His latest offering in fact prompted me to have a look at Alex in the same forensic way which he looks at our club, its support and employees. As some of you may remember several months ago I was made privy to a series of e-mails Alex Thomson exchanged with a Rangers supporter. Given his recent penchant for revealing the content of private e-mails, I'm sure Alex would agree that's what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Alex arrival in Scotland was prompted of course by the incompetence of Scottish journalists who according to him were “too lazy, sycophantic and incapable of asking awkward questions” with regard to Rangers financial affairs. Which was in itself rather strange as the Rangers support were in something of an uproar over press comments such as “tax cheats”, “financial doping” with our club being likened in one particular column as something you would gladly punch in the face until your hand hurt.
But according to Alex “Glasgow was different”. The man who had reported from war torn Sarajevo, Mogadishu, Kabul, Islamabad, Tripoli and Baghdad, (Alex apparently could list a few more names but he very kindly didn't want to bore us) suddenly was the victim of an alleged online threat, in former city of culture Glasgow. Alex reported this threat to Strathclyde Police. In actual fact though, Alex was very much ahead of the game and his actions were motivated by a desire to expose the lazy and sycophantic, those incapable of asking awkward questions.
All fine then because the Sun says so.
All fine because the police say so.
Dear oh dear we don't like to question things do we?
And yes, I knew full well that was a spoof account because I'd been told. By using it I wanted to achieved two things:
1. I suspected the two Glasgow journalists would immediately play down the issue of intimidation. They did thus exposing the problem.
They did.
2. I strongly suspected it would embolden David Leggat into behaving even more stupidly by issuing more threats convinced I'd been duped.
He did.
Which begs the question that if he knew it was a spoof account, and I'm reliably informed the person behind the spoof later apologised to him, why did he waste the time of the Police ?
But furthermore, knowing it was from a spoof account why did he tweet the following ?
https://twitter.com/alextomo/status/235037161722888192
Sorry, perhaps it's just me but I'm struggling a bit here....Thomson knew the threat came from a spoof account, the perpetrator of this spoof later apologised to him and yet Strathclyde Police's conduct according to Thomson “was shameful quite possibly corrupt” ? Heaven help us.
If that allegation against Strathclyde Police is Thomson's normal form of logic then thank goodness Glasgow is indeed different.
Of course careless tweeting has been something of an Achilles heel for Thomson. On the 26th June 2012 he was forced to issue an apology to the Rangers support following an inappropriate tweet concerning the Ibrox Disaster memorial. Attempts of course to claim that he was unaware of the significance of the memorial were somewhat usurped with a review of his own blog of 8.3.2012,
where he commented :
“Outside one corner of Ibrox a monument stands to the 66 who were crushed to death on a cold, foggy January night in 1971″
I mentioned of course Thomson's reputation in the opening paragraph, one which he has staked writing the foreword to the book Downfall. A planned serialisation by the Sun newspaper was abandoned in fairly acrimonious circumstances with the newspaper claiming the author was “tarred with a sickening sectarian brush” Such a stain and public humiliation seemed to galvanise Thomson into action with a suggestion that the Sun newspaper was one of a number of victims of threats and intimidation from Rangers supporters.
Logic breaks down here again unfortunately as the Sun newspaper do not appear to have made any report to the Police concerning these allegations of threats. Of course perhaps it could be argued that the wasting of Police time with false allegations of physical threats is the domain solely of the unscrupulous... a kind of journalistic underclass.
Tweeting does not appear to be a particular friend of Thomson, as it appears to have a tendency to bite back at him big time. His criticism via twitter of MSM, for failing to review Downfall was one such instance.
http://www.scotsman.com/sport/best-scottish-sport-reads-of-2012-1-2693614
The sirens started to sound at the first of several references to Rangers supporters as “the Ibrox klan”. The author makes no attempt to disguise his hatred for Rangers, stating at one stage “please let this football club die”. And yet he yearns to be taken seriously as a journalist, repeatedly complaining that no-one from the mainstream media ever calls him. As the tale unravels, Mac Giolla Bhain starts to disappear up his own rear, declaring: “I am aware of my own contribution and I rather like the guy I see in the shaving mirror every morning.” These are two classic mistakes: believing you are the story, and wanting a story to be true. When it’s not.
But perhaps its Thomson most recent offering which underline the depths he will sink to in order to salvage something of his beleaguered reputation. His succulent lamb “expose” revealed far more than James Traynor going about his normal business as a reporter. It revealed that Thomson is willing to use or sacrifice anyone in order to save that reputation. For in revealing those private e-mails he held up his source like some sacrificial lamb to expose a journalist doing what journalists do. If this was an attempt to alienate the Rangers support towards James Traynor it failed miserably. In fact it generated more discussion as to why Whyte was briefing against our club.
So not only do we know who Thomson's source is now, we know he is a thoroughly discredited individual who has lied on numerous occasions. But of course perhaps I fail to give Thomson credit, perhaps there is some bigger plan at work here as per his motivation with his complaint to Strathclyde Police.
Or perhaps Alex Thomson is just a complete and utter liability, who has not only damaged his own reputation in Scotland with some seriously flawed judgement, but also that of Channel 4 news, who like Thomson's links to a man described as being “tarred with a sickening sectarian brush” mean they are guilty by association.
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