then the Rangers general-manager, made an on-field public declaration which signalled an end to Rangers FC’s old anti-Catholic policy. I was there that day at Ibrox as a 12-year-old kid, though the fuss then was beyond me.

It remains my belief that, taking that day as a starting point, it will take 50 years for Rangers to fully flush out its bigoted baggage. There are pitfalls along that long road, as we witnessed again this week, but at least the journey is being taken.

There has been real progress made at Rangers in recent years. Mr Robertson and your ilk, please don’t slow it down.
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Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Incompetent SFA challenge fans to boycott the game

Physical embodiment: The SFA
'Understanding' is a two-way process. To be effective, an organisation needs to listen to the opinions of those with whom it deals and not solely provide information. Issuing a barrage of propaganda is not enough in today's open society.

So say none other that the Chartered Institute of Public Relations as a footnote to their definition of what their organisation is all about:

“Public Relations is about reputation – the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you.

“Public Relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics*.”

It is a definition that seems to have passed over the Scottish Football Association's heads at high altitude. But then PR is under the direction of the Communications department, which is headed by Darryl Broadfoot.

Broadfoot always seemed a strange choice for such a wide-ranging role. Having worked his way up – with some assistance – to being Chief Football Writer at The Herald, Broadfoot's path to success was one more appropriate to pre-1980s Britain, eschewing university for a much-sought-after job as a teenage “copy boy” at the title.

He was, by all accounts, well-liked – grafting, doing as he was told and giving no one around him an inferiority complex. His football affiliations were well-known by his workmates, which may well have facilitated a close working relationship with David Murray.

But he did as well as could reasonably be expected of someone with his abilities and some might say he deserved praise for that, though few would accuse him of self-sacrifice in the name of journalistic integrity. He was also the man who referred to the “Greek Sagas” and had a brief but infamous association with Michelle McManus, meaning that to the football-supporting public, he was something of a figure of fun.

At that time he seemed incongruous at The Herald but little did we know that his was the shape of things to come with Chris Jack and Matt Lindsay following in his footsteps.

There was little, then, to suggest that he was in any way suited to heading a major department in the national sport's governing body where modern, outward-looking, strategic communication was a key requirement.

It could even be said that only an organisation that would put the likes of George Peat, Gordon Smith and Campbell Ogilvie at its head would be so backward as to appoint a friendly football writer who had paltry education, no qualifications and a very limited relevant skill set.

To communicate with all the SFA's publics, they turned to someone who had spent his entire career with one newspaper, much of it with wiser heads looking over his shoulder.

Is Broadfoot promoting “goodwill and understanding”, in the CIPR's sense of the words? Could anyone say that the SFA enjoys a strong reputation? Or would it be more accurate to say the the Association transmits a “barrage of propaganda”?

The report from John Clark at the Scottish Football Monitor of his meeting with Broadfoot and Alan McRae makes astonishing reading.

First, the President of the SFA is apparently deemed incompetent to answer any of the most pertinent questions put to him. Let's be clear – the Head of Communications may sit in on an interview and occasionally butt in, should the interviewee drop a clanger that requires clarification.

It is not his job to speak for his boss because, quite simply, the boss is supposed to know better than anyone what his organisation is doing. The PR may handle routine press inquiries and briefings but could you imagine, for example, if Alastair Campbell didn't consider Tony Blair capable of outlining Labour Party policy?

There is only one time when such tactics are used and that is when obfuscation or shooting down dissent is required. And that is when the organisation knows it is not on solid ground in its dealings.

Perhaps even more remarkable than Broadfoot's comment, “for the purposes of this meeting, I am the SFA,” which apart from the hubris is a clear indication of McCrae's perceived competence, is what Clark attributes to him about football supporters' concerns being heard:

“Mr Broadfoot opined that the future would show whether Scottish Football supporters were really concerned about the old club/new club debate, if huge numbers turned their backs on the game.”

There, in a nutshell, is the SFA telling fans that if they keep buying tickets they will be ignored. Only by turning their backs on the game will the issues begin to be addressed.

It is rare for any organisation to challenge its own customers to abandon it but that is exactly what the SFA, through Darryl Broadfoot has done. It is over to the fans to respond.

*(“Publics' are audiences that are important to the organisation. They include customers - existing and potential; employees and management; investors; media; government; suppliers; opinion-formers.)

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Monday, January 25, 2016

Stokes lack of ambition befuddles Matt Lindsay

Befuddled: Blame Stokesy
In a world of austerity and belt-tightening, many in Britain are staring at uncertain times.

