Tom's Reflex

[colinstein 294]

Cosgrove pumping out BBC propaganda on John Beattie this lunchtime. Seemed to suggest the BBC did Boycott Dens over Spence's ban. Not sure if he actually said they did. Need to listen again

[Frankie 8,665]

As far as I know they did.

 

Certainly suggestions from other forums from the time infer as much.

 

However, I don't think BBC commented officially as they have done in this case.

[Tannochsidebear 2,429]

If the BBC boycotted Dens in support of Jum I am not sure anybody even noticed. They would only go there for Dundee v Celtic games and if this was from a few years ago then Dundee were not even in the top flight at the time.

 

Boycotting the biggest club in the country because one of their scumbag journos has his free pie taken away is an over-reaction of quite some magnitude.

[Germinal 27]

Sorry, I wasn't around yesterday but have published this to the main site today as I found the comments interesting and fair.

 

http://www.gersnet.co.uk/index.php/news-category/current-affairs/416-tom-english-s-reflex

 

I think the problem with English isn't so much that he's anti-RFC (he is) it's that he's more balanced than the likes of Spiers as, FWIW, English is more critical of others when it comes to the indiscretions of other clubs.

 

As such, while you can't really call him (overly) biased, the quality of his arguments are often very poor for someone who is capable of better. In that sense, I think English is being obtuse on some issues which makes him less than genuine.

 

I don't take issue with what you write, but we need to remember that football reporters are people too, and that sometimes they'll get it right, sometimes wrong, and sometimes fly off the handle completely. Take the Hearts game Tannochside Bear spoke about - having ploughed up the motorway in hideous conditions (I turned back at Hillington) if you'd asked me what I thought if Rangers that night my reply would have been unprintable as well. Maybe he just had cold toes?

 

But we can't expect people to expound the wisdom of Solomon every time they speak, especially if they're on as often as the likes of Tom. And yes, sometimes he talks cobblers! But I still can't make the leap from that to classing him as 'anti-Rangers' which in all honesty sounds a bit feeble, like something Stalin would have come out with. He doesn't have to like us, you know.

[limeburner 0]

I don't take issue with what you write, but we need to remember that football reporters are people too, and that sometimes they'll get it right, sometimes wrong, and sometimes fly off the handle completely. Take the Hearts game Tannochside Bear spoke about - having ploughed up the motorway in hideous conditions (I turned back at Hillington) if you'd asked me what I thought if Rangers that night my reply would have been unprintable as well. Maybe he just had cold toes?

 

But we can't expect people to expound the wisdom of Solomon every time they speak, especially if they're on as often as the likes of Tom. And yes, sometimes he talks cobblers! But I still can't make the leap

from that to classing him as 'anti-Rangers' which in all honesty sounds a bit feeble, like something Stalin would have come out with. He doesn't have to like us, you know.

I think the problem is that he put up NO defence,he expounded NOTHING.

He just more or less said"what do you expect us to do".He was like a child caught stealing from the tuck shop.

[colinstein 294]

I was out of the country during last season's play offs.

Can anyone tell me if McLaughlin covered the Fir Park game, and if he did, what was the BBC headline from the match filed by him ?

 

ps forget it

was Richard Wilson.....the pitch invasion was low on the list of comments which concentrated on the score

Edited August 6, 2015 by colinstein

[Zappa 0]

But we can't expect people to expound the wisdom of Solomon every time they speak, especially if they're on as often as the likes of Tom. And yes, sometimes he talks cobblers! But I still can't make the leap from that to classing him as 'anti-Rangers' which in all honesty sounds a bit feeble, like something Stalin would have come out with. He doesn't have to like us, you know.

 

Tom English has been one of the BBC's most outspoken critics of Dave King, actually seeming as if he was actively campaigning against Dave King being passed as 'fit & proper' by the SFA like the obsessed Celtic fans were doing. If that's not 'anti-Rangers', then I don't know what is, although it has to be said that we did have some of our own doing the same thing. Not many, but there were some, even on here.

[Bearman 9]

Tom English has been one of the BBC's most outspoken critics of Dave King, actually seeming as if he was actively campaigning against Dave King being passed as 'fit & proper' by the SFA like the obsessed Celtic fans were doing. If that's not 'anti-Rangers', then I don't know what is, although it has to be said that we did have some of our own doing the same thing. Not many, but there were some, even on here.

 

I'd say the opinions of the Celtic fans/English and our own fans were for different reasons.

 

They questioned Kings 'fit and proper' test because they don't want Rangers to have success - the Gers fans reasons where because (wrongly, imo) they thought the old board could deliver it more.

[Germinal 27]

Tom English has been one of the BBC's most outspoken critics of Dave King, actually seeming as if he was actively campaigning against Dave King being passed as 'fit & proper' by the SFA like the obsessed Celtic fans were doing. If that's not 'anti-Rangers', then I don't know what is, although it has to be said that we did have some of our own doing the same thing. Not many, but there were some, even on here.

 

You can have serious reservations about Dave King without being anti-Rangers, indeed coming after the last few years a man with Dave's record in SA coming to the rescue sounded like a very bad joke. You can also have serious reservations about the kind of gung-ho capitalism practiced by the likes of David Murray, Dave King and many other people who hover around football without being anti-Rangers - many Rangers fans who back RF/BR probably look at that type of businessman as being 'fit & proper' with a jaundiced eye, and they certainly aren't anti-Rangers.

 

I learnt via Craig Whyte not to mix up whoever was at the helm with the club - if Rangers is anything it is the fans, not the temporary owners of the club ties and parking spaces.

 

All that said he was over the top on King (on radio), he was over the top on league reconstruction, and probably 101 other things. I'm not arguing he's the greatest ever mind to talk about football, but I do think he's several notches above the herd and as such his reaction, what limeburner correctly dismisses as consisting of 'nothing', was what bugged me into making the OP in the first place.

Edited August 7, 2015 by Germinal

[JohnMc 2,802]

Tom English has been one of the BBC's most outspoken critics of Dave King, actually seeming as if he was actively campaigning against Dave King being passed as 'fit & proper' by the SFA like the obsessed Celtic fans were doing. If that's not 'anti-Rangers', then I don't know what is, although it has to be said that we did have some of our own doing the same thing. Not many, but there were some, even on here.

 

If King wasn't a Glaswegian raised bluenose who had previously ploughed money into the club and was a known quantity to many and if the club hadn't been on its knees I've a feeling a lot more people would have been very concerned about someone with his history taking over the club.

 

I'm delighted that Ashley's cabal has been marginalised, and I do think King genuinely want's what is best for the club, but the media would not be doing it's job if it didn't say 'hang about, how can someone with his record be seen as fit and proper?'.