My canny publisher was delighted that all the copy had been processed on deadline.
However, he had added that, he would “hold the back page” until the last possible moment.
He’s been publishing books for many many years and this is only my third.
So no contest on the experience front.
However, I thought that the story was told and that he had the book.
I was wrong.
Right on que up popped the knight of the realm to add to the high farce at Ibrox.
His statement is beyond parody.
However, what was of interest is that it was sent out through the Press Association and he didn’t entertain the idea of a presser.
He didn’t even do a one-to-one with a favoured journalist.
In the good old days he would grant an exclusive fireside chat to, say, Chick Young.
The tough BBC sports reporter would then ask Sir David to explain the full extent of his wonderfulness.
Times have certainly changed and now it is Mark Daly from the Beeb who gets stuck into the man who once ruled Ibrox.
By owning Rangers Murray also, ipso facto, had many Scottish sports journalists begging him for scraps.
When Murray was holding court in Channel Islands and journalists like Graham Spiers and James Traynor joined him at his home there the World Wide Web was in its infancy.
If anyone had speculated over the succulent lamb the idea that one day an anonymous person could share the club’s dirty tax secrets with tens of thousands of avid readers on computer screens around the world then they would not have been given any more of that very fine red wine.
This technology has been a game changer and the man who effortlessly controlled the traditional news outlets a decade ago has been beached by history.
Washed up on the further shores of the information archipelago a digital tsunami wiped out his control of the media in Scotland.
In his first decade in charge of Rangers it was the old traditional media and the one way flow of information.
This was a paradigm where Murray excelled.
The hacks were pitifully easy to bribe and bully into obedience.
He didn’t have to try that hard to get them to do his bidding.
By the end of his second decade in charge (2008) the web was ubiquitous and it had even reached Planet Fitba.
Both Murray and his house trained hacks were under attack.
As new media became increasingly dominant in telling the Rangers saga over the last few years then new journalists like Daly and Alex Thomson of Channel 4 News brushed aside the sports hacks and showed them how it was done.
Today both the reputation of the knight of the realm and his poodles in the media are fatally damaged.
The Fitba fourth estate have been relegated kicked out of the park by bloggers and Sir David is not seen as in anyway credible when he talks of the tax efficiency strategies of Rangers during his tenure.
In the feudal age the aristocracy could control the peasantry by having the holy men on their side.
Those working the fields were disinformed, disorientated and often terrified by what they were told.
It all helped to keep them obedient.
500 years ago the printing press in Europe destroyed the influence of those who copied manuscripts by hand.
When that happened the men who controlled the scribes were also toppled.
Previous owners of Rangers also had a cosy relationship with a compliant media.
It was Murray’s historical bad luck that the information game changed forever while he was in charge at Ibrox.
Johannes Gutenberg exploded a literacy bomb under feudal Europe.
Moveable type shifted that which everyone thought would be there forever. Murray had to deal with the digital revolution overturning the media protocols that he had expected always to be there when he took over at Ibrox.
I fully accept that styling Sir David as a latter day Cardinal Richelieu might be an analogy too far for some.
We all know that this technology has changed the modalities of human discourse, but sometimes it is worth taking a break on the uphill to look back and see how far we have climbed.
What Murray said yesterday about the EBT issues was risible and is not worth parsing.
How he put it out was telling.
His control of the media has gone and he is smart enough to know that.
Game over.
Alec O'Donnell
How right you are Phil (old BalliestonMan) but as you may well know the media have a short memory when it comes to the manky mob, It is no surprise to me that Murray has now sprung again into the hun limelight squealing about how rangers never cheated as now ranger seem to be on a upword trend again haveing ripped off everyman and his dog, and carry on as rangers
August 10, 2012 at 8:26 am
Corky
Phil
“How Murray Lost The Media War” ABSOLUTE CLASS MATE! It’s joy to read, you are NOT expressing an opinion, you are making people aware of facts and how things have been for decades within Scottish media.
