DAILY RECORD JOTA LIES ONCE AGAIN HIGHLIGHT NEED FOR FAN MEDIA
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 38 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Once again, the Daily Record make scurrilous and unsubstantiated claims about a Celtic player, and once again the Celtic Board, by way of their silence and ongoing cooperation with the publication in question, give this slander their tacit endorsement.
If you’re wondering what I’m on about, the Record’s Buffoon in Chief Keith Jackson said on Sunday in the latest of his semi-coherent ramblings, that Jota was “in no hurry” to get back to Celtic Park.
A reminder, Jota is now 9 months into his recuperation from an ACL injury, an injury that can, in some cases, finish a player’s career. This isn’t something to be joked about or to be used as a metaphorical cudgel to bash the player over the head with. Yet The Daily Record Jota story shows that not only is this kind of thing considered fair game, it's being actively encouraged.
Celtic Ignore Daily Record Jota Slander, Continue to Offer Paper Full Access, Fan Media Still Banned
I won’t insult your intelligence by pretending to be a bastion of independent, unbiased journalism, when it comes to covering Celtic. I’m not. I’m a Celtic fan and that is the perspective from which I write. It does not mean however that I am a loyal lapdog of the club, who will simply parrot whatever the official line is on any given talking point.
I think it’s fair to say though that fan media outlets like ACSOM and others would never allow ourselves to stoop so low as to personally attack the integrity of a player recovering from a serious injury.
Frankly, if I’d ran a piece like Keith Jackass decided to on Sunday, most of our readers would, rightly, demand that I be removed from the ACSOM team, and I wouldn’t really have a case to argue with them.
Yet not only do The Celtic Board allow this slander to go unchallenged, they actively reward The Daily Record for this kind of trashy, sensationalist garbage by continuing to allow them free access to all club media events.
I’ve no doubt Jackson or one of his underlings will, once again, take their free seat in the press box tonight as Celtic visit Falkirk, and will again be granted full access to Celtic’s players and manager after the game.
All this while Celtic Fan Media, a collective of writers, bloggers and content creators who actually care about the club and the well-being of its players remain shut out, and we still haven’t even been told why.
Now, it has no impact on me whether fan media get back into Celtic Park or not, after all, I’m 7000 miles away, and I doubt Dermot Desmond would be willing to chip in for the taxi fare!
However, at a time when the Celtic Board continue to preach a message of “unity” and “sticking together”, never has the “Celtic Family” felt as fractured as it does now. Fan Media could play a key role in actually achieving this unity, by articulating how fans feel and in turn reporting to the fanbase in a fair, and balanced way, free of anti-Celtic agendas, what the club plans to do to address fan concerns.
Instead, we have nothing but the sensationalist p*sh being peddled by the Record and The S*n or the Pravada-esque inanity of Celtic’s official media channels.
This cannot go on. With every event like this, every player or fan slandered while the club continue the “Nothing to see here” narrative push, the “unity” they claim to so desperately want, and the financial benefits our board would gain from a return to business as usual, moves further and further out of reach.
