From the moment Newsquest, the publishers of The Evening Times and The Herald, got into the “blogging business” I have scorned the efforts of The Celtic Way, all but for the work of a handful of people and one in particular; the ever-excellent Tony Haggarty, who is the one bright spark in an otherwise drab line up of regular writers.
Tony loves Celtic with a passion that is undisguised. He may have come up through the mainstream media but he knows all of its many faults, and his work eschews the sensationalism and clickbait that others who work on that project seem to thrive on.
Last week, The Celtic Star wrote a scathing piece on them and one of their articles, one which were purported to have “all the details” of Celtic’s friendly in Portugal, including team news and the information about where it could be watched. All of it hidden behind a pay-wall or subscription requirements. And what was the story?
They had no team news to speak of, no information from the camp and the game wasn’t going to be covered live anywhere. That is typical of the garbage they put up there, and charge people to read. If it’s not that it’s the regurgitating of every Celtic story that has appeared elsewhere in the mainstream press. It may have fans writing for it, but The Celtic Way is not a “Celtic fan site” any more than The Daily Record is.
I was delighted to see The Celtic Star take that subject on, and although I am glad that Tony has a gig he loves, and that The Celtic Way occasionally also features the always wonderful Kevin McKenna it’s every bit as much a part of the mainstream media firmament as Football Scotland and the other sites which try to capture the voice of the real fans.
Celtic cyberspace is always evolving.
But I still think it evolves best through the stuff being done by those who pay their money and watch the team every week, the guys who live and breathe Celtic and don’t work for media companies whose job is to generate traffic and don’t care how they go about it.
I can understand that pressure, but I refuse to put up any old junk in order to meet it and the whole idea of paywalls and subscriptions is anathema to what fan media is about … it’s like the NHS; it should be free at the point of use.
Charging for a non-story like they did last week … that should be actionable under the Trades Descriptions Act. It was lamentable.
Maybe one of these days ,Tony Haggarty will be compelled to expose his ex employers ‘ the daily Record’s sports editorial policies to the rest of the world , and Scottish football with it’s biased reporting ! Tony knows where the bodies are buried and how many trenches there are ….That will be a read and a half ….
Auld Spew himself once admitted that if it became common knowledge what was really going on in Scottish football ” the game here would be finished”.
I have long suspected that what he really meant was that the game would be up for the bretheren and the vested interests that currently run the show to the benefit of one klub.
Haggerty and McKenna working for them are no better than Walker, Keevins and the rest. All great Celtic fans when it suits them.
I have clicked on their headlines by accident on the odd occasion, but as soon as I am asked to subscribe, I hit escape. So I cannot really comment on any of their blogs. I can manage without them.