Boy, I’d like to buy you a pint!!
Take good care,
Corky
August 8, 2012 at 10:07 pm
Greenstrawman
Superb Phil. Here’s to TIM Berners-Lee…this new media has changed our perspective on many things not least in Planet Fitba…… A worm in horse-radish thinks the whole world is horse-radish…in the old media world we lived with continuous bias, but we always knew that it was not all as they reported it. The web has changed lives…including many who would rather still be pulping more trees and telling us how it is. They are now looking oh so stupid and isolated… HH
August 8, 2012 at 9:55 pm
Neil
I bet you minty read this site very night before he goes to bed and probably checks under the bed before putting the light out
August 8, 2012 at 9:05 pm
Charles
It’s not by coincidrnce that messrs White, McCoist and Murray make their pronouncements through R*****s TV
August 8, 2012 at 3:47 am
jjbhoy
dear phil,once again a marvellous piece of work.i would like to ask why it took so long for the relevant information regarding these dual contract documents to be handed over or given access to by the relevant authorities and do you think this was as one of your posters mentioned earlier,to give campbell ogilvie or other minion(?)time to shred the evidence as this posturing by these sevco nutters this week smacks to me of arrogance which makes me think they have had time to bury the evidence,yours,paratim!
August 8, 2012 at 2:02 am
Cuebert
Must admit Phill gives me great pleasure to see this man worm like a beached walrus as a so called knight of realm,even better seeing his ego
come crashing around him as he surveysthe reality for his minds eye that it truly is game over.
August 7, 2012 at 11:46 pm
iain
Enjoy your Magners over the weekend Phil….oh wait!
August 7, 2012 at 11:27 pm
tommy
phil he may be beached but hes taking everyone with him
theres no greater sound than a charlatan covering his own arse
August 7, 2012 at 11:02 pm
Dougie
So why come out now with a statement?
Can only assume he believed that his friend Mr Ogilvie was well placed to ensure the investigation never took place, but now it’s coming home to roost and can’t be stopped.
If found guilty of these actions he should indeed be stripped of his knighthood when the oldco are stripped of their honours.
Can’t understand why they want their history BTW – the last eight months have destroyed any credance and shown them as a shameful entity. That is their true history.
August 7, 2012 at 11:00 pm
castaway
Good analysis Phil. Is the game over? I hope I’m wrong but I wonder if we underestimate the power of the crafts and masters.
When you think of the ignominious exit from Hampden of H. Dallas, only for his reappearance in a bigger job at UEFA, you have to wonder.
I hope our respected legal people are free from the influence.
August 7, 2012 at 10:40 pm
castaway
Terrific analysis Phil. I note you say “Game over” I feel we still underestimate the power and influence of the craftsmen. They will not surrender that power easily, and their influence is all-pervasive. It’s not easy to understand how Dallas leaves Hampden in disgrace, only to be welcomed into a bigger job at UEFA. We’re relying on respected members of the legal profession to set matters straight. Are their ranks free of compromised individuals? Not that I’m suggesting anything not above board would be even contemplated.
August 7, 2012 at 10:24 pm
Ben mcginlay
BBC sport news; ‘Range s first home game under new owners’, what’s that all about. When is there going to be clarity regarding the naming of this organisation. Does anyone know why this is the case.? Maybe Sir David could put us in the picture…..
August 7, 2012 at 9:58 pm
Paradise Lost
“Oh when the Seveco, go up, to lift the Ramsden’s Cup,
we’ll be there, we’ll be there!”
D’you think they’ll do a lap of honour?
August 7, 2012 at 8:04 pm
John DYCE
Very well written I look forward to more of your writing
August 7, 2012 at 7:37 pm
Slugger O'Toole
Arthur Mullard good , Minty Moonbeams bad .
