The Times (Scotland) has decided to wade into the great social media debate that other publishers are steering well clear of.
Friday’s Daily Record decided to expose some of the views from contributors to Heart & Hand, a podcast that enjoys the status of being an official media partner at Ibrox. David Edgar and friends are in weekly contact with Steven Gerrard, asking the questions that fans want answered.
A dig into Twitter revealed some very non-PC views from the contributors, within 24 hours of publication in the Record, Hoggy and Cammy abandoned ship to leave Edgar on his own leading the podcast. Current Ibrox PR chief David Graham was a contributor before taking up his current role in April 2020.
Daily Record launches inquiry as staff are accused of using hate speech on social media in wake of Rangers fans handing over dossier. https://t.co/RvT1jR7G82
— TimesEditorScotland (@magnusllewellin) September 7, 2021
The reaction from Ibrox fans has been furious. With the Record taking a dive into Twitter contributions they did likewise with some incredible results surfacing before Record staff reached out for their delete buttons and made their accounts private. Too late.
During Saturday and Sunday some very non-PC and offensive comments from staff came to light. On Sunday night the Record had to admit to a problem/investigation.
A number of historical tweets from some of our writers have come to our attention. The Daily Record takes any claims of discrimination or hate speech very seriously and we have launched a full investigation into the matter.
— The Daily Record (@Daily_Record) September 5, 2021
That development has enthused Ibrox fans into a further flurry of digging, it seems that there is a limitless supply of material.
Media outlets rarely focus on problems within rival organisations, there is a saying about glass houses but The Times has picked up on the issues facing the Record, part of the Reach group. In the article, The Times quotes Edgar from a video he released on Sunday calling on the Record to use the same standards on their own workforce as they calld for in their Heart & Hand expose.
With the issue creeping into the mainstream it shows no sign of going away. Heart & Hand has lost two members of their team but there could be bigger casualties as social bites back at MSM, spectacularly.
