I am absolutely convinced that there isn't a media platform in the country that has any interest in being fair towards City. Individual writers are just doing their jobs. They aren't there (IMO) to serve and present information in an unbiased fashion. They are there to use the internet in the same way supporters do. To get engagements and to stir the pot enough just enough to keep the tribes all kicking against each other.
Adam Crafton is more or less the United writer at the Athletic, so why is he writing a piece about all 49 of City's sponsors and their ties to each other? The answer is so fucking obvious that it insults my intelligence and the intelligence of all City supporters for anyone to try and claim that it was anything but a piece written to get maximum clicks from the Athletic's rag readership and to keep inferring that City are cheating or gaming the system.
The pithy defence which I saw from Adam consequently was something along the lines of "it's an analysis of the new rules". Well, no, Adam, that is not how it was framed. A good writer, someone with a high level education, maybe even Oxbridge in your case, who knows, would understand very very well that HOW you present facts is almost more important than what you present. It's very very easy to frame every single financial issue inside the PL through the prism of Manchester City - why? Because we're the least popular club in the country and we are the ones who have been regularly smeared as being financial cheats.
I've found myself less and less interested in any of the media platforms and their City related takes. Generally it can be taken as read that not a single writer outside of the specific City press pack in the north west (and Martin Samuel) will be writing anything fair or balanced about City. And even inside the press pack you have the likes of Jackson and Ogden who are just rag trolls when they write about City.
As someone who has in the past looked down their nose at the idea that there's an organised agenda against City, having had a bit of time behind the curtain, I can say with some assurance that there is absolutely an organised agenda against City, and it will continue whilst this generation of so called journalists are running the football pages. Rags, scousers, and cockneys, all of them. All with a sense of entitlement to the success we're currently enjoying. Fuck them all and the plastic internet horses they ride around on.
EDIT:
Just seen
@Prestwich_Blue reply to Dave. I've no idea what the twitter thread yesterday was or what the conversation was. But it is absolute fact that the athletic embarrassed themselves over CAS in a pretty impressive fashion. We offered to them the analysis
@projectriver put together on which way the case would fall and their response was "we've consulted countless experts who completely disagree with Stefan's assessment". To me, that just stank of "we only want opinions which reinforce the idea that City are guilty and will be punished". They hid their bias in plain sight and afterwards pretended it never happened and that City were always going to get off.