05 Sep 2012 00:50:08
The Scottish edition of the paper had planned to start running extracts today from a book entitled Downfall: how Rangers FC self-destructed by Phil Mac Giolla Bhain.
But within 24 hours of its lengthy puff announcing its serialisation the paper ran a leading article explaining that it had changed its mind.
The decision followed the jamming of its switchboard as hundreds of Rangers fans called to complain while others took to Twitter. Rangers itself lobbied the paper and threatened to ban Sun journalists from its ground. There were also physical threats made to The Sun reporter who wrote the interview with Mac Giolla Bhain.
Before I unravel this remarkable tale, I must declare an interest. I read a draft of the book and provided an approving quote that appears on the back cover.
The story stretches back four years. Mac Giolla Bhain was the first journalist, and, for much of the time, the only journalist, to chart the financial dramas that led to the demise of Rangers football club.
The fact that he worked outside the Scottish media establishment to tell the twists and turns of the tale in a blog is hugely relevant. Indeed, a crucial part of the story involves the initial failure of Scotland's journalists to investigate the internal shenanigans at Rangers.
For his trouble, Mac Giolla Bhain suffered from persistent verbal threats from people calling themselves Rangers fans. As his name suggests, he is Irish, though he was born and raised in Scotland. He moved to Donegal in the Irish republic 15 years ago.
Once Rangers went into liquidation in February this year, it was natural that Mac Giolla Bhain was selected by a publisher - Bob Smith of Frontline Noir - to write about the scandal. Ironically, it was a Sun staffer who originally recommended Mac Giolla Bhain to Smith as the possible author of a book about a different topic.
Mac Giolla Bhain was well known to The Sun, having previously freelanced for the its now-defunct stablemate, the News of the World, and having a high profile in Scotland due to his blog.
The Sun's Scottish editor, Andy Harries, admired Mac Giolla Bhain's work and, on hearing about his book, made a swift decision to buy the serialisation.
He planned to run two successive spreads and one of his staff, Simon Houston, was assigned to interview Mac Giolla Bhain. The result, as shown in this screen-grab before it was taken down from the paper's website, was hugely sympathetic to the blogger.