August 7, 2012 at 4:43 pm
Ben mcginlay
Minty the merciless. I couldn’t believe the news last night. He was talking as if he had never been away. I wonder how many of the ‘we don’t do walking away’ division still hang onto his words as if he is some sort of Demi god. If only they would seek the truth instead of salivating at pie in the sky newspaper headlines…. Long live the Internet bampots… Hail Hail
August 7, 2012 at 3:57 pm
JimBhoy
An internet Bampot and proud….
August 7, 2012 at 3:33 pm
Kevin Gallagher
Bloody hell Phil, what an excellent article, I don’t think I’ve seen so many relevant and interesting points captured in such a short piece.
Well done as ever.
August 7, 2012 at 3:20 pm
Frankier
I don’t wish to widdle on anyone’s parade but this mob are not going to go away as easily as everyone on here thinks. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is going to do anything to harm them. You can mention Hector, BDO, UEFA, FIFA, SPL, SFA, SFL, Regan, Doncaster, B&Q and Marks and Spencer if you like but they will come back stronger and unscathed. The first dodo to come back from the dead. Even the overweight, overpaid (and unfortunately over at Parkhead) Peter Lawwell is Sh!t scared to answer them back far less claim his £40,000. If I tried to steal one of his cold cups of bovril he would have me jailed, so I have no sympathy for him when he is sending me a begging letter to renew a season ticket I have held for over forty years.
August 7, 2012 at 2:57 pm
redversbodkin
correction folks it was arthur mullard
August 7, 2012 at 2:54 pm
Jhimbhoab
his part in the downfall of that “institution” is without question. And yet there are many of his fans more intent on demonising Celtics Peter Lawell right now……It would seem that we have returned to a land…..where hatred is stronger than steel.
August 7, 2012 at 2:54 pm
262 KubN
Through all (or most; it only became public property relatively recently) of this saga the net has been been saturated by gullible huns believing they would emerge unscathed and “stronger than ever”. They are now joined by the likes of Keevins and Traynor who realise too late that this emergence will not be immediate, but, since their celebrity depends on it, are happy to threaten the demise of other clubs or Scottish football as a whole. Football will prosper without the “artists previously known as Rangers – or supply your preferred title.” It would also prosper in the absence of idiot “journalists” who see the old and newco as the source of their prosperity. The world and planet fitba would be better off without them. The DR and others are available at any local library. If you want to read any of it’s garbage, do it there, but discourage your library from continuing to buy it. Football would be better of without it and it’s “journalists”.
August 7, 2012 at 2:22 pm
Ben mcginlay
Amen to that.
August 7, 2012 at 5:16 pm
lordmac
murray must be wishing now, he has tenners for every fivers he has now. the gauling thing about this is, why ogilive is still in the SFA and with him there murray is putting his trust in him getting them of the hook with the audited accounts that where presented to the SFA, it would not suprise me none, he has got things to shred from there also
August 7, 2012 at 2:21 pm
redversbodkin
big feckless ready to bop anybody who wants to take his” cheatin’ medals” aff him, I hear he is going to do a remake of the old HOVIS BREAD OF THE SIXTIES, gordon rollings
August 7, 2012 at 2:21 pm
mick
great read murry = ozymandias,what do you think the glasgow lags in barl will call the part of the jail the ebt criminals will go to am betting on “the handshake hilton”100mil surely that merits a few sentance,s in prison
August 7, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Chris
Phil,
You are bang on. Murray was indeed beached by the rapid advance of the WWW and ‘internet bampots’. I recall an e-mail from a hun when I worked on a faraway island in 2007… he sent me a link to an interview with Sir David giving it his usual moonbeams this, and hover-pitches that. During this ‘interview’, he derides the opinions and comments on forums and websites stating…. ‘anyone can write anything on an internet’. ‘An internet’. My hun colleague actually though this was great. ‘That shows he’s not interested in the internet nonesense and just want to get on with the running of the club’…. ahem.
Can’t wait for the book.
Hail!Hail!
