Tom's Reflex

[Germinal 27]

Football writing being usually rubbish, the sports equivalent of Frank Zappa's dictum that music journalism was written by people who couldn't write for people who couldn't read, I'm going to fit right in and start with a few bits of banal ground setting.

 

Cards on the table. Let's get a few things straight. Clear the air.

 

This is because I am about begin a post on Gersnet by announcing that I like Tom English. I think his non-football writing is first class, his breadth of interests refreshing and his football coverage better than most. Not much of a title I admit, but even so.

 

But all this stage dressing is merely the preamble to a bottom spanking for Tom. Having listened to him on Monday night's Sportsound, in which BBC Scotland demonstrated the depth of their ostracisation of Rangers by devoting a solid hour to talking about, well, Rangers, even the most generously disposed toward Tom must be feeling a little bereft.

 

I think in today's Scotland it may be verging on illegal to dredge up Irish stereotypes such as blarney but Tom's defence of his employer, BBC Scotland and his colleague, Chris McLaughlin, was woeful. And it was all the more woeful because it basically employed the reflex reaction which we Rangers fans used when Craig Whyte was being slaughtered by people out with the club.

 

Since - and it's still hard to type these words - he was meant to be representing Rangers, many of us (me, certainly) automatically defended Whyte without really giving the accusations enough of a look. Tom's defence of Chris McLaughlin rests on similar ground - 'what do you expect us to do?' being a repeated line. Well, I suppose I expect you to look at the basis of the complaint, upon which I find it hard to believe anyone vaguely objective would find no issue with Chris' work. I expected a bit better I guess, which may be my own fault.

 

It's a bit ironic to level the (justified) accusation of knee jerk reactions at Rangers fans for several years, then do the self same thing yourself. The 'circle-the-wagons' reflex which did us no good and helped expose the club to the cast of loons, chancers and ne'er do wells who have haunted our days and nights these long years past is the same reflex which makes journalists defend their colleagues no matter what.

 

It wasn't healthy for us and it isn't healthy for them.

 

There are few enough people in Scottish sport who can write anything worth reading and certainly too few for the likes of Tom to go wandering in the fields of narrow mindedness. No, he isn't anti-Rangers and no, being Irish doesn't preclude rational analysis of the game here, regardless of what extremists may think. No doubt Tom gets Twitter messages of an unpleasant nature from Rangers fans, but journalism, like politics, is a hard and dirty business and I hope he, like the best of people, doesn't allow that to cloud his judgement a la Spence.

 

Think again, Tom.

Edited August 6, 2015 by Germinal

[JohnMc 2,473]

It's funny but my favourite sport's journalists are both Irish. David Walsh at the Sunday Times but particularly Paul Kimmage who has an insight into professional sport very few journalists possess and a curious writing style I really enjoy. Like you I actually quite like English and have never quite understood why he attracts as much opprobrium from our support as he does.

Great piece, hope it gets read further afield than this thread.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

I agree on English. However, Craig nailed him to the mast with his point about why take us off the air not Dundee or celtc.

[Bluedell 5,329]

I found Tom English to be consistently anti-Rangers prior to Whyte appearing on the scene. There was a period that he seemed to change his approach and treat us objectively but over the past year or so, I've found him to have reverted to type and be anti-Rangers again.

[Germinal 27]

I agree on English. However, Craig nailed him to the mast with his point about why take us off the air not Dundee or celtc.

 

He was poor on all fronts really - interruptions which he wouldn't do to players, managers or fellow journalists, diversions, deflections - the best one was when he asked Craig Houston why he thought Rangers had withdrawn privileges from the writers, and when Craig gave HIS reasons these instantly became RANGERS reasons. Craig may be popular but he wasn't speaking for the club.

 

It seemed like anger rather than logic, and that doesn't usually get anyone very far.

[Germinal 27]

I found Tom English to be consistently anti-Rangers prior to Whyte appearing on the scene. There was a period that he seemed to change his approach and treat us objectively but over the past year or so, I've found him to have reverted to type and be anti-Rangers again.

 

Well, fair enough. I didn't get that from him but we're all different.

[Scott7 5,168]

TE writes very well. He may support celtic - I don't know, nothing in his writing reveals anything - but he doesn't like Rangers. Strangely, he was at his most sympathetic when Rangers were at their lowest ebb with a second Administration looming.

 

His posture on the "ban" is laughable. Come to our match but not to our trough. What's hard to understand?

[JohnMc 2,473]

TE writes very well. He may support celtic - I don't know, nothing in his writing reveals anything - but he doesn't like Rangers. Strangely, he was at his most sympathetic when Rangers were at their lowest ebb with a second Administration looming.

 

His posture on the "ban" is laughable. Come to our match but not to our trough. What's hard to understand?

 

I think there's an assumption that because he's Irish he must support Celtic. English is from Limerick and that's an unusual town and county by Republic of Ireland standards. For a start it's the only part of the Republic of Ireland where rugby is the top sport, and it's the top sport by miles. In Dublin and other parts of Ireland rugby is a minority sport played in schools in the more affluent areas, by private schools or by Protestant schools. Not in Limerick where it's played by everyone no matter their background. This is English's background, he's a rugby man to his boots and would far rather report on that than football. If he has any football allegiances they're to one of the big English sides like pretty much everyone else in Ireland.

[aweebluesoandso 290]

English got himself into bad company with Spiers, Spence, Cosgrove and other Rangers Haters from BBC Scotland, he took the easy option of toeing their and their bosses party line , He's entrenched in this view now, he's not for changing. We can only wait him and the rest out. However that's not to say we and the club can't agitate for change, and make sure those who come along after they have gone, are never given again free reign or permitted such bias and agenda against our club.

[Tannochsidebear 2,314]

Bluedell sums up English perfectly. A short period of apparant neutrality does not a fair or good journalist make. One wonders why he, given the information above that he is a rugby fan from Limerick, has turned up at BBC Scotland covering football. More curious that Sportsound would put him up in a Rangers debate when he clearly is not a fan or capable of rational thought regarding our club. My thoughts as to the answer to these questions are that he has not the quality to get a good job covering rugby in Ireland (or Scotland or wherever he decides to reside), and has shown his credentials to be a good fit for the rabid infusion of sectarianism that lives at Pacific Quay.