The Record Is Guilty Of Gross Irresponsibility In The Celtic Boys Club Abuse Case.

The Daily Record has today publicised the latest “exclusive” from the website of The Scottish Daily Express, who have spent the last month or so trying to elevate their online site with a bunch of clickbait garbage and scandalous gossip.

One of their “sources of information” is a notorious Twitter feed run by lunatics and fanatics, whose obsession is with the Boys Club scandal.

The Express doesn’t give a toss about responsible reportage, and it never has.

I’ve always thought that paper was just one step above the Weekly World News; its obsession with comets, and solar flares and super-volcanos and other Armageddon stories is just one facet of its audience outreach.

Lately it publishes non-stop speculation about Vladimir Putin’s health.

In short, I expect them to sensationalise and dredge the gutter.

It is the stock-in-trade of that rag.

But other mainstream titles should not be following them there.

Today, The Daily Record has done exactly that by giving credence to two lurid and unsubstantiated claims that The Express is running; the one that “40 deaths might be linked to the scandal” and a notorious “list” of suspects, most of whom have never been charged with an offence far less convicted of one.

It is a flat-out disgrace to see a mainstream title giving credibility to the kind of “journalism” that is not even one step up from vigilantism.

There is no “justice” being sought here … it’s a blatant clickbait hits grab.

If this stuff is accurate then it’s a matter for the procurator fiscal, not the gutter press. If these claims stand up to scrutiny then they will be investigated. It’s not the media’s role to act as judge and jury or whip up the lynch mob.

The claim about the “40 deaths” is the sort of exploitative, unsubstantiated trash which most bloggers wouldn’t even entertain.

There is no evidence that these claims are even remotely true; the “link” is based on dead people with the same names as former Boys Club players; it is tenuous at best.

That is not journalism by any stretch of the imagination.

I understand that it’s international week.

I understand mainstream sites, under pressure from the blogs, need to get their traffic.

But honest to God, the irresponsibility of airing these kind of lurid allegations rather than allowing the legal processes to work is absolutely shameful. Our club should be outraged.