Jackson continues to bask in the role of the Useful Idiot in the Ibrox takeover saga.

One of the things that always amazes me is how people who allow themselves to be used as useful idiots think the emphasis is on the word “useful” rather than “idiot.” But it’s their idiocy that makes them useful; they are gullible, pliable, and stupid.

Today, there’s yet another puff piece in The Record about the Ibrox takeover, and once again, it’s a Keith Jackson exclusive. From the very start of this saga, he has been the organ of choice. The question is, why? There are other writers out there. This story could have gone to journalists who are closer to the Ibrox regime. So why Jackson?

The answer is increasingly obvious—he’s the conduit for this story because he’s willing to swallow anything. He publishes everything he hears without question, without scrutiny, without even the most basic analysis. He doesn’t ask probing questions. He doesn’t think critically. There’s no investigative mind behind the keyboard, just an empty vessel into which someone at Ibrox is pouring whatever spin they like.

It’s clear by now that something is happening behind the scenes. Some form of American investment is on the way. The only question is what shape it will take. I suspect one of two possibilities: either a leveraged buyout where the club itself shoulders the cost, or—and this is looking increasingly likely—it turns out to be a damp squib. The Americans will take a minority position on the board, secure a few seats around the table, and that’s about it.

When that happens, Jackson will still be spinning it as a great victory. He’ll claim they’re bringing money and expertise, that they’ll eventually take full control, just as they did at Leeds. And by the time the fans realise how little has changed, season ticket money will already be in the bank. The Ibrox support will have convinced themselves this is a masterstroke, that there’s a grand plan in place.

Jackson’s excitement in today’s article is barely contained. A delegation visited the training ground, he says, and they’re ready to greenlight a major multi-million-pound investment in improving it. But what I see is a four-man delegation checking out the operation, weighing up whether it’s worth buying into.

While Jackson sees a group poised to spend big, I see people asking how much they might have to spend. There’s a big difference between the two.

Beyond vague assurances from “insiders,” there’s little direct evidence for any of this. It’s the equivalent of a third-rate politician making a grand promise in broad strokes—talking up a bold vision without ever explaining what it actually means.

They leave that to the imaginations of their audience, and the wilder those imaginations run, the easier they are to manipulate.

This tactic isn’t just good politics; it’s the foundation of every great con trick. Jackson should recognise it. After all, it’s been used on him before.

But there’s a certain type of mark who falls for the same scam over and over, a truth con artists have long understood.

Maria Konnikova’s excellent book The Confidence Game: The Psychology of The Con And Why We Fall For It recounts the story of a scam artist in the US who was confronted on the street by two of his victims.

Fearing the worst, he braced himself for a beating or a trip to the police station. Instead, they begged him to give them a do-over, convinced they’d simply been unlucky the first time. So, of course he happily took them for everything again, and even at the end, they still didn’t realise they’d been played.

We’ve seen all manner of smoke and mirrors used to con the Ibrox fanbase and their media backers over the years, and they never seem to learn. The lack of due diligence is shocking. Even those who think they understand what the Americans are about because of their connection to Leeds haven’t actually dug into what happened at that club. I’ll touch on that later because there was an illuminating comment about it recently—one the media won’t dig into but absolutely should.

Of course, no one in the Scottish press is going to investigate this properly. Certainly not anyone at The Record, and least of all Keith Jackson, who merely parrots every positive soundbite he hears while pretending there are no possible downsides. Even those who do recognise the need for scrutiny choose to ignore it. Take Graham Spiers, for example—an intelligent guy who understands there are serious questions to ask but prefers to focus on what he calls “the fun stuff” rather than the details that actually matter.

But it’s Jackson and The Record who have planted their flag on this story, and in a media landscape that still had standards, their reputations would rest on how this all plays out. That would make this a dangerous time for him and his newspaper. But of course, there is no credibility at that rag to begin with. Jackson certainly has none.

The idea that their reputations might suffer if this turns out to be a disaster is laughable because their reputations are already in the gutter. They should feel embarrassment and shame if they’ve been completely misled. But this is exactly why useful idiots exist—you use them because they’re idiots.

If Scottish football journalism ever decides to take itself seriously again, future students could learn a lot from cases like this. Jackson himself should be a textbook example of everything not to do when covering a story.