Rangers or Celtic – why tragic teen death won’t stop tabloid sales

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Rangers or Celtic – why tragic teen death won’t stop tabloid sales
Celtic v Rangers File Photo File photo dated 30-12-2017 of Rangers and Celtic fans segregated during the Scottish Premiership match. FILE PHOTO EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xIanxRutherfordx 56079597

We had a lively response to the earlier piece about the Sun using Rangers’ good name to sensationalise further the dreadful story over Ciaran Dickson and his alleged hit and run incident which left a teen, Aidan Pilkington, 18, dead.

The response we got was mixed. As regulars will know, we are obviously a Rangers site, and our interests lie in our club, how it is portrayed, and how well we do on and off the pitch.

This doesn’t, however, lose sight of the human element, and like any decent people, whatever the colour of their shirt, we have only condolences for the family of Aiden and those who were his friends.

One of whom did actually reach out on this article, and wished to forget the colours of the shirt, rightly, and rightly concentrate on the lad who lost his life.

The sad reality is thought that a headline about him would not have attracted clicks or purchases of newpapers – the attraction was what a footballer did which led to his passing.

This is how the press works, unfortunately – a headline saying that a teen has died would be completely ignored. A headline saying a famous footballer has been arrested for an alleged hit and run gets all the attention.

We are not going to blame the Sun on this occasion for taking the angle they did regarding focusing on the perpetrator and not the victim, because newspapers have done that since the dawn of time. It would be refreshing and decent of them to highlight the victim in this case in the headline, but that wouldn’t encourage sales. The only time the victim takes centre stage is when THEY are the famous one.

We are, however, clearly going to slur them for raising Dickson’s Rangers past as if it has any relevance to what he’s alleged to have done, or to the victim.

As one reply highlighted, the bus incident all those years ago in Glasgow city centre which left so many dead saw a highlighting of the team the driver supported, as if that bears any importance.

But in Glasgow it IS how you sell papers and get clicks, depressingly.

This is not defending the practise, but explaining it.

But we don’t want to forget there is a mourning family here, who have lost their son, brother, friend you name it. And it’s right to highlight him and pay tribute to him.

It’s just unfortunate that tributes don’t sell tabloids.

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