Blaming Bloggers
Iain McIntyre tries to explain why so many stories printed in the run up to the draft turned out to be so much crap. Among other explanations – like the unsurprising revelation that general managers lie – we get this:
[T]he [Ryan Malone trade] story got ahead of the facts. That happens frequently in the Age of the Blogger, who has chewed down the standards of journalism the way the pine beetle has decimated B.C. forests.
I was one of only a few hockey bloggers when I first started with this hobby and I can say without any equivocation that the standards of hockey journalism had been decimated long before anybody considered us to be part of a new age. Bloggers haven’t really changed anything. Irresponsible hockey journalism is not my fault.
While bloggers did cover the draft, it is the mainstream media that has helped the league hype the weekend far beyond the actual news value. Bloggers like Jamie Fitzpatrick are the ones bringing that hype down to earth.
Bloggers don’t break news (as the so called hockey journalists are quick to point out), hockey writers do. Mainstream guys like Bruce Garrioch tell us Malkin is going to be traded to Los Angeles for Mike Cammalleri. Blogger gals like Alanah at Canucks and Beyond point out the stupidity of the story.
Meanwhile do “journalists” with access pursue actual stories when they have the opportunity? Michael Landsberg interviewed Gary Bettman just before the draft. Did he ask about the lawsuit between the league and the Rangers? Did he demand an explanation for Boots Del Biaggio? Did he wonder about the new salary cap and the possible impact on revenue challenged teams?
Of course not. He asked Gary what he said to the drafted players right after they are selected. He asked Gary why fans thought he did not like Canada. He wanted to know whether Gary believed Kevin Lowe and Brian Burke would ever get along again.
Michael Landsberg didn’t want to toss up softballs to Bettman, but after all it is the age of the blogger. Everybody knows its people like me who have ruined hockey journalism for everybody. Get rid of the blogosphere and journalisitic standards would be so high Bettman would be afraid to appear with Landsberg.
Postscript: According to Bettman, fans despise him because we don’t know him and because – irony alert – the media is filled with inaccurate statements about him. Poor Gary.
Postscript II: I think Bettman would be well advised to stay out of the spotlight as much as possible. If he really feels that he has to be front and centre for events like the draft, he should quit with the lame jokes when the fans boo him. Why let us know he has rabbit ears?
Like the new layout, Tom. Not much to add, except it’s probably premature to break out the “Age of the Blogger” label until it becomes more acceptable to talk about (or even to) individual bloggers and less acceptable to make blanket statements about the lot of them.
I don’t care whether they ignore us or not. For some reason I do care when we get blamed for the execrable state of hockey journalism. Its crazy. What on earth did we do to create either the hype or the ridiculous rumours?
I suppose someone could blame Eklund except 1) he isn’t a blogger, 2) his reputation was made ny the MSM, and 3) many of his contributors are MSM types.
Point of hilarity No. 1: McIntyre cries about bloggers who have “chewed down the standards of journalism the way the pine beetle has decimated B.C. forests” … in a column about “gossip” involving the Sedins. OK…
Point of hilarity No. 2: The blogger driving the Malone story? Yeah, that’d be Aaron Portzline, another one of those guys in his mom’s basement. Provided his mon’s basement is actually located at The Columbus Dispatch, where he covers the Blue Jackets.
Gosh durn bloggers ruining everything!!!
Point of hilarity No. 3: Was it not in McIntyre’s own paper that David Pratt broke one of the cardinal rules of journalism, i.e. thou shalt not plagiarize?
MacIntyre writes for the Sun, Pratt did write for the Province.
To me this is a lot less about the quality of the MSM, than about who is responsible for that quality. I’m not prepared to accept any of the blame. I don’t see why any blogger or the blogosphere should accept any responsibility for the corporate hockey coverage or the quality of the journalism. None of it is our fault.
The Sun and the Province are two children (literally) with the same parent. One is a rag, the other is a rag.
So MacIntyre and Pratt did work for the same company, although perhaps one (who knows which) pretends to have higher ethics.
And finally, take it as a compliment, because that is what it is. The MSM see bloggers as a threat. The quality of many blogs, including this one are generally very high. There is actual thought and analysis beyond the boring feel good stories. You know, that truth thing. (Or at least, the truth as you see it, which may not always be correct, but at least there isn’t some corporate agenda behind your comments).
I certainly agree though, the MSM should worry about their own ethics of journalism which are pretty much non-existent (especially in this town).
Was it not the NY Daily News that reported Avery had cardiac arrest?
Was it not the Columbus Dispatch that participated in outright slander against Adam Foote with unsourced rumors after he was traded to Colorado?
McIntyre’s comments might have some validity if he was talking about blogs and the political world. As far as sports goes, though, the mainstream media has done a fine job of making themselves look dumb, as chronicled above by Dario and others. McIntyre might want to clean up his own yard first before he comments on the state of other people’s.
I don’t think it has any validity in the political world, either. If Iain wants to criticise blogging by criticising blogging, he can have at it. That’s fair enough. He can point to any blogger and criticise away.
What I don’t think he should be able to do is say “The MSM media really sucked the last few weeks. It is not our fault, though. It is all those bloggers who made us do such a lousy job.”
The premise is that the existance of the blogosphere makes the quality of the reporting in the MSM worse. I don’t think there is any evidence to support this premise.