Spiers and The Herald have a slice of humble pie.

[BEARGER 1,830]

Bells Caledonia say they will print her article.

This from their site;

Poor piece Mike, weird piece. Club not dealt with other who criticise (see Richard Wilson’s piece) in this manner. Speirs has been seen by many Rangers fans to have lied and manipulated facts for years. Also are you not connected to AH through Common Space? Vested interest / nepotism? She also connected to a man described as “being tarred by a sectarian brush”. Other clubs have banned and impacted journalists in this way, DUNDEE United and Celtic the most resent examples. This is not a new tactic, and in not the threat to Scottish democracy just the club finally having enough of a a man see as a troll disguised as a journalist by many, who abuses that fine profession. Journalists have a responsibility to inform, report and share their views on what what they think and see based on evidence, not goad, provoke and make “stuff” up, as many Rangers fans feel. This type of piece in pure hyperbole, reinforces prejudice (see some of the posts above, “bigots” “facist underclass”) and does not inform debate, but just throws more shit around a darkened room.

Some of the highlights quoted from else where

One of my earliest memories was his blatant lie that Rangers fans sang (about German superstar Jurgen) “Klinsmann’s a Klansman” at Ibrox. Complete and utter bollocks. He further claimed that Rangers fans sang songs about the tragic death of former Celtic player Tommy Coyne’s wife. Complete fabrication. Another contention of his was that former Ranger Ian Ferguson had “all the charm of a child molester”. A pleasant analogy I’m sure you’d agree. I would wager that Spiers would not express his strikingly odd views during a face-to-face meeting with our former midfielder.

In July 1996 whilst with Scotland On Sunday he penned a deplorable attack on the late great Jock Wallace the day after he passed away, the inference being that Wallace was a bully and a bigot and responsible for sectarianism in Scottish football. Spiers twisted insinuations flew completely in the face of former Celtic captain Andy Lynch who said this on hearing of Wallace’s passing “He would always take the time (prior to Old Firm encounters) in the nervy pre-match atmosphere, be it at Parkhead or Ibrox, to come and give me a warm handshake or hug and sincere best wishes……smart, kind and sensitive. He will be sadly missed.”

Lisbon Lion Tommy Gemmell echoed Lynch’s sentiments “It doesn’t matter what side of the fence you were on, I don’t think you will find anyone in Scottish football who had a bad word to say about him. It was always a pleasure to be in his company and talk to him. His crack was different class.” Almost correct Tommy. You WILL find someone who has a bad word to say about him. Graham Spiers.

Bad-mouthing deceased Rangers heroes has since become a theme for this creature. He has written disrespectful articles on late greats Bill Struth, Jim Baxter and Davie Cooper. Of course as with Wallace none of them were here to defend themselves. Spiers wrote the following on the eve last seasons’ League Cup Final against Motherwell, a game dedicated to Coop’s memory:

“More remarkable, though, amid the media and marketing frenzy surrounding the game, is the way the memory of Cooper’s career has become lodged halfway between legend and myth………..One problem with the Davie Cooper legend is that, as with many public personalities who die young and become subject to mythology, it doesn’t wholly square with the facts of his career. For a so-called “genius”, you would certainly have expected Cooper, who died at 39, to have won more than his 22 international caps.”

To write the above just hours prior to a game played in tribute to Davie where his family would be in attendance was nothing short of despicable.

On Struth: “Bill Struth was either an idol or an idiot depending on your point of view”. There you are Mr. Murray, according to Speirs you may have unveiled a statue of an idiot at half-time during the Moenchengladbach game.

Spiers had started his one-man campaign of anti-Rangers bile long before he joined the Herald. One of my earliest memories was his blatant lie that Rangers fans sang (about German superstar Jurgen) “Klinsmann’s a Klansman” at Ibrox. Complete and utter bollocks. He further claimed that Rangers fans sang songs about the tragic death of former Celtic player Tommy Coyne’s wife. Complete fabrication. Another contention of his was that former Ranger Ian Ferguson had “all the charm of a child molester”. A pleasant analogy I’m sure you’d agree. I would wager that Spiers would not express his strikingly odd views during a face-to-face meeting with our former midfielder.

Edited January 29, 2016 by BEARGER

[andy steel 0]

If my company sacked someone and I went onto social media to criticise them, I doubt I'd be flavour of the month either. Especially if I repeated the sacked colleague's comments.

