THE RANGERS TAKEOVER: TOURS, PHOTO-OPS BUT JOURNALISM IS NOWHERE TO BE FOUND
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- Apr 30
- 2 min read
To paraphrase that mass-murdering alcoholic, Winston Churchill: “Never has so much been said by so many, about so little.”
That pretty much defines the last few months of developments in The Rangers Takeover Saga.
Rangers Takeover Leaders Given VIP Tour, Media Sideshow, and no Questions Asked
However, things took an almost comedic twist this morning when I read this morning’s papers. It seems Andrew Cavenagh and his entourage were given a VIP tour of Ibrox. Well, they walked around the stadium a bit and had some photos taken.
The media could not wait to run this as a big, exclusive breakthrough in the Rangers Takeover negotiations.
Any semblance of integrity was cast aside
So clearly, this was all planned ahead of time. Unless the Record and The S*n have Peter Parker working as a photographer for them, I doubt they could have just magically known the exact time and place to be to capture these pictures of the American consortium.
In other words, it was a publicity stunt, and judging by the look on Cavenagh’s face in particular, I don’t think it was one that these potential investors were fully on-board with.
However, in their eternal eagerness to play the role of Rangers’ useful idiots, the media played along, went to Ibrox, snapped a load of photos, and ran the story.
The only problem is, there was no story, because not one person who was there thought to ask any of these supposedly soon to be owners of the new club a single, solitary question.
It’s an embarrassment to journalism that any newspaper would knowingly agree to play along with this stage-managed nonsense in the first place.
On top of that, its an absolute insult that not only did their editors decide this was newsworthy; they chose to make it a back page, banner headline.
We all know the real reason behind this.
Rangers’ current owners have, from the moment this story first broke, been allowed to shape the narrative as they saw fit, without any opposition or inquiry from our mainstream media.
Celtic won the league just a few days ago. We are on course for an unprecedented 9th treble, and we have a game against our supposed biggest rivals this weekend.
But no, none of that is newsworthy. Let’s instead run a puff-piece about a bunch of tire-kickers going for a walk around the litter-strewn exterior of Ibrox.
Newspapers in Scotland are dying. The complete lack of journalistic inquiry on show today is only expediting that process.
As a journalist, I take no pleasure in saying this, but for the sake of my profession’s reputation, that death can’t come soon enough.
