Radio Scotland descends into verbal warfare

Radio Scotland plunged to new depths today when veteran presenters Chick Young and James Traynor resorted to a slagging match.

After almost half an hour of petty bitching mainly around journalistic standards the ‘debate’ hit rock bottom when Young accused Traynor of being a Rangers puppet with the man from the Daily Record returning fire claiming that Young had been a Rangers cheer-leader for 20 years.

Any notions that the BBC stands for anything other than the lowest common denominator in broadcasting were thrown out the window as the level of debate plummed the sort of depths normally associated with American style ‘shock-jocks’.

Host Richard Gordon introduced the slot highlighting the different take on reports that Rangers chairman Alastair Johnston had nodded in agreement to a question that the case that HMRC are bringing against Rangers could make the club go bust.

No one claimed that Johnston had said those words but in front of seven journalists including Young and Roddy Forsyth of 5Live he had nodded agreement and went on to use the quote of the HMRC case being the gorilla in the room.

Normally such a story would be food and drink for the Daily Record but for reasons best known to himself Traynor seemed to go off on a one man mission to shift the focus from the subject under discussion to whether Johnston had said the word bust or nodded in acknowledgment.

Traynor had attended the briefing for the written press while Young had been at the broadcast meeting.

Such was the fury that the media briefing created that Rangers later issued a stock market statement denying the story despite it being run by STV, BBC, Sky and others.

After nine minutes voices were raised for the first time as Young and Traynor get going with Gordon struggling to prevent the BBC duo from talking over each other.

Shortly afterwards Forsyth was brought into the discussion and revealed that the question was ‘Can rangers go bust?’ to which Johnston nodded in reply.

It was bizarre to listen to the BBC providing a newspaper reporter with a platform to slaughter Young’s on-line report which took a similar view of Johnston’s comments and actions as the other journalists at the briefing.

Midway through the discussion Traynor turns up the personal nature of the attack saying: “I remember you when you were at the top of your game at the Evening Times, sadly we lose it, some of us can’t hack it.”

Young left the Evening Times in the late 1980s and has been with the BBC for more than twenty years.

Soon afterwards Young said: “I’ve called the Daily Record liars in the past.”

Traynor was quickly back on the attack: “I think somebody in a position of authority in BBC should have a whisper in your ear and say enough is enough, you are in enough trouble already.”

After a relatively calm period describing other aspects of the crisis at Rangers the simmering contempt between Young and Traynor took a very personal turn for the worst.

“I’m just wondering now you’ve become a Rangers puppet,” Young added.

Traynor fired back: “Thats a direct quote from Rangers 20 year cheer-leader, well done Charles.”

Rangers chairman reveals boardroom split.

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