 

Admittedly true, but I'm not sure you could get bagged for it. Also, as we know, different rules apply in different industries - journos, like teachers, are notorious for closing ranks when taken to task. I'm not certain how far that applies in other walks of life.

 

Nah, it is all #Rangersbad don't you know....

 

Seems that Rangers have been converted from being a basketcase to fascists to convenient patsies now.

 

What a squalid sports media Scotland has

 

I view anyone who links football to the political future of my country with grave suspicion. The Wings guy and now, it seems, the Bella guy are overly keen to lurch online with, as you say, #Rangersbad. I just find it beyond credibility that anyone who has been active in the Nationalist movement over the last four years or so hasn't noticed that people who support all teams and none are represented. So why on earth would you wind up people who are on your side over something as ultimately meaningless as a game of football and some crappy journalists being hauled over the coals?

 

Goebbels and the Reichsminister fur Propaganda it ain't, and suggesting it is just makes them look ridiculous. On the other hand, if writers, no matter of what standard, are being censored due to financial pressure that's not cool, whether it's the Barclay Brothers or Dave King.

[Frankie 8,652]

I don't think anyone - journalist or McDonald's worker - should be exempt from defamation law.

 

Spiers and Haggerty were in the wrong and instead of admitting as such, continued their lies. What else could the Herald - no friend of our club - have done?

[andy steel 0]

Fair point. I'm kind of working on the assumption that Graham Spiers will publish on this in the next few days, pointing the finger at individuals. I'm not sure he can do anything else if he values his reputation. But if he doesn't, then the complaint from the club would stand, and you'd be absolutely right.

 

PS: Edit - I know this relies on assuming GS is not just making his story up, and while I've read his output with disbelief many, many times I would be stunned if he was just inventing #Rangersbad stuff. Surely no-one could be that daft?

Edited January 29, 2016 by andy steel

[Frankie 8,652]

Spiers has lost his discipline many times over the years and perhaps felt comfortable in taking liberties.

 

Only time will tell if he has evidence of his claims. But I'm pretty sure if he did, he'd have already presented them in private to his employer.

[Oleg_Mcnoleg 50]

Spiers has lost his discipline many times over the years and perhaps felt comfortable in taking liberties.

 

Only time will tell if he has evidence of his claims. But I'm pretty sure if he did, he'd have already presented them in private to his employer.

 

And not one Sellick director has ever belted out the odd rebel song after an excess of hospitality. The sanctimoniousness of Spiers is matched only by his complete lack of ability.

[buster. 5,257]

All this jounalist outrage becomes contagious and spreads........

 

But what about the principle of a group of people (some journalists) who over a long period of time, act in concert with an apparent aim of traducing the name of the supporters of one particular football club. Some of the material or 'evidence' they use coming from directly from themselves and their accounts of such.

 

PMGB

AT (C4)

Roy Greenslade

etc

 

 

Is this journalism or an organised attack,.......... opportunistically looking for and/or creating & embellishing material ?

Edited January 29, 2016 by buster.

[SteveC 150]

We need someone - ironically perhaps now the Herald of all people - to put into the public domain the writings of Ill Phil and AH so that people can read those that Greenslade and AT hold up as "brave journalists fighting for freedom". Their non/laughable 'qualifications' as journalists should also be held up to public scrutiny when the NUJ wade in.

 

A summary of Speirs' astonishing hypocrisy and bias through the years also would show the degraded depths those "brave journalists".

 

https://exposingtherhats.wordpress.com/2016/01/28/philco-nothing-is-beyond-parody/

 

How to get these things onto the MSM however, I know not. Perhaps send them to anyone brave enough to print the truth or who wants to show Greenslade up for what he is.

[ian1964 10,761]

Two columnists depart from Glasgow's Herald in row with Rangers

Roy Greenslade

 

 

 

Two columnists have lost their jobs at the Herald newspapers in Glasgow following complaints from Rangers football club.

 

Graham Spiers, an award-winning sports writer, departed after threats of legal action over one of his Herald columns.

 

And Angela Haggerty, who supported Spiers on Twitter, was relieved of her Sunday Herald column.

 

The Herald’s editor-in-chief, Magnus Llewellin, is said to be downcast at the turn of events in what a colleague called “a toxic atmosphere.”

 

The saga began on 28 December when Spiers wrote a column headlined “Rangers must uphold progress by resisting return of the old songs” (now taken down from the paper’s site).

