In the last two weeks the Scottish public have been exposed to the brutal workings of the PR industry, with the machinations of Jack Irvine and Iain MacIver shocking a public who should be aware of how unprincipled a profession it really is.
For his part Irvine, who has spent many years allegedly acting for Rangers, but actually working for prospective owners, promoted a blog by arch Rangers hater Paul McConville, then added insult to injury by allowing himself to be interviewed by another Rangers hating Celtic supporter Andy Muirhead for Scotzine.
If Rangers fans needed any convincing how much of a lowlife Irvine was then this should have been the nail in the coffin.
Irvine, in rubbing various people up the wrong way, is doing the exact opposite of what a Rangers PR should be doing. Rangers can now count themselves victims once again in a week of negative propaganda led by The Scottish Sun, in two ridiculously ill-judged stories about Rangers, that would in normal circumstances be ripped to shreds in a libel court.
The timing is curious, and comes on the back of David Leggat leaking an email where Irvine personally slated Sun Editor Andy Harries as well as Record Editor Allan Rennie. While one can understand Leggat’s anger at Irvine’s hypocrisy and unsuitability for the Rangers job, the leak has been counter-productive, with Harries apparently being sensitive to criticism, and now on the attack. Sadly he’s not attacking Irvine, but attacking Rangers.
On the back of the PR gaffe by SNP MSP Bill Walker’s spokesman slating the victim of Walker’s physical abuse, it shone a light on a dark world That world of professional spin is at least now visible, but the dark arts have been at work in other less exposed places, also on Rangers business.
There have been three huge Rangers stories dominating the front pages of Scotland’s media this week, two of which are most definitely touched by the dark art of “spin”.
First up was the ridiculous story of a Celtic supporter complaining that his dog was the victim of sectarian abuse by two Rangers fans, on his word alone, and no evidence, nor any charges. The piece in the Sun covered 3 pages with photos of said mutt and owner resplendent in the colours of Glasgow’s second team.
One Rangers site pointed out that the complainant had questionable opinions on a number of matters, with some screenshots of his facebook, exposing him as a rabid bigot, republican and racist.
Strangely, the Sun chose to ignore the fact their “witness” was about as reliable as Craig Whyte’s cleaners, but just wished to spin the yarn that Rangers fans are bad eggs all round.
Next up was the one of the BBCs cast of Anti Rangers bigots, Jim Spence, who claimed on BBC that Rangers had died. I won’t use the exact quote, as I’m sick of seeing it. The result was 400 complaints to the BBC Trust to point out that their own ruling on the matter was being ignored by Spence. What happened next was remarkable. The BBC issued an odd statement that was interpreted by some as an apology. It was not. They said, and I quote “I am sorry if you were offended by this”.
I’m afraid, that is not an apology. Subsequent to this, Rhebel blogger Phil MacGiollaBhain claimed that Spence had offered voluntary redundancy in disgust at the BBCs lack of support for him. More propaganda was released that the BBC were now to back him, with input from NUJ Scotland chief Paul Holleran.
By now it was being reported that the legitimate complaints about Spence’s deliberate error were abuse, and that Spence was the victim of Rangers fans’ abuse Again this was with no evidence, but plenty of “support” from MacGiollaBhain, Celtic Minded’s Scott McMenemy, and Graham Spiers all expressing their concern over the treatment he was "getting". The concern and co-operation in turning a situation around was a remarkable lesson on how to manage the media in Scotland, although it has to be said being in the media to start with must help.
So, while the NUJ should be berating a member for deliberately ignoring legal guidance on the status of Rangers, and thereby deliberately being inaccurate when describing the club, they have done the opposite, and assisted him to engineer a situation where legitimate complaints about the disgraceful conduct of a journalist are ignored, and said journalist is perceived as a victim.
Unsurprisingly, Spence is now complaining that he has been abused in the street. Given that he has been in victim mode all week can he really be believed? The unofficial PR with Spence has been remarkable, and Irvine should take note as to how it can be done, and it is not done in isolation, it is done by co-ordinating with people with the same aims as you, not with the enemy.
The other story this week that the Sun printed (this morning) was that Frank Blin and Paul Murray had been appointed to the Rangers board, despite the club statement to the LSE yesterday saying no additional board members were to be accepted to the board.
Rangers reiterated the statement this morning, and it later transpired that Blin had in fact completely walked away from the Jim McColl requisitioning group.
How they completely called it wrong is for them to explain, but they have embarrassed themselves this week, and damaged their already decreasing credibility.
Who in their right mind can now believe anything in that paper?
Bill
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