Who is Alan Clark of the Daily Record?
What major news story has he ever broken?
He self-defines as a freelance journalist, but I can’t find evidence of actual journalism anywhere.
He’s part commentator, part stenographer, one of those guys you send to do a puff-piece interview. The sort who never has an original thought or writes an original thing, the kind of guy who reads all the blogs, nicks their ideas and then condescends to their writers and readers.
Some of those readers are his readers.
I find it somewhat stupid to be such a patronising prick to those whose indulgence your profession depends on.
Tonight he closed off his stunning, certain to be award winning, piece of internet fluff on “all you need to know on the Sevco AGM” with a dig at the bloggers over the Great Ibrox Water Theft of 2016 and the Celtic Resolution 12 guys.
Now, on the first part, regular readers will know that I don’t think that story stands up – or holds water hahaha – but that I wouldn’t be surprised if I was wrong.
But I have total respect for those who wrote it, more respect than I do for the likes of Clark.
These are people with balls, people who try to find things out.
Sometimes they grab the sword by the blade but that’s a risk they take, and without the protection of legal teams.
The dig at the Resolution 12 guys – the “Celtic fans who ask about Rangers” – is typically crass and ignorant, and more than we should be willing to accept from a bog-roll rag that has never once asked some of the questions those boys have.
On top of that, they found answers, and getting a single media outlet to look at those and report on them has been like trying to get fish to swim in a straight line. Those guys have presented Clark and his cowardly colleagues with the cast iron story to end all stories.
They’ve decided not to write it, for their own reasons and I don’t care whether they are just ignorant or craven, my respect for them is the same.
Zero. Nada. Nil.
The article itself is pure vanilla.
It lays out the agenda but none of the questions the fans should be asking, like where the money to pay the bills is coming from.
Like whether the manager was ready for chucking it during the summer.
Like whether they can keep the roof on.
None of those issues – fairly important ones, I’m sure you’ll agree – are suggested.
Because that might cause problems.
That might rock the boat.
And God forbid you ask how Dave King came by the money to pay Sports Direct off, whether it was by fair (or legal, for that matter) means or foul.
They definitely shouldn’t ask whether the damage they’ve done to their relationship with their sponsors will have a long term impact on earnings.
They should refrain from looking into the relationship between Club 1872 – the “independent” fan organisation – and the board, or whether that group purchased shares from an existing director to pay off part of Jailbird Joey’s walking away fee.
Too much for a guy writing an article on his coffee break?
He certainly got his memo from the Ibrox PR department, as he was pushing the utterly discredited line that the Barton settlement only involves money paid until January. He’s keen to remind fans of the litigation the club has opened against Green, Ahmed and others but is oddly silent on the fact Sports Direct has opened litigation against the club.
Guess the fans don’t need to ask about that, eah?
This halfwit doesn’t get to take a shot at anybody, not after turning in sub-standard guff like this, and it gets worse when you consider that one of his colleagues actually wrote a halfway decent piece on our own coming AGM, presenting the fact without the snide digs.
It’s not a Pulitzer Prize winning piece by any means, but it is sober and straightforward instead of dripping with weak sarcasm.
It’s not factually correct either, by the way.
The key mistake the writer made was that he swallowed the line about Celtic being reluctant to back Resolution 12 because it would be seen as interference in the affairs of another club; once again, this misses the point. Resolution 12 wasn’t about Rangers; it was about the SFA.
That should matter to the Record and to the rest of the hack pack and it doesn’t.
I hate that we have to keep spelling this out to them.