It is the job of a journalist to ask questions, even a journalist as bad as Andy Walker.
There are a lot of people who give the profession a bad name, like Derek McGregor of The Sun who last week published a story only for the subject to call it “made up”. We’re talking about the likes of Andrew Smith, who read that “made up” story and was too lazy to apply brain-cells to the task of working out whether it was true or not.
These guys stink the place out.
There are others who are shamefully partisan and will ask no questions of their favourite club which would cause it embarrassment. Walker certainly can’t be counted amongst them; his previous for attacking everything Celtic does is well known.
As my friend Anthony over at Endless Celts said not that long ago, we do not want a sycophantic media … we just want one that plays it straight. Criticism is not a deal breaker.
When Walker attacked the Celtic board last month he said what all of us would have liked to have his platform to say.
It was nothing but fair comment, and justified.
The papers this morning are saying that Walker was banned from Ibrox yesterday for comments he made about the Ibrox finances.
Now, those comments weren’t all that controversial.
He pointed out that the British Super League proposal would have been enticing for the two Glasgow clubs because of the money involved … he then said they would have been particularly enticing to Ibrox because of their “perilous financial situation.”
That was it. That was the extent of it.
For that, the club banned him from yesterday’s game although he was slated as a Sky commentator on the match.
This is Ibrox doing what Ibrox does when the team there is on top; they are throwing their weight around because they can, and the Scottish media has a decision to make now.
Do they support Walker and start digging into the subject that the Peepul over there don’t want them to touch, or do they play their usual role as cowards and charlatans and hide?
There’s a story and everyone knows there’s a story.
Walker was right to call their position “precarious.” What else would you call it in a season where they’ve needed £30 million in director’s loans and equity confetti to keep on the lights?
£30 million is half of their turnover from last year.
Only their absence from a major exchange prevents us from knowing exactly what the picture is inside that club, but if they are losing that much money – the equivalent of £2.5 million a month – then they are bleeding out, and the word “precarious” is more than justified.
Walker is not my favourite person in the media.
He is not quite as bad as Charlie Nicholas and is nowhere near as ludicrous as Kris Boyd, but he shouldn’t be near punditry. Yet he has made a valid point here and appears to be asking a valid question.
The media can decide whether it backs him up and stands alongside him or whether it leaves him twisting in the wind.
But if they do that then none of them will be able to ask legitimate questions about Ibrox’s financial state or who’s funding the losses without worrying about the same treatment.
That’s what’s at stake, their ability to do the job at all.
I reckon that most of them will prove themselves thoroughly gutless by keeping their heads down. The ones who do decide to speak up will have to do so knowing that there are consequences for doing it, but that’s the job.
Walker has at least tried to do his.
Not only should he be praised and supported for it, but the rest of his profession should be standing alongside him and telling Ibrox that it’s pitiful intimidatory tactics won’t fly.