This site has written about Neil Cameron a few times in the past, good and bad. Usually though I ignore him. Today he’s decided to attack the bloggers in his usual bitter manner, and since he’s taking a swing at us it behoves me to swing back.
First things first, let’s get one thing straight. If anyone wrote stuff that was “actionable” last week then there are, of course, remedies open to Madden to pursue if he likes. As I can only surmise the boys at CQN know what they are talking about I would doubt that he will. Because doing so requires that someone place his hand on a bible in a court and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We all know that’s not going to happen.
Cameron’s attack is cowardly, because it does what so many of his articles do; it lies. And yes, that’s a big statement. He, too, has remedies at his disposal and is free to use them if he doesn’t like the use of that particular word.
It is not the first time I’ve called him that either.
Where he lies here is that he appears to accuse the bloggers of hiding behind fake names; he doesn’t acknowledge that at least two of the writers of those articles – Paul Brennan at CQN and myself – did so under our own names and always do.
Cameron also distorts the intent of the articles that were written. He is a sly one, Cameron, because in not repeating the actual allegation – which is that Madden has “gambling issues” which might have called into question his suitability for the match; indeed for any match – he is able to suggest that what the articles actually said was something along the lines that Madden is biased.
That was not the issue and he is fully aware of that. The tone of his article is fundamentally dishonest. CQN and this blog had a much larger concern than mere anti-Celtic leanings, and Cameron does not address any of those concerns in his piece.
It’s not even clear if that’s the central charge he’s denying on Madden’s behalf, or if he’s denying the one he invented and appears to suggest that we made.
Did Madden have a good game? Yes, he did. He got most of the decisions absolutely spot on. That’s neither here nor there. We didn’t suggest for a second that he wasn’t capable of having a good game; indeed by putting the spotlight so thoroughly on his performance, the blogs virtually guaranteed that nothing untoward would happen.
I’m sure that point is not lost on Cameron; perhaps it’s what galls him.
Celtic fans are wholly capable of ensuring that our club gets basic fairness. Yes, we put a little pressure on. The standard media defence of refs in almost all circumstances and the SFA’s failure to properly punish those who fail, often to spectacular levels, means someone has to.
In my own article, I asked more in hope than expectation, that the press took the central allegation seriously enough to look at it; we have our answer. Cameron has ignored the central allegation completely, fabricated one we didn’t even level at Madden and “addressed” that instead.
There is the level of scrutiny and media honesty we’ve come to expect.
If cheating is going on in Scottish football, the cheats pursue their goals safe in the knowledge than when it really comes down to it, only a handful of fans really want to know. We’ve created the perfect conditions in which these people can flourish and get away with what they like.
See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. For years those have been the alleged “principles” of the Scottish media, in gross violation of the responsibilities of the job. This is not Buddhist philosophy here; seeing the truth, hearing the truth and speaking the truth is the goddamned job description. When we call Cameron and his ilk wise monkeys it isn’t a compliment.
Yeah, Madden had a good game. It doesn’t mean he isn’t bent, and as long as we’re the only people interested in finding out if Scottish football is clean we’re just going to have to keep the peek in the place of those who can’t be arsed.