The stories you need to read, in one handy email

Read more

 

He began by praising Rangers for having “made considerable strides to eradicate bigotry around the club”, with “dodgy songs” having been “put on the back burner.”

 

He pointed out that one particular anti-Catholic anthem, The Billy Boys, had been “put on mute.” But there were “occasional public eruptions of it” and one occurred during a Rangers-Hibernian match on Boxing Day.

 

Spiers, a four-time winner of Scotland’s sports journalist of the year award, then made an allegation about a member of the Rangers board.

 

That prompted a legal complaint to the Herald from Rangers, which culminated in an apology, published by the Herald on Wednesday (27 January):

 

“In a recent column for heraldscotland, Graham Spiers said an un-named Rangers director had praised the song The Billy Boys.

 

He also questioned the willingness of Rangers directors to tackle offensive behaviour, and The Herald and Graham Spiers accept this was inaccurate.

 

We acknowledge every member of the Rangers board is fully committed to fighting bigotry and offensive chanting, wherever it occurs in Scottish football, and that the club is actively tackling the issue.

 

We apologise for any embarrassment that may have been caused to the members of the Rangers board.”

 

Spiers hit back with a piece, also published online on Wednesday, in which he told of “severe” pressure on the Herald.

 

He wrote: “Having searched many avenues to reach an agreement with the club, the newspaper ultimately denied my request to withhold any clarification/apology until my own position was clearer.”

 

He went on to say he retained the highest regard for Magnus Llewellin, “who has tried to resolve this problem.”

 

Spiers, who also writes for the Times and works for the BBC, told me by email that he had “no illusions” that in issuing his statement he was “putting a pile of Semtex under a bridge between me and the Herald.”

 

He added: “I didn’t have the temerity to even think about filing my usual weekly column to the paper yesterday... I do have some sympathy for the Herald. The paper, for complex reasons, became embroiled in a very difficult situation.”

 

Llewellin has come in for widespread criticism since running the apology. The National Union of Journalists issued a statement condemning the fact that the columns have been pulled.

 

Among the critics also was a former Herald political correspondent and leader writer, Robbie Dinwoodie, who wrote a blog item about the matter. After spending 28 years at the paper, he took redundancy four months ago.

 

He was also upset by Haggerty’s departure. Following Spiers’s article on Rangers she wrote a tweet in which she complained about Rangers’ bigotry.

 

She maintains that she was referring to fans, but the Herald considered this to be a reference to Rangers’ directors.

 

Llewellin felt that it compromised the newspaper and Haggerty, a freelance contributor who edits the news website Common Space, was told that her column would no longer be required.

 

In her most recent column, she told of editing a book about Rangers’ financial collapse in 2012 that “led to a nearly four-year long sustained campaign of abuse” by Rangers’ fans.

 

Haggerty was hired by the Sunday Herald’s editor, Neil Mackay. In a clear sign of a breach at senior level over her firing, Mackay tweeted: “Important: the decision to remove @AngelaHaggerty as Sunday Herald columnist was not taken by me but by the editor-in-chief Magnus Llewellin.”

 

Questions about the two cases were emailed to Rangers’ press office. A spokeswoman later replied: “It would be entirely inappropriate for Rangers to comment on another company’s affairs.”

 

Earlier this month, a BBC sports writer, Chris McLaughlin, was told he was no longer welcome at the Rangers ground because of objections to his reporting. The BBC retaliated by announcing a boycott of Rangers’ games at Ibrox.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/jan/29/two-columnists-depart-from-glasgow-herald-in-row-with-rangers

[ian1964 10,761]

Herald & Times Group: A statement

 

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/1...__A_statement/

 

A Graham Spiers column published on heraldscotland in December made a claim about an un-named member of the six-strong board of Rangers.

 

This presented a legal issue which had to be addressed and which was discussed at length, by all parties involved.

 

The issue was whether we could defend in court a contentious statement and the advice given was that we could not. Finally, on clear legal advice, we were left with no option other than to apologise and seek to draw a line under the matter.

 

After the apology was published we had to abide by it and the spirit in which it was published. Unfortunately that apology was then undermined and we had to take appropriate action.

 

Our titles have a long history of supporting quality journalism and defending free speech and robust comment. This made all the more difficult the action we had to take.

 

While one of our advertisers is on the board at Rangers that was never an issue and we shall continue to report and comment on the pressing issues of the day without fear or favour.

 

Magnus Llewellin,

 

Editor-in-Chief

 

Herald & Times Group