The newish Media/PR/Communications regime inside Ibrox is all for encouraging fan contact as they attempt to starve out what they perceive to be The Enemies of Rangers.
Fan media is the alternative and even easier to manipulate than the Succulent Lamb generation cultivated by Sir David.
When half of the media conference questions start with ‘Hi Steven’ or ‘Good Morning, Steven’ compliance is hardly going to be an issue.
As the older breed of newspaper reporters accept their redundancies and slip off into semi-retirement they are being replaced by eager recruits from the Follow Follow generation where no view is too extreme as they brew up a cocktail of paranoia and extremist political views.
In the digital age it is all about pageviews, however you can get them. Once respectable broadsheet newspapers now scream out over transfer tittle-tattle that was the preserve of Clubcall and 0898 services in the eighties and nineties.
The extremists are making their way mainstream, to such an extent that a title such as The Herald hands over space to someone deeply uncomfortable about the flying of a flag. In fifties Scotland that ideology kicked up quite a fuss. For some, evolution has gone the full circle to make that viewpoint fashionable again in so-called respectable circles. Step forward Andy MacIver of the Herald/Times. A publisher which in the early nineties could shift 120,000 copies on a Friday as the main source of jobs in the west of Scotland.
Teasing readers into subscribing for ‘premium’ content MacIver introduces a piece titled ‘Why Rangers fans like me despair of our club’ it seems that he is trying to portray himself as one of those nice, thoughtful decent type of supporters. Or the sneaky, dangerous ones to be more accurate.
I’VE been thinking about writing this article for a long time. However, it isn’t an easy one for me. I’m accustomed to writing about politics and policy; it feels natural and, because I am not party political, I find it relatively easy to offer independent analysis and perspective. Not so, though, today, when writing about Rangers.
I first went to Ibrox, with my father, when I was less than 10 years old – more than 30 years ago. For much of the 20 years after that, as a boy and then a young man with, at the time, no major responsibilities, going to Ibrox with dad was the highlight of my week.
Inside the payroll MacIver gives the game away with ‘the easy thing for the clubs to do is protest that they are trying. But are they, really? Or are they dog whistling to the lowest common denominator? Does Celtic really need to fly the Irish tricolour above Celtic Park? Does that help or hinder progress?
That attitude is pandering to the baying mob that laid siege on George Square last Sunday, making their extreme thoughts worthy of consideration and debate. Dressing up his issue with the Irish flag is similar to Douglas Park’s surprise that street furniture (Memorial benches) wasn’t removed to accommodate an illegal gathering during a global pandemic.
MacIver is certainly entitled to his view, the Herald are entitled to publish his thoughts, no doubt it will appeal to their diminishing readership and advertisers that want to connect to that narrow audience.
Celtic fans can make their mind up about why their club roll out the red carpet to the Herald and Times when they harbour extreme right-wing contributors who are putting the dots together to justify trashing George Square because of a flag being flown at a football ground. Is Andy equally uncomfortable with third and fourth generation Scots attending Highland Games across Canada and New Zealand or is there something particular about one flag. Was it a viewpoint he picked up in the company he kept with Dad at Ibrox?
According to his Herald profile MacIver is:
the co-founder of Message Matters, a lobbying and PR consultancy. He is a political analyst and strategist, and a commentator both on these pages and on TV and radio. He is not a member of, or regular voter for, any political party, and is a federalist who believes the Scottish Parliament will only thrive in a post-constitutional environment with a new set of political parties. Before founding Message Matters, he worked in the charitable and private sectors, and serves as a voluntary adviser to mental health charity Place2Be.
“Does Celtic really need to fly the Irish tricolour above Celtic Park?” – FOR THE LOVE OF GOODNESS STOP ATTACKING OUR REFUGEE HISTORY. We are not responsible for the behaviour of racists. We should not be forced to hide our culture in order to appease them https://t.co/cQe8xTPjWd
— Captain Haggerty (@AngelaHaggerty) March 11, 2021
