A few words: NY Post and bloggers.

New York Islander Fan Central | 10/16/2007 07:14:00 PM | | | | | | |



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NYI Fan Central Comments:
This is like the third time I have seen this ad and could not let it pass again without comment.

I know this is Chris Botta's department and runs along the lines with an earlier commercial on the Yankees telecast that was as incorrect as the ad above but who is the NY Post and it's sports editor trying to fool here with such a blatant lie about coverage of the New York Islanders in it's paper?

Evan Grossman left in season a year ago to work for the league and all Islander road and even home coverage came to a stop outside of a few blurbs from Dan Martin after some home games. The kicker here is Devils beat writer Mark Everson is with his club on the road for most games and of course Larry Brooks covers most road Ranger games and both not only have articles but off day coverage.

Meanwhile the Post left Martin home for training camp, he did not covered Islanders vs Rangers last week while Brooks did a Ranger centric article only and Martin's article after the Caps game made an AP summary look big by comparison. Of course Martin used his small space to question the attendance which even the club took exception to.

Opening night? Brooks and Everson had full page articles, Martin wrote two and a half small paragraphs among several sports stories he had to file as his Islander season preview and was not sent to Buffalo.

Which lead me to these articles about bloggers and the club getting exposure for allowing bloggers, the guided tour and somewhat restricted media access as Chris Botta said here as part of this being about the lack of coverage in the Times, Post and Daily News and the post-lockout culture for hockey in baseball's largest market.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
As I wrote earlier my blog is for me, the folks who wish to read it and to do something for the Islanders to help. Is about the hockey first and foremost as it's been for a good eight years on several of the sites I have owned or moderated.

I would never go sit with other fans in a special section to make myself part of the hockey story.

Best I could do is exactly what I do now. Watch or go to games, write about the hockey and what interest me.

What kind of makes me laugh most of all is the main stream media being critical of the bloggers for wearing Islander jersey's and cheering for their team. Are you trying to tell me most of the hockey beatwriters are nothing more than glorified salesman/cheerleaders for the teams they cover and in many cases die-hard life long fans themselves?

I got a good idea, instead of the NY Post wasting space on telling us how great they cover the Islanders why don't they do profiles on their writers like the Islanders did with their bloggers. This way we know some one's hockey background, what teams they are fans of and their personal motivation?

They do this on political shows and a good ten second in watching you can tell if the person is a republican or democrat just by their own words. Right afterward they say who they are and what they represent so you know where they are coming from with their viewpoint. Why not do the same with sports?

IE: Larry Brooks former Islanders beatwriter, former Devils beatwriter and employee of the organization, life long Rangers fan.

I have to be honest here. If Chris Botta or Cory Witt called me tomorrow and offered me a seat in the blog box I would decline. I remember back in 2000 Chris Botta and I talked by telephone for a good half hour about the club, never tried to sell me tickets, just an upfront honest hockey person who happens to be employed by a club.

I would allow him to link my blog to his site and do what I do now but no more. For me it's about the hockey.

I would feel personally offended if I had to change my blog to talk about myself or what I did in the blog box as some kind of thank you beyond it being a footnote of a blog. I hope the folks doing this understand that folks want to read about what happens on the ice, not about the press kits Mr Witt or Mr Botta gave them. Maybe these bloggers have not figured this out yet but in the end they are there to provide what Dan Martin and his editor are not giving the public. Same with the NY Times, NY Sun, Journal News, SI Advance and Daily News.

I also hope the bloggers start telling the media attending only to watch these people and report on them to watch the games or leave them alone. If these bloggers are there to discuss themselves they are wasting the fans time and the Islanders time.

I will tell everyone this, if I were sitting in that blog box my comments to Sports Illustrated and Sports Business Jorunal is I'm here because the organization feels you failed at your job in covering our team.