One could be forgiven
for thinking that David Cameron's quick response to Lord Leveson's
findings, and his caution about “crossing the rubicon” because of
press phone hacking, was derived solely due to a quick scan of the
findings, with most of his short focus being on the phone hacking
bits.
What he has failed to
take account of are the many many lives ruined not by phone hacking,
but false, erroneous and inaccurate articles. The type of article
which one of the witnesses stated drove her son to suicide due to the
false articles printed by the press about his murdered sister.
Perhaps this was epitomised best by the McCann's who when interviewed
cited a newspaper report about them “selling Madeline” rather
than any reference to phone hacking.
Those of us in the
Rangers family have witnessed such press vilification over the last
few months. Lies, manipulation of facts, reporting which lacks
balance and fairness and often fact, characterise how the Scottish
Press have reported the crisis at our club. In fact some, such as the
BBC, have been directly responsible for some of that aforesaid
crisis, due to their conduct.
But David Cameron has a
major problem as he tries to convince us that the press are some kind
of moral guardians of society and thus should not be exposed to
legislative scrutiny. For instance what happens when those moral
guardians are themselves immoral ? What happens to that guardianship
when members of the press believe themselves to be above the law. ?
Where was such
guardianship when murder victims phones were being hacked ? The
culture of phone hacking seems to have been accepted practice amongst
a considerable number of journalists. Where were all the whistle
blowers exposing such abhorrent practices ? There is a reckless and
cavalier arrogance amongst some of our press much of which has been
evidenced during the Rangers tax case.
24 hours after a first
tier tax tribunal had declared Rangers not guilty Graham Spiers was
writing an article about the immorality of EBT. Not bad for a man
who had been exposed on national TV hours earlier as a liar. No
remorse or apology for his false and damaging accusations, just an
attempt to justify them. BBC Scotland and Channel 4's Alex Thomson
have followed a similar line.
The pen is mightier
than the sword – but so too is the poisonous pen. It's not even a
month since Lord MacAlpine was falsely accused of being a paedophile
by members of the media. How does that fit into Mr Cameron's rubicon
?
But emotional damage is
not the only by-product of poor, sub-standard and malicious
journalism . The coverage of the Rangers use of EBT's has
demonstrated there is a financial cost as well. Since the verdict
many people have been asking “What if ?”
It's a good question.
What if the BBC documentary had not been so one-sided and biased
would the Rangers name have been less toxic and thus more attractive
to buyers if they had not been led to believe the first tier tax
tribunal was a foregone conclusion which would not go in Rangers
favour ?
The recommendation by
Lord Leveson that the press requires to be legislated will find
little opposition amongst the Rangers support after what we have
endured these last months.
There is a saying that
“society gets the press it deserves”.
Perhaps a caveat to
that is that the press gets the legislative control it deserves.
