I look at TBO.com and their sports section and what is the top stories for the day?
The Buccaneers securing a new radio hosting network with Mega-Corporate Clear Channel Communications, The Bucs top draft pick, the Devil Rays getting swept by the Red Sox….
Oh yeah, and then there was this little incident up in Montreal where the local team, I think they are called the Lightning, clinched an Eastern Conference Final berth in 4 games. Nothing important there. I’m sure they were debating whether to give the High School beat writer the space they provided the Lightning.
Of course, bitching out local media is easy. Bitching out National media and International media – now there’s a challenge! Lets start with JP Dellacamera from last nights telecast. First off, what was a soccer color man doing on a Hockey telecast? Had to do something with Ol? chants perhaps? And where was the coverage during the game of the fact 3 Lightning players fell on the ice during the first period and one of those falls resulted in Montreal’s score? There was none. Nada. Zip. I know at the time I brought up the fact that there may be bad ice at Bell Centre if this is going on…. John C. Cotey in his media breakdown seemed to share the sentiments. Excellent article on the telecast and the flubs / disrespect for Tampa Bay by ESPN…
Of course I can’t forget the hypocritical bullshit coming by way of Montreal and Gazette writer Jack Todd. It would seem Mr. Todd had nothing but props to give for Saku Koivu who let it be known he’s been playing hurt the entire series – broken ribs, torn cartilage, etc. Now, I can’t dis Koivu for playing with pain and persevering – he’s already demonstrated that with coming back from Stomach Cancer. Getting on the Montreal Media Machine playing up Koivu for “standing tall” by playing with pain while laying into Joe Thornton for playing injured in the Bruins loss to the Habs in the first round… Now that is just one large pile of hypocritical bullshit. (links would be included to the Montreal Gazette hypocrisy but Le Gazette and Canada.com deletes certain stories from their web site after a few days. A Google News search proved that, click on certain older links and you will see the stories have been removed).
I won’t go into more of ESPN’s bullshit. Between my post yesterday about Saunders flubbing certain stats in Pre-game to Cotey’s article in today’s Times, you can see plenty of weakness in the Former Sports Leader.
In a humorous turn – the Flames fans are rigging voting results on NHL.com again! Through a certain technical fault on NHL.com, one can vote in a poll numerous times with one push of the button… Well, Calgary has perfected exploiting this flaw and sent Miikka Kiprusoff to the top of the latest NHL.com poll. 172 thousand votes just MIGHT draw some attention that there was a problem with the system… Unfortunately the NHL doesn’t pay that close attention to their site. Hats off to the Flames and their fans for supporting Kippy…
And finally in the Media Bullshit column, TSN.ca gives props to Jay Feaster for building the Lightning. Now, Feaster put the Lightning over the top with certain acquisitions since he came into power with the Lightning – Corey Stillman, Daryl Sydor, Andre Roy and Chris Dingman just to name a few…. That’s no small order… But then again, I am one of those Lightning fans that still respect Rick Dudley for what he did for this team (which earns the bane of plenty of Lightning fans). Bringing in Khabibulin, St. Louis, Modin, Andreychuk, Taylor, signing Richards (which previous GM Phil Esposito might have passed on), Afansenkov, Cibak (see my previous post on the draft class of 1998). It’s almost impossible not to give props to Rick Dudley for rebuilding the Lightning and making them contenders in the first place. He’s the man who built the team, Jay Feaster has put them over the top the last 2 years (and without ruining the team like Jon Gruden and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers).
Anyone come across any other media bullshit online? Any comments?
