The Gers must be the only major European side whose local media go out of their way to encourage trouble for the club. Putting aside the concerted effort to have Alex Rae banned from Europe a couple of seasons ago, while unsavoury chants are heard at every football ground in the world, they want to see Rangers punished for it; while Man City's ground staff were praised for creativity, Rangers turf made back page headlines for apparently resembling a sash; while a bottle thrown from a Rangers crowd was persisted with until UEFA intervened, a bottle thrown from a Celtic crowd under almost identical circumstances is barely mentioned. Then we have the headline stories about green straws, eggs on the menu and a meal that came to ten pence short of seventeen quid. Forgive me for having a sense of humour failure at these lame excuses to put 'Rangers' and 'bigotry' in the same paragraph. All of this is merely detracting attention from something far more disturbing and it's not something they're even trying to hide anymore.
Spiers and the Permanently Offended Crew would have you believe that paranoia has done a 180 and settled in Edmiston Drive. Like with most aspects of football, Britney doesn't know what he's talking about and something undeniable is that the football media in Scotland is top-heavy with those of a green persuasion. Further to this, and something much more sinister, Scotland has an ingrained culture of intimidation when it comes to football and the media.
We've seen it plenty of times in recent years; the most famous example being Hugh Dallas and his windows on the evening of 2nd May 1999. Thankfully Shug shoved it back in Timmy's monobrowed face and refereed Rangers' Scottish Cup final win later that month but that is very much the exception. Two other high-profile incidents have seen a radio presenter and a match official have their personal details - home address and telephone number, place of work, the school attended by their children - posted on Celtic forums, the latter aided by multi-page pull outs in the red tops. These online forums, it should be noted, have a quite brazen pro-terrorist flavour but go unsurprisingly unnoticed by the kiddy-on football writers we're stuck with. Compare and contrast to a South Park style cartoon making the national news.
Back to the point, if you put yourself in the shoes of a match official or radio presenter who has a decision to make or a story that may impact Celtic, do you take the option that keeps your life more tranquil and relatively hassle free, or do you take the professional, honest option and risk the safety of your children and your home to the window smashers? Given the culture that has been allowed to fester in Scotland over the years you really can't blame those who opt for the former.
The radio presenter in question was of course Ewan Cameron of Real Radio. He was the only person that highlighted the IRA-oke taking place in an IRA hotel on an official Celtic night attended by players, club officials and the chairman. While the rest of the media ignored the story for over two full days after the footage surfaced, Timmy was incensed that Ewan chose to highlight the terrorist support of Celtic FC and the intimidation began. But while 'videogate' made the press (eventually) and was swept under that bulging Parkhead carpet, 'bannergate' remains unspoken in the media. In a normal world we may expect the country's leader to launch an investigation into such matters but we can only assume he's too busy filling in his season ticket renewal form to be bothered.
So while Spiers, Traynor and the like continually obsess over the Rangers fans' dwindling use of two words - "Pope" and "fenian" - they blatantly ignore a neighbour club's staunch support of a terrorist organisation. Paranoid, you say?
Given the one-sided nature of the sectarianism debate, you would be forgiven for thinking there isn't a bluenose in the media. However, on the FF forums we're told often that such people do exist and the names usually mentioned first are Darrell King, Daryl Broadfoot, Keith Jackson and Iain King. Iain King - remember him? The ex-Rangers Monthly editor and the man that accused Rangers supporters of racially abusing an opposition player in a game at Ibrox, only to later find out that the player in question never took part in that match. So while Celtic-minded journos are happy to turn a blind eye to their own kind glorifying the IRA (even during a silence for 9/11), we have a bluenose not only happy to kick our club when it's down but to get the basics of a non-story wrong. While Iain's hearing is so acute that he can hear racial abuse that isn't taking place, he failed to pick up on thousands of hooped horrors chanting "who's the fenian in the blue?" at Chris Burke.
Small sections of the Rangers support have been working tirelessly for what must seem like an eternity for them in an attempt to defend the good name of the club. Unfortunately, without leadership from Murray and Bain, this isn't a fight going in our favour but here's a novel idea: how about those bluenoses in the media, those with a platform and an audience of hundred of thousands, do what should come naturally to a Rangers supporter and defend the club? You know, rather than kicking the club they're supposed to support in a sickening effort to further their careers in a Celtic-lead media, why don't they get together and say this isn't going to continue any more? All we're asking for is a level playing field.
It beggars belief that after Rangers supporters being set upon by the fascist Spanish police the focus could so quickly move to a song sung in an empty stadium as featured on a naively-posted, grainy mobile phone video, and the bluenoses in the media are guilty of aiding this shift of attention.
Speaking of grainy mobile phone videos, the BBC decided not to show the aforementioned IRA duet but were only too happy to show the recent YouTube video. I guess that paranoia is surfacing again.
Memo to the mute media Bears - when things turn around and Rangers supporters are eventually allowed a proper say in this debate, your silence won't be forgotten. Why not try growing a spine and sticking up for your own for a change? Just a suggestion…
In the meantime the sole voice defending the Rangers is the RST. If you're not yet a member then do the right thing. Our club needs all the help it can get.
STRATHCLYDE BEAR