A cruel Tory government is launching a relentless attack on the poor and vulnerable, with the bedroom tax and hacking cuts to support services bringing misery to many.

But there's always someone worse off, so they say, and at present that someone appears to be Matt Lindsay.

Matt's a curious chap in that his writing is often surprisingly upbeat. Vying in healthy competition with his close colleague, Chris Jack, he has had a laudable tendency towards (royal) Blue Sky thinking, admittedly mostly when predicting halcyon days at Ibrox. (Giving succour to the suckers, you might say).

But in recent days Matt seems to have been turning lemonade back into lemons – and, not for the first time, Anthony Stokes is prompting the disharmony.

Stokesy, it seems could “start a fight in an empty hoose” but he has exceeded all previous expectations by creating conflict in the inner sanctuary of Matt's comfortably-furnished mind.

A mere fortnight ago, he was on fine form, lauding Mark Warburton's capture of two players from Accrington Stanley and mentioning a whole clutch of Celtic failures to boot.

This was Matt in his pomp. Sycophants have come and gone, tilting for his crown but Matt shows a deftness in his lionising of the club currently calling itself The Rangers, urging those with a less nuanced appreciation of the game to recognise the unique qualities of lower-division football.

Stokes:All mouth - no ambition
But in a matter of days, the bachal that is Stokes and Ronny Deila somehow contrived to upset the cart leaving Matt floundering under a deluge of them apples that he clearly doesn't like at all.

On Friday, he was citing Ronny's decision to loan Stokes to Hibs (after agreeing terms with at least two other clubs) as causing “Rangers concerns”, noting “the striker could help to prevent Rangers from winning promotion to the Premiership”.

“The switch has been queried by many in Scottish football,” he wrote without naming anyone who had queried the move outside his own swivel chair, “because Hibs are currently vying with Rangers, who are just five points clear in the second tier table with 16 games remaining, for a place in the top flight.”

Scurrilous stuff and the fact that other clubs should be allowed to strengthen their squads to challenge for the Championship title, is indeed cause for concern.

By today, Matt had found a new one of his not insubstantial broadsides to deliver. The fact that Stokes chose his former club suggests to Matt that Ronny: “had good reason to harbour misgivings” about Stokes.

“The fact the 27-year-old decided to go to a lower league club which is situated within a short commute of his West Lothian home leaves him open to accusations that he lacks ambition and a desire to resurrect his career,” Matt thwacked, apparently forgetting that Championship football is where its at and where the UK's most prolific goalscorer-cum-penalty-taker has his stamping ground.

“Is O’Neill going to be bowled over if he scores against Alloa or Dumbarton?” Matt asked, seeming to have forgotten that victories over such clubs have appeared to have got Matt very excited indeed in recent memory.

In questioning the ambition of a player choosing the Championship Matt sails dangerously close to the rocky waters of denigrating players at other lower-division teams.

Matt concluded that success or failure for Stokes would be disastrous for Deila: “But he is in a no-win situation here. If Stokes does shine at Hibs – and he started his time there in an encouraging fashion at the weekend when he came off the bench and scored in a 3-1 victory over St Mirren at Easter Road – it will give ammunition to those who maintained he should have been featuring all along at Celtic.”

But, something about the flimsiness of that barb seemed to suggest that our esteemed sportswriter had lost heart.

It is difficult to see how this can end well for Matt. Perhaps Michael O'Halloran will yet leave St Johnstone to sign for a Championship club and that might cheer him.

But, of course, much will depend on O'Halloran's ambition.

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Sunday, January 24, 2016

How to understand the news from Ibrox

 Having trouble keeping up with the story of The Rangers/ Sevco story?

Try our handy translation tool:

dignity – thuggery
Craig Houston unveils The Rangers style guide
defend – intimidate
vindicated – fabricated
parity – supremacy
truth – lies
lies – uncomfortable truths
myth – fact
journalism – spin
media – Level 5
biased – honest
bitter – rational
agenda – objectivity
Graham Spiers – Pope Benedict
Alex Thomson – Pope Francis
143 – 3
30m – zero
King – crook
enemies – everyone
legal – illegal
within the rules – cheating
punish – implement rules
charity – slush fund
survive – perish
living – dead
liquidation – administration
relegation – new membership
creditors – suckers
taxable – avoidable
history – Rangers
Rangers – Sevco
old – new
No surrender! – We're f***ed, aren't we?




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