Leveson - The Rangers lesson

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.