Sevco Fans War With Against The Truth Goes On

I give our hacks a hard time, as everyone is doubtless aware.

They deserve it.

I think many of them are lazy. Others are useless.

Some are simply biased and can’t write with anything approaching objectivity.

There are some who are moral cowards, others who would watch our whole sport disintegrate because they lack the imagination to conceive of it being better and others still who simply suck off a game whose fans they plainly hate.

You could pick a hundred reasons why I don’t rate any of them.

I have suggested no longer buying their papers.

I have said our club should ban the worst of them from Celtic Park, because if you’re going to constantly criticise someone, and for no reason at all, then you ought not to expect to be allowed to do it from a soft seat in their living room.

Celtic supporters, as a whole, are fed up with these people and their credibility with us is just about zero.

We don’t like or respect them.

But we draw the line, and always have, at threatening them or trying to do them out of their jobs.

Everyone knows that Jim Spence took a lot of stick from Sevco supporters, and for the simple act of pointing out to them what every single person – including them – knows full well; that the club they once followed is gone and that they follow a NewCo.

His case drew a lot of attention and a lot of us feel he was badly let down by his bosses at the BBC, who many believed pandered to the mob instead of standing by their man.

If a man like Jim Spence could be hung out to dry, what chance others, those without the might of the national broadcaster standing firmly behind him?

Since then we’ve seen other journalists under attack too, everyone from Andrew Smith in the Scotsman to the long running campaign against Graham Speirs.

This is to say nothing of the treatment the bloggers get; numerous members of our community have been threatened and others have been targeted in ways too sinister to properly contemplate.

Entire Sevco fan sites have been devoted to assembling information on, and harassing, those who work in the blogosphere.

Many of us have chosen to work in anonymity as a consequence of this.

Even something as innocuous as sending a tweet can make you a target for these reprobates; numerous Celtic fans on Twitter have found themselves immortalised on Sevco sites simply for re-tweeting pictures or messages.

On some occasions, the people responsible for this cyber-stalking have actually lobbied the workplaces of their targets in an effort to have them fired.

Their deplorable behaviour knows few boundaries.

Criticism of their club, whether right or wrong, indeed, even commentary on it, makes you a target.

Last week I wrote a piece on their intolerance and ingratitude for On Fields of Green, where I highlighted the treatment being meted out to freelance journalist James Doleman, who has been covering the court proceedings involving the club.

The abuse he got was disgusting and quite unhinged.

There he was, trying to bring information to people who otherwise would only have the low Level PR version, and they slated him for it.

In the piece I marvelled at their embrace of ignorance over enlightenment, at the way they would rather not hear or read inconvenient facts and prefer to live half in a fairy tale of their club playing European football in two years.

Over the weekend, I was astounded to discover that Jim Spence has heard stories about another journalist whose job is now under threat because of these people who can’t stand to be confronted by the reality of their club’s situation.

Jim didn’t name the individual, to keep him from further abuse, and I don’t want to speculate on who it might be, but his disgust was obvious and his anger was equally apparent.

Jim still reveres the profession, and it offends him to see these people subjecting his colleagues to this appalling treatment.

That doesn’t matter to them. Very little does.

These people are determined to continue waging war against the facts and the truth and against any opinion they don’t like, not to mention those who hold those opinions and dare to voice them or put them into print.

These people are a serious, and continuing, threat to the well-being of Scottish football and even their own club.

Their behaviour is an affront to a free and informed society.

They are so busy with internal naval gazing they’ve lost sight of the ways in which their issues are a cause for concern for everyone who cares about our game.

Even their own fans must be disgusted by their behaviour.

To read my article on these people, from On Fields of Green, click on this link.