Jack Irvine and Me – How One Tweet Can Be Misrepresented – A Case Study

Back in August I wrote a blog post which referred to a statement from the official Rangers website. You can read my full post here.

It covered the attempt by Rangers to deal with “inaccurate stories” and also referred to Jack Irvine, PR and crisis management guru extraordinaire.

I wrote the following:-

And then, in its penultimate paragraph, the fans are advised that only by reading Pravda the official website will they know the truth – thus implying that every media organisation and newspaper is “anti-Rangers”.

And then, in twelve words which I will quote as the message it sends would be diluted by using my own words, the end of a long and mutually fruitful marriage is signalled:-

“Finally, Jack Irvine of Media House does not speak for this Club.”

Jack Irvine and Media House have been “hand in glove” with Rangers over many years – they were closely connected to Sir David Murray in his time as owner (and with his companies outside football). They worked for Craig Whyte and also continued to serve Rangers loyally during the Duff and Phelps reign. Between February and June 2012 Media House did £124,000 of work for Rangers which, by that stage, was being run by administrators. (In addition Rangers (in administration) paid almost £30,000 to Spreckleys for “media consultancy in connection with the administration” – as I commented at the time, the administrators needed PR people separate from those of the football club, but still charged the company in administration for that!)

Media House continued to work for Rangers until only a few days ago. And now that has come to an end.

The Ups and Downs of the “Rangers Bloggers” – Civil War is Always More Brutal

Historically civil wars and internecine strife have often been more brutal than conflicts between sovereign nations.

Whether we go back to the US Civil War, which cost the lives of more American soldiers than any conflict before or since, or look at the conflicts brought into the open with the crumbling of the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, there seems to be more viciousness exchanged between neighbours than across national frontiers.

Cambodia, China, Russia, many African nation-states – the hatred and violence exceeds wars where patriotism for one’s country can unite a country against another.

(That is not to say that war between nations is civilised and genteel. It is clearly not.)

If we look at the present “conflict” for the soul of Rangers, we can see similar signs – of conflict rather than violence of course.

Charlotte Fakes and the Data Protection Act – Part 1 – Is Charlotte’s Web Broken?

The Charlotte Fakes Twitter account has been closed and, at least for now, the flow of information from that source has stopped.

This has been a cause of much rejoicing amongst the supporters of Rangers (or at least the small number who frequent their popular message boards). Various fellows there have been suggesting that the police, and in one suggestion the Metropolitan Police, are knocking on Charlotte’s door.

One of the accusations is that Charlotte has broken the Data Protection Act and, as Jack Irvine said in his interview with Andy Muirhead of Scotzine (which can be read in full here):-

How Quickly Things Change – Rangers and Jack Irvine Edition

As I have discussed before, Jack Irvine is the pre-eminent practitioner of the art of PR in Scotland and, through his Media House organisation, has been for many years. This has involved him publicly sorting out matters in public for a lot of people and businesses, and undoubtedly a huge number more without his name ever being connected to the client. That is what you want in a PR/Crisis Management expert, and Mr Irvine delivers.

His involvement with Rangers has been a long one, dating back to Sir David Murray’s ownership.

However, on 17^th August 2013, it all seemed to have come to a sad end.

“For the Avoidance of Doubt” – Rangers Stamp on Inaccurate Stories And Dump Jack Irvine

Saturday evening seems to be a time for interesting news on the official Rangers website.

A couple of weeks ago we had the incredible disappearing post on the Rangers website – after Ally McCoist blamed Charles Green and his “contempt” for the defeat to Forfar, and the prompt removal of all reference to Mr Green shortly afterwards.

Tonight sees an unusual piece appearing (at least for now) and I have some comments on it below. However, you will see that I have summarised and paraphrased the piece, the original of which can be read here, as a result of the appearance of a copyright message on the website. I did not notice one until today – perhaps Rangers have realised the value of its intellectual property?