The publicly funded BBC has been forced to issue a humiliating apology to Celtic due to the disgraceful actions of their Chief Sports Writer in Scotland. Last week the journalist turned troll decided to indulge in some more Celtic bashing to appeal to his core audience who support the latest club that plays just along the road for the broadcaster’s offices in Govan.
Celtic had posted the club’s condolences after the sad sudden death of Australian cricket legend Shane Warne, and included an interview that the club’s sponsor Dafabet had organised last December between the cricket legend and his fellow Australian, the Celtic Manager Ange Postecoglou. The two Aussies really did hit it off and the videos were enjoyed by sports fans around the world.
The BBC Scotland troll could not wait to respond, having a kick at Celtic over the club’s sincere, respectful and appropriate tweet. English stated: “Shoehorning in a promotion for the club sponsor. This is so crass.”
However his employers didn’t agree and instead reckon that that highly paid Chief Sports Writer was the one being crass, and instructed him to delete the tweet as it failed to meet their own editorial standards for impartiality, describing English’s actions as “a lapse”.
The BBC statement reads: “On Friday 4 March, our Chief Sports Writer posted a tweet, relating to Celtic Football Club’s statement on the death of Shane Warne that did not meet our editorial standards.
“The tweet has been removed and we have apologised to the club for this lapse.”
The BBC has asked me to delete a tweet I posted yesterday about Celtic’s statement on Shane Warne, as it did not meet editorial standards.
— Tom English (@TEnglishSport) March 5, 2022
On the day Ange Postecoglou was introduced to the Scottish media on 25 June 2021, he first of all spoke to the broadcast media and English was already distorting what the Celtic Manager had actually said at the broadcast media conference when this site was warning Ange about what he was about to face in Scottish football as the manager of Celtic. Particularly relevant was the warning about the Scottish media – who were reporting that the Celtic support was split about Postecoglou’s appointment – and Ange was told try The Celtic Star that the support was fully behind him and that the those guys he’d spoke to already were not his friends.
Ange certainly gets the message these days.
On Thursday this site asked Ange about the selective media scrutiny after the game at Livingston at the weekend where a great deal of focus – especially by The BBC – was focused on the corner Celtic shouldn’t have got or the potential Rogic handball in the build-up to the second goal. However nothing was said about a second penalty – for handball – that Celtic were denied or the potential second yellow for the Livingston player who was late in a challenge of Rogic.
The question was about SELECTIVE MEDIA SCRUTINY on any decision that might have gone Celtic’s way and Ange gave a much more detailed answer to that question rather than any other asked at the media conference which of course now includes Celtic Fan Media.
And that question was asked because we asked Celtic supporters on Celtic Noise forum what they would like us to ask Ange. It was NOT a question about referees – as Daily Record yesterday claimed – and Ange certainly did not ‘groan’ – as Daily Record claims in order to try to forward an argument.
Maybe they’d have heard at the post match media conference last week after the win over St Mirren Celtic’s head of PR saying to The Celtic Star “you can come back anytime” after enjoying the exchange with the manager about him hosting a party for the Celtic support back in Australia later in the year.
My question was asked after consulting supporters on what they wanted asked via Celtic Noise forum, it was a question about selective media scrutiny and not about ‘referee watch’ as he describes it. You are spot on re the detailed answers that Ange gave.
— The Celtic Star Editor (@CelticStarMag) March 11, 2022
Here’s the question and Ange’s detailed answer on Thursday, which Daily Record yesterday took great exception to and incidentally was immediately pulled up for it by the editor of 67 Hail Hail, well done to John!
The Celtic Star: There was real media scrutiny on the Livingston win and some decisions that went Celtic’s way but were there other decisions that were ignored?
Ange Postecoglou: I don’t get into that too much. It seems a lot of the games here are more referee watch than analysis of the actual game. We got as corner we maybe shouldn’t have. Does that mean if we don’t get a corner then next time when we should miss out on a goal?
There is still a hell of a lot of things that need to happen for us to score from that resultant corner kick or resultant throw-in. It’s very easy for people to look for that kind of clutches. I let that storyline run because that means people are actually ignoring what we are doing and the way we are playing. If people think we are in our position because we are getting favourable decisions from the officials more power to them. We’ll just keep doing what we’re doing.
What’s important to me is that officials are human beings and if I was to make an assessment I have seen players and managers make a hell of a lot more mistakes than referees this year. We kind of always understand that a refereeing decision could have an impact on a game and it is how you react. We have had two players sent off this year, we won both of those games.
If I start talking to my players about the fact that if we get a bad decision and everything falls apart then we can’t achieve what we want to. The only time I speak about officials is if I feel like players aren’t getting protection or I think they miss stuff because that impacts more than just a game. That could impact a lot more.
We had Yosuke Ideguchi who has missed a lot of football because of a tackle that I thought should have been punished on the day. It didn’t get punished but it did retrospectively which is good. They are the kind of things I focus on. People then say I hope VAR comes in because it will help the officials. Absolutely. That’s not foolproof either and you have a look down south and see how much debate there is over VAR decisions as well. I don’t think you need to react to those things we just have to keep doing what we are doing.
READ THIS FROM THE CELTIC BLOG…Celtic Fan Media Continues To Frustrate Those Who Once Owned The News Cycle.
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Thank you for your comments following Sportscene on 6 March. We’ve raised your complaint with BBC Sport Scotland editors.
Firstly, we would stress that bias plays no part in our coverage of Scottish football and Sportscene is not biased for or against any football club. Our reporting is undertaken fully in line with the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and with the Broadcasting Code which is laid down by the independent industry regulator, Ofcom.
In choosing which match action and incidents to discuss in the limited time available, the team base their decisions on editorial merit and on their experience of determining the most significant highlights and talking points in each game. These are judgement calls rather than an exact science, and we appreciate that not everyone will see an incident the same way or agree with every decision that’s made.
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That said, we recognise too, given the diverse audience that we serve, that it’s inevitable some viewers may dislike or disapprove of certain contributors for a variety of different reasons.
Thank you again for sending us your views. We’ve also included your comments in our overnight reports, among the most widely read sources of feedback in the BBC.
Kind regards,
BBC Scotland Complaints Team