Besides awaking to a nasty flu virus, I was also greeted by a handful of delicious.com feeds from John of The Crazy Canucks. It