Whatever else his critics may want to accuse Gary Lineker of, the one charge that will not stick is that this is a guy who craves nothing but an easy life. In expressing his opinions on social media with such anger and clear sight, he guarantees that he will always be in the crosshairs of those who want to bully and demonise people but cannot handle criticism.
There are people in our media who are daring enough to tackle big subjects, guys such as Speirs and Andrew Smith, guys who aren’t just in it for an easy life.
In midweek, the Ibrox club played Hibs at Easter Road. When, during the cup final, the two sets of fans were asked to stand in silent tribute to Ron Gordon, the former Hibs chairman, their fans refused to. At Easter Road they refused to do so again, and this time they sang bigoted spiel during it. That makes it a different thing altogether.
Yet apart from a small handful of journalists, the press has barely mentioned it. The disgraceful behaviour of their fans was actually applauded by one commentator who talked about the “great backing” they gave their club. Disgusting.
The media up here gets outraged only when it wants to. Only when they think the target is easy. Only when they don’t have to focus their guns on Ibrox. The lack of condemnation is striking because every one of them were up in arms when it was Celtic fans accused of disrespecting the House Of Windsor. They hear only what they want to.
Part of the problem, perhaps, is that any journalist who did stick his head up would not get the support of either his publication nor his colleagues if there was a backlash. Lineker, who I wrote about earlier, hasn’t been backed by the national broadcaster and already Match of The Day looks like it will struggle to find an anchor for tomorrow night.
But here in Scotland, when the BBC threw Michael Stewart to the wolves after pressure from Ibrox not a single one of his colleagues fought for him. Not one. And then at the start of this season it was Chris McLaughlin’s turn to be humiliated when the BBC sent Ibrox what amounts to a letter begging for forgiveness. All that guy did wrong was do his job too well.
And of course, we all remember what happened to Jim Spence.
The whole profession up here has to grow some balls, and if that means our own club’s supporters, those who sing vile songs of their own, are under more scrutiny then so be it. But this week the light of shame should have fallen on the Ibrox fans.
Mark my words, that’s why some of you probably didn’t read about it.
And they wonder why no one likes them. They are actually far too gentle on themselves, they are not disliked, they are fkn hated! Total scum!
For Gods sake don’t hold your breath on this one ,but maybe the Record’s chief sports scoop -Keith Jackson will do an opinion piece on the diabolical chanting by the Rangers fans at the Ron Gordon tribute at Easter Road on his Monday morning slot ! You know the one where he calls himself Scotland’s most influential scoop … In the tabloid rag also self titled as Scotland ‘s Champion !
Fair dues to you James. You made a fair comment regarding Garygate in earlier post. I do agree with your earlier blog, and the BBC have backed the “Paymasters”. The result is GL 3 – 0 BBC Match of the Day punditless.
On a happy note Prince Edward is now the Duke of Edinburgh. That’s for the Lurkers to drool over .
PS, 4-0 in favour of Celtic tomorrow
I saw and heard their disrespect at Hampden. I had no idea they sevco fan klan were even worse at Easter road .no surprise never heard it reported anywhere until your article james .
The main stream media in this country are a utter disgrace and an embarrassment
Come on guys it’s a small minority.
You know the same small minority who sing the alternative lyrics to simply the best?
It’s about time either Beale the mole or 5 chins park came out with an explanation about this subject , no chance , I have more chance of winning the euromillions.
For me it’s all about self preservation, no self respecting celtic fan would buy that rag,so if they were to call out the negative stuff that goes on at that club, then there paper wouldn’t survive, which means as journalists they don’t have any confidence in there ability to get another job, and should absolutely not have, what editor would want to employ the cowards at that paper. NONE
I wonder what S.Thomas has got to say about this, a hun’s point of view would be appreciated?
What I didn’t expect were the insults (and in at least one case a direct physical threat) not from fans but from Scottish journalists. Sarajevo, Mogadishu, Kabul, Islamabad, Tripoli, Baghdad…I could bore you with more – in none of these places have I ever got this interesting reaction from local journalists, only in Glasgow. So something’s up. Something’s different. Something about asking questions about RFC clearly angers some in the Glasgow media in a way I’ve never seen in 25 years of global reporting.’
These are the comments of Alex Thomson of Channel 4 news when he carried out an investigation of cheating by Glasgow Rangers within Scottish football.
In actual fact the horde sang their bigoted bile during the minute’s applause at the Cup Final also.