Time For Fans To Unite
RANGERS, once again, appear to be under attack from the vindictive and downright malicious.
This isn’t paranoia and nor is it an attempt to play the victim card. There is no need for Rangers to do that because this club are no longer victims.
Rangers are in an extremely healthy financial position despite the best efforts of the media and others to suggest otherwise. Their desperation to see Rangers fail appears to be blinding them to a reality they don’t wish to view.
And I’m afraid their bile towards Rangers has poisoned their systems.
Once again, however, Rangers fans feel they have to react. Some are fretting, others are simmering, unsure what to do or say while a fair few aren‘t holding anything in reserve. They are venting their spleens.
Sadly for Rangers fans this is not a new phenomenon.
It is a fact that Rangers’ business cannot be reported in a fair or balanced manner. Stories are written to fit headlines which often bear little or no resemblance to the truth.
Rangers fans have every right to be angry and are entitled to expect the club to deal with those in the media, who wilfully distort, and also that close-knit gang of internet bloggers and posters. They will never have any connection with reality.
Of course, Rangers fans want to know what the club intend doing about this almost constant barrage of abuse. A great deal is the simple answer but the club cannot leap up on to the Ibrox roof and start screaming about the injustice of it.
The club must act in a responsible manner and our supporters have to understand that Rangers cannot react to every single internet bampot or each journalist or paper displaying a clear anti-Rangers agenda. But while it would be undignified to bawl and shout it would also be wrong to say and do nothing.
Over the last couple of days Rangers have tried to make it clear to media outlets that stories claiming a Singapore-based company are owed £400,000 are not accurate. Yet papers, TV and radio ran with their versions anyway.
They continue to report that Rangers face a Winding Up Petition but don’t point out this is a routine way of forcing payment and that there is no realistic threat of closure. They have chosen not to highlight the fact that Rangers believe agreement has been reached on a settlement sum which has actually been lodged with lawyers.
Wording of the agreement is all that stops this matter from being concluded.
But this issue is dealt with elsewhere on this site and I refer to it here only to show how difficult it is for some people to display basic decency and honesty. Despite what they and many in the media wish to believe Rangers are alive and well and there is a plan of action to try to deal with them, and also to curb the more deranged and spiteful critics.
But please, be patient. As soon as the changes agreed for Rangers PR and media kick in the approach will be very different. Details of those changes will be revealed soon enough but let me share something with you right now.
I worked in papers for years and I know that managements, editors and hacks don’t even miss a beat when they hear that a particular club’s fans say they aren’t going to buy the paper anymore. It means nothing because so far these threats have been empty.
Some fans do withdraw patronage but the fact nothing changes in terms of the balance of reporting suggests too few are exercising their right to switch.
If every fan who said he or she would never buy a particular paper again actually didn’t then those publications would be out of business. The bottom line is everything to the managements and shareholders of these companies and a sharp decline in sales would register like a thunder clap at boardroom level.
Too few fans realise just how much power they actually can command, especially if they’d step outwith their different groups and unite in one cause. Believe me, you could make media managements snap to attention and pay closer attention to the agendas of their editors, producers and journalists.
Just imagine the strength to be wielded if, instead of arguing among yourselves on forums, Twitter and Facebook, you all came together and acted as one massive and potent force for change. Just by refusing to acknowledge stories and broadcasts which you believe to be malicious you’d change the entire agenda.
Many are calling on the club to fire out banning orders and writs to various media outlets but an immediate and effective answer lies with the fans themselves. While a supporter cannot change his or her club because of the emotional investment, reading and listening habits can be altered very easily.
If fans can no longer trust a particular journalist or paper to be impartial they can stop reading. If they don’t like the agendas of a particular TV or radio station they don’t have to watch or listen.
Now, before we have the usual suspects out there in media land foaming at the mouth let me make it clear that I am not telling Rangers fans that every journo is working against this club. That level of paranoia might exist somewhere else but certainly not within Ibrox.
But why is it that so many continue to write or broadcast that this club is a new club when it is the owners who are new? Is it a lack of basic intelligence or is it something more sinister?
Why is there this obsession with Rangers and titles? Why is it always written that Rangers went down owing £130 plus million?
Why would a reporter write that Rangers had lost their Tupe case after it had been explained to him that last week’s ruling by the arbitration panel was nothing more than a procedural one and not a final decision on the actual case? A lack of smarts again, or something darker?
There are many examples of this level of reporting with regard to Rangers but I want to point out that I believe there are still a lot of good, honest hacks out there. Maybe they, too, should stand up for themselves and their profession.
But this club’s fans can make their play by realising it is your interest, your angst and rage which encourage the repeat offenders. Believe me, they get a real kick out of becoming the subjects of on-line threads and discussions and by paying attention, even if it is to hurl insults or use unacceptable language to describe them, you give them exactly what they want.
You are just about the only audience they have. Do not indulge them. Ignore their malice, pay no attention to their agendas, and do not let them into your heads.
I know there are various factions among Rangers supporters but why not stand united in this cause? Your attention is their oxygen. It can be so easily switched off.
