hackwatching

violent conduct by mcculloch ignored once again

and the schizophrenia of the scottish media

Monday, 28 September 2009

Following his kung fu kick on Balogh of Hearts at Swinecastle, Lee “Elbows” McCulloch was it at it again as he floored Paton of Aberdeen with a forearm smash.

This incident was completely ignored by STV and BBC Scotland TV news broadcasts as well as the Monday evening BBC highlights package.

The BBC quaintly described the incident thus - “Lee McCulloch was booked for catching Michael Paton in the face before Peter Pawlett’s header drifted wide of McGregor’s goal.”

Blink and you’d miss it.

The BBC - winning awards for understatement since 1989.

Do you think the Scottish media would have swept everything under the carpet if Glenn Loovens or Scott McDonald had been involved in such an incident?

Tony Bananas - winning awards for rhetorical questions since 2002.

The Schizophrenia of the Scottish Media: 20/20 vision followed by temporary blindness
Celtic 1-1 Dundee United

Raman and Co on STV gave us a slow motion close-up of the handball which resulted in a free-kick and Celtic’s goal on Saturday.

At least Raman wasn’t brazen enough to describe it as “controversial”, unlike his counterpart at the BBC.

The BBC also described the free-kick that led to Celtic’s goal as “disputed”. Watch the footage of the most obvious handball it is possible to get in the history of world football and work that one out.

Craig Levein was also reported as raging in the BBC commentary. The commentator stops short of saying “and quite rightly so” but was obviously desperate to do so.

The STV report informed us, “Samaras’s strike was ruled out for offside”.

Note, not “controversially” ruled out, or “wrongly” or even “debatably”. Obviously they feel that the decision was correct, unlike everyone else with functioning eyesight.

And what I can only accurately describe, as a fantastic diving save worthy of Lev Yashin by Dundee United defender Darren Dods, was not even deemed worthy of any coverage or mention, far less a slow motion close-up by Raman and his STV colleagues.

Incompetence over bias maybe?

Considering Raman referred to the current Scotland manager as “George Bertie” at the start of his bulletin, I confidently conclude, incompetence AND bias.

Now, we all know there would have been hell to pay had this happened up at the other end of the park, or if a certain other Glasgow team who play in blue had fallen victim to such a decision.

I refer you to Bougherra M v Aberdeen, McDonald S v Dundee Utd, Loovens G v Rangers, Novo N v Hibs, Caldwell G v Dundee Utd, Hartley P v Hamilton Accies, McDonald S v Falkirk, Balde B v Motherwell, Nakamura S v St Mirren, Diamond Z v Celtic, Vennegoor of Hesselink v St Mirren to name but a few, for precedents as to how our esteemed Scottish media are well capable of being eagle-eyed and making a song and dance about “controversial” incidents that suit their agenda [what possible agenda could that be? he exclaimed sarcastically!].

Yes, if the tables has been turned, the media would have been full of cries for video evidence to be introduced immediately, and who knows, the SFA might even have called another emergency summit at Hampden to address sub-standard refereeing and threatened a few of their officials with black-balling their Lodge membership renewals.
However in this case, because it was Celtic, the video evidence is there, but nestled nicely under the carpet (see Samaras G v Aberdeen, McCulloch L v Hearts, Boyd K v Dundee Utd, Darcheville C v Falkirk, Ferguson B v Hearts, Thomson K v Celtic, Cousin D v Celtic, McDonald S v Hibs, Nakamura S v Rangers just for starters).

This is nothing more than utterly pathetic and transparent bias from those who purport to be our national broadcasters, and in the case of the BBC, funded by our taxes.

The BBC website also enthusiastically reports Levein’s “fury” at the aforementioned “debatable” free-kick in contrast to emphasising that BTM said the draw was “a fair result”

It’s about time our own manager started highlighting instances such as these, as the “impartial” Scottish media sure as hell aren’t going to start now.

And to hell with the inevitable accusations of paranoia. At least make them answer for their twisted bias reporting.

Still on the subject of the BBC, their edited highlights from the St. Mirren v Celtic game omitted the incident where John Potter hauled back Shaun Maloney from behind when the Celtic player was clear with a possible run through on the St. Mirren goal.

A red card for Potter would probably have been a harsh decision, but in this day and age it’s highly unusual to see a player escape a yellow card for this kind of thing.

Whatever the merits of it, it was at least a talking point in a match which was notable for a definite lack of them. Yet BBC Scotland chose not to show the incident, although the match commentator casually mentioned that Scott McDonald looked as if he was in an offside position when the second goal went in. Indeed, he casually dropped it into his commentary at least three times in ten seconds.

By contrast, take the Lee McCulloch incident, which was airbrushed out of the Rangers v Aberdeen highlights, BBC Scotland again.

It came a mere four days after they had turned a Nelson’s eye to Kris Boyd’s outrageous dives against Queen of the South in the League Cup, even though the Cardigan was asked about it in the post-match interview.

The cynics and paranoid among us have concluded that there is a less than hidden agenda at work, perhaps so that McCulloch might be spared the indignity of a trial by television, a la Glenn Loovens.

And finally, having watched one of the most one-sided games since the Watford Gynecologists played the Long John Silver Impersonators in a Monty Python sketch, the Herald awarded player ratings for the Rangers v Seville game (4:1 for Seville remember). Totals - Rangers 69, Seville 68.

 

TONY BANANAS
celticparanoia.blogspot.com

and a Gentleman

More paranoid ranting available at www.celticparanoia.blogspot.com

 

TONY BANANAS & HACKWATCHER