It shows the strength of the Celtic bloggers when “prominent journalists” like Keevins are plagiarising our work to create a story

Yesterday was an interesting day in the world of Celtic cyberspace.

Something was drawn to my attention which opened my eyes to the level of attention that is actually paid to the work we do.

Now, there have been plenty of times where I’ve read articles by “prominent journalists” and I’ve seen they’ve had a striking resemblance to something I or another blogger had written.

More often than not, I put it down to coincidence.

Yesterday, I did a piece on an article by Hugh Keevins.

I had been out of the loop for a few days due to it being my birthday over the weekend, so I didn’t get caught up on all things Celtic until yesterday.

The Keevins article seemed like an easy one to start back with.

It worked out pretty well for me, as the article I wrote on it garnered huge attention.

But here’s where it gets interesting when it comes to what I stated about Keevins in the article headline.

Not long after I had published the article, James Forrest of the Celtic Blog got in contact with me.

James highlighted an article he had written on the 4th of September, titled Celtic, Sevco and the Five stages of grief.

I had missed the article in question.

James sent it to me, so I read it through.

Obviously, the headline immediately struck a chord with me because I had just taken the Keevins article apart.

I had highlighted Keevins use of the five stages of grief in my article, unaware at the time James had used it a few days previous.

In his article, James goes into great detail on how the five stages of grief are affecting the Ibrox fanbase.

Use the link provided to read it yourself if you haven’t already.

What is abundantly clear here though, is that Keevins read James’ article, and decided to form his own Sunday article around James’ central concept.

The fact that Keevins thought this would not be noticed is staggering in it’s ignorance.

And the fact that he did it tells us we are witnessing a sea change in how the blogging community is now viewed.

It is very evident that we are now considered a clear and present danger.

The SMSM treat us with utter contempt.

They take the piss out of our work, and consider it vastly inferior to theirs.

Just because they have an NUJ card, and write for a national title.

They don’t seem to notice that their titles are dying a slow, agonising death.

Reader numbers drop month on month.

The reasons for this, ironically, we continually outline to them.

It also appears as if an inferiority complex amongst “prominent journalists” like Keevins may be starting to form.

Throughout the last year or so, I’ve noticed strikingly similar content to articles I’ve written in national title articles.

As I said earlier, I dismissed it as coincidence.

After all, we write about the same subjects, but in different ways.

To me, it was always likely similarities would occur along the way.

However, what James highlighted yesterday has altered my perception entirely.

It is clear, and it is becoming more, and more clear, that national titles are now looking to us as sources for their material.

I’ve turned a blind eye to it up to this point, but what happened yesterday has made me realise just how influential we are.

Think about it?

These guys often use the likes of Football Insider and garbage sites like that as sources for their articles.

They also use Talksport as material.

Most of us in the blogosphere try to write intelligent, balanced, and engaged articles.

We have our fingers on the pulse all the time.

It stands to reason then, that they would also see us as sources for their material.

Let’s just say they were being subtle up to this point.

Some of them may even have had, and still have, standards.

Keevins, however, decided to throw caution to the wind last Sunday.

In doing so, he has now increased scrutiny from us on them.

Whereas we would have given the SMSM articles a cursory glance before, and when we felt it necessitated it, we would criticise certain articles, now we’ll be watching everything.

Keevins was blatant in the way he plagiarised the work of a Celtic blogger last Sunday.

James Forrest let him know that in no uncertain terms with his response.

I think James was being kind using the word “borrowing” in his headline.

It isn’t as if Keevins will give it back.

In fact, I’m pretty sure he’s well chuffed with his smash and grab.

Such is his level of ignorance, I’m sure he feels it’s his right to steal our work and call it his own.

Simply because we criticise the utter shite he writes in the ONE article he produces weekly.

In his mind, he thinks he’s getting even.

Yet to everyone else, he just looks a complete fool.

Because only a fool would do what he did last Sunday.

And I wouldn’t be shocked if he did it again next Sunday.

Watch this space…