“Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me” may well have been how our Editor felt over the weekend following something of a social media backlash to the opening statement of the Fans Media Forum with Ange Postecoglou and Dominic McKay.
It appears the directness in the delivery of the statement caused a stir. Such a stir in fact that the mainstream media including luminaries of their chosen sports, usually Rugby and Golf, such as Tom English and Ewan Murray pounced upon it as a sign fans media press conferences should be consigned to the history books just as soon as it has started.
Today we had the Daily Record’s main man join the throng of those putting the boot in as Keith Jackson also used his newspaper to call out Fans media. All of course are entitled to their opinion as are those who had their say across social media this week, yet for those in the mainstream and those commenting on social media it may well be worth considering the company being kept.
Sneakily the retired Sunday Mail sports editor masquerading as being part of the fans media while cut and pasting copy from his old employer onto the most compliant of Celtic sites appropriately enough cut and pasted from Jackson’s article and emailed it out. Classy stuff from an old hack.
Let’s be clear from the mainstream media side they care not a jot for the content of fans media conferences, what they are really concerned with is just where this leads and just what impact this will have on traditional methods. Methods like having pre-conceived stories already in place and trying to engineer a suitable quote from a selected Celtic employee to not only fit the narrative of one particular publication but also to fit the collective pre-agreed narrative from the cabal who meet prior to the press conference to agree on how they intend to cut and paste and twist.
Their worry of course much as we saw immediately after the broadcast media’s initial ‘error’ in replacing the word ‘urgency’ for ‘emergency’ when Ange Postecoglou was asked to comment on the need for squad reinforcements, and was immediately called out by Fans who had been watching the live stream as it happened, was a case and point of just how used the mainstream media are to being able to report economically their version of the truth.
One glance to the future and the mainstream media should be able to see what eventually will become common practice. There will not simply be, broadcast, print and fans media conferences, it is only a matter of time until all are invited to speak in a mixed zone.
When that happens the traditions of the MSM will be severely impacted. Not only will fans media correct the inaccuracies within moments of their publications it will also be uncomfortable to share a room with Celtic supporters who may be interested in asking some direct questions of their own the following week.
Add to that, whatever your views are on the opening question of the Fans Media conference, there were enough Celtic podcasts and bloggers there asking plenty of pertinent questions without preconceived ideas on how they intended to report the responses.
Add to that both the new manager and CEO appeared particularly engaged with the content and the feedback from the support, the market both the MSM and the Celtic fans media aim to inform, was positive. So positive in fact you’d wonder just how many would now bypass traditional publication’s online platforms and head straight to hear the responses to questions asked by their own.
Considering the drop off in print media and a general distrust of the accuracy of MSM reporting across all their platforms that is surely cause for concern, in fact it is clear that it is given the mainstream media journalist’s response to the threat over the weekend and this morning.
So whilst one guy may well feel ‘they’ve all got it in for me’ running through his head even now, it’s hard not to consider as print media falls off a cliff and online platforms lack attention for detail when it comes to reporting the manager’s response with honesty, that many within Scottish football may look to their own fan media to report back with accuracy.
If the mainstream media don’t follow suit, then falling advertising revenue from dropping hits may well be evidence as to how the viewing public may well have it in for them – and they’ll only have themselves to blame.
I’ll leave you with a thought. Did Celtic want this matter raised? The Celtic performances last year merited winning nothing, we all accept that. But the facts are there and regarding the decisions that went their way. Last time round Celtic said nothing, nor could they in the circumstances. A new manager from the other end of the world might know the game inside out but there are peculiarities unique to Scotland in our game and it’s been brought to his attention.
When Steven Gerrard made a similar point after his first game in charge at Ibrox that was laughable given the bias in their favour. It’s on the agenda now and it’s something we’ll see play out as the season progresses.
Recommended reading on this on both The Celtic Blog and Video Celts for those who are interested.
Niall J
National press ABCs: Daily Record and Sunday Mail’s steady decline continues… https://t.co/TtlsHmDoT4 – via:@pressgazette
— The Celtic Star Editor (@CelticStarMag) June 28, 2021
It was a tad “big hoose”
Well said, and yes it’ll be interesting to watch how the cabal reacts, now knowing that the REAL STORY will be told, NOT their skewed version of it
I’ll be watching this space…
XLNT ARTICLE ✅