USA Hockey Magazine: Ricki Dugdale has a feature article on blogging with comments from the President of Professional Hockey Writers Association Kevin Allen (USATODAY.COM) along with Islander media relations coordinator Cory Witt about the teams blog box program.
Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times also has a few words.
NYI Fan Central Comments:
Mr Allen does a very good job here pointing out his memberships perspective that bloggers do not have any accountability, can post anything and it does not matter because independant bloggers are not held accountable by an editor or publisher nor are they obligated to report factual and accurate news.
In his personal take he feels as long as a guy has proven himself who dedicates his profession to [blogging], he deserves to be taken seriously.
I basically agree with what Mr Allen had to say across the board but there are a lot of quality blogs from both genders.
Larry Brooks when he was hockey writers association President fought quietly to keep amateur scribes out of the 2002 finals and lost. He was not even honest enough to present his case in his Sunday tell-all column but Red Fischer in Montreal reported what Mr Brooks was up to and wrote about it for the public.
Having written that Mr Allen also has to know that we read a lot of commentary or articles from the professional media that is not accurate and is hard to distingish at times from the fan blogger.
When professional writers spew out anything to draw reaction it begs the question is the editor or publisher asleep or simply does not care or willing to sacrifice accuracy in reporting for page views?
The shock jocks at Newsday/other outlets like Anthony Rieber or the guest amateur writer set a very poor standard and make Mr Allen's claims of standard and accuracy seems weak when writers are reduced to blog version.
A lot of professional blogs from print media at times read like something where someone slaps something together and the line is getting tougher to distinguish but I feel needs to be maintained.
For this blog I have set my own standards but work from most of the same blueprint as Mr Allen described. I write what I consider to be correct and accurate with my commentary based on what I feel is fair given a report or information combined with my knowledge and long experience as a New York Islander/NHL fan. More often than not this blog will link to information from the professional media to back my viewpoint.
Of course this blog also puts the light on the media coverage which I felt has to be done because of how poor and inaccurate the coverage has been. If those same editors/publishers decide on tabloid journalism is professional this blog will step in and try to do what the editor or publisher fail to provide by pointing out mistakes when it comes to reporting on the New York Islanders.
Having written that my perspective does not make my view professional either and I make that clear often here. I do not have to be a professional to display professionalism.
I also work from a position of strength because I do not aspire to be a professional writer. I am exactly where I want to be with this blog and that is the way things will stay. I'm back doing what I enjoy doing as I did on my mailing list, when I decide to stop I will stop.
Mr Witt does a good job as well here talking about how the blog box program has helped the club. Of course he knows the only difference between folks in the blog box and some of the professional writers upstairs is those thirty year reporters on one team/market do not cheer during the game but you can see in the work they are just as happy or frustrated as the fan blogger given the game result or the standings.
Good job on this article all around, too bad they did not get more from Helen Elliott who does exceptional work when allowed space to write on hockey.