August 7, 2012 at 1:41 pm
franco
Its desperate stuff from a desperate ex regime….final nail appears ready to be hammered in…..hh
August 7, 2012 at 1:22 pm
JohnGT
The hordes of Orcs know that once the titles are stripped then any argument goes out the window. As usual they are trying to put pressure on the individual’s involved through there chums in media. Dual contracts equals league and cup stripping so they are making a last stand. Sad.
August 7, 2012 at 1:21 pm
JohnGT
The interesting part is him saying nothing happened under his stewardship. So when was it he [SDM] give up his chairmanship?? I think he is just playing on words, so he can say ‘ah but I wasn’t chairman then’
August 7, 2012 at 12:55 pm
john
Death by a trillion internet browsers…. farewell minty farewell der reichstag i hope the demise is long painful and unforgiving
August 7, 2012 at 12:54 pm
Stewie
Minty surfaces. Watty McLeish and the old guard surface talking big. Doddsy tries again to cover his gaffs. And despite no means of visible support Sevcogers flashing the cash on £5K a week (aldg) players. Methinks the story that keeps giving is about to shower us again. The establishment regrouped and reignited or a last stand?
August 7, 2012 at 12:51 pm
redversbodkin
excellent piece brother phil, well WRITTEN, well THOUGHTOUT, & most of all ,WELL PUT. Phil a wee question for you as I seek the benefit of your KNOWLEDGE & INSIGHT, what do you think is going to happen with respect to S.P.L. E. B. T. COMMISSION ,will they in fact strip the former great & glorious ones of their honours during the cheating years & do you think that there is a case to answer for prior to this time period,just a thought, your opinion PLEASE,
August 7, 2012 at 12:37 pm
paddybhoy
Hi Phil
Yes how the once mighty have fallen…I read his comments in ‘The Mail’ this morning…and didn’t really pay much heed…his time has gone, another ‘hasbeen’ from a gone by age…triumphed apon by the ‘Internet Bampots’
Great article Phil!
‘Keep Digging Away’ mate.
August 7, 2012 at 12:32 pm
greenallover
Another perfect piece Phil.You get the impression that the previously compliant reporters now,at last, realise they might be out of a job if they dont,well,report!Even his tamest poodles,Traynor,Jackson and the always laughable Ian King,know their days are numbered.Keevins,of course,will always march under any anti Celtic flag,his gushing pro Sir cardigan speech this week proved that,but as Bob once said,”the times they are a changin”
August 7, 2012 at 12:31 pm
Ipswich Bhoy
It would be nice to see a well informed Journalist sit down and question Minty about the EBTs. Actually press him to disclose if he informed the SFA about them. This B/S about them being paid by a company other than RFC (IL) sdoesn’t wash. Who paid the money into the off-shore trust fund. MIM by any chance? Game over right enough. Hubris is often followed by Nemesis.
August 7, 2012 at 12:26 pm
keighley bhoy
Personally i think the monumental collapse of the team once known as rangers was without doubt internet driven, next is the internal demise of the RAT-PACK or MSM as some know them, no business or industry would or could expect to carry on successfully with these totally incompetent employees as there front line journalists, 2012 is well and truly written in Scottish history forever, but theres stil more to come, 2013 might be joining it, hail hail, GOD BLESS IE CELTIC+
August 7, 2012 at 12:21 pm
Una@No1Ghirl
The press cry “freedom of speech”,Their speech.
Finally, technology has given us “readers” a variable,open path to information.The manipulation of the masses is crumbling.Only those who fear,will allow themselves to be blinkered into believing.
Enlightenment is ours at last.
Thank you.
August 7, 2012 at 12:18 pm
Willie K
Ferme la bouche should have been the cry on his French vineyards when he suggested that he would once again pander to the hoardes and attempt to put a spanner in the independent investigation by making his ill advised statement.
I’m no PR Guru, but this is a dim move – the one eyed milkman can even see that.
A man out of touch and devoid of any credibility.
Hand your Gong back Mr Murray, you know it makes sense.
August 7, 2012 at 12:18 pm