We all know the media in this country are a pretty supine bunch. But every now and again, one of them shocks you by embracing radicalism. By taking not so much a bold step as a giant leap into the dark. The thing with stepping – or leaping – into the dark is that you never know if there’s a hole in the floor, or a series of bear traps or simply someone, or something, hiding in the shadows running a scaly tongue over cracked lips.
I love it when our media does this, such as when they embraced Craig Whyte at a time when many of us were laughing our heads off at their gullibility and lack of research. They were just begging to be made look ridiculous, as the club itself had been begging for someone like him to come along on a platform of bluff and bullshit and appeals to their vanity.
Take a look at this; from the Instagram of David Tanner, from Sky.
He made other comments which he either swiftly deleted (but not before some enterprising folks wrote it all down) or put behind the “friends only” firewall.
“Warburton spent his time telling us he’d been “misquoted, as usual” – seems unlikely for anyone who said so little. He won’t be missed. I spoke to some of his former colleagues today. Ouch.”
Brave. Just the kind of searing examination we need to see more of in the media.
Then to ask the new boss if he knew what “a square go” was …
Probing, insightful, the question the whole country was just begging to know the answer to.
Hey, Jackson and the rest; I hope you were paying attention.
This is what real journalists do.
And I think that’s great.
I admire that. I really do.
I take my hat off to David Tanner because I think that what he did here soared to new heights of daring.
It also plumbed new depths of sycophancy, but I care about that less than I do about the gutsy way he had a public pop at Mark Warburton in the knowledge that he would no longer have to face him. I admire the obvious courage it took to let fly with what were obviously deeply held, long time, views on the man, once he was no longer in the country or, more appropriately, in the Sevco job where expressing such sentiments might have got the Sky presenter into trouble.
There’s no courage quite like kicking a man when he’s down, or blasting him when he’s no longer in earshot.
I ask that you all ignore the numerous times Tanner’s legs could be seen protruding from Warburton’s arse; those were an aberration.
His true feelings have come out today, even as he clambers into a new position, lodged in Caixinha’s posterior.
Was it unprofessional?
Well, yes, of course it was.
But this is the Scottish media we’re talking about here; these people routinely manufacture controversy where there is none, promote the causes of dodgy geezers who don’t even pretend to have plans other than looting and burning like some latter day Robert Maxwell types, who stir the sectarian soup, who’s titles hire “writers” like Kris Boyd, who’s journalists have been caught making up more stories than Jackanorry … I mean, are we meant to hold this guy to some industry standard or something?
David Tanner is a respected broadcast journalist, for God’s sake. Yes, it was unprofessional but his bosses at the Murdoch Corporation, who have tapped phones, smeared MP’s, promoted bigotry, divided society and helped get Trump elected obviously like the cut of his jib.
Who are we to argue with that?
David Tanner, I admire the way you stuck a knife in Warburton’s back. I think that took daring. I don’t for one second think you are a hypocrite for doing so. We know that your hero-worship of him when everything was going according to “the grand plan” as laid out by Dave King, was simply an honest mistake.
Because he never had opinions. Or tactics. He never cracked a joke. He was arrogant and puffed up even when he arrived a virtual unknown. And he had nothing whatsoever to say at any time. All that positive press coverage he got … I guess they were just making that up.
(That wouldn’t actually surprise me.)
I like a guy who just lets it go.
Critics might complain.
They will say Tanner is paid to be impartial, but as none of us ever believed that he was, and he’s never hidden his disdain for our club, its players or its fans and has never been able to fully hide his overwhelming passion for the NewCo across town, the collapse of that illusion and his sudden clamber aboard the “We Hate Warburton” bandwagon doesn’t shock me as much as it would have to find out that, say, that Jim White didn’t rate Dave King very highly.
(I would need several shots of adrenaline if that ever came out.)
Honestly, I think this was a good day for Scottish sports journalism.
I think Tanner is a guy we’ve all developed some new found respect for here. If he ever climbs out of Caixinha’s backside I will say that to him. But by then, of course, he’ll be halfway up somebody else’s and telling the bullfighter he knew he was a bullshitter all along.
In that way he does.
That courageous, neck-stuck out, crawling out on a limb manner.
But only after Pedro is 3000 miles away, drinking Tequila, and not giving a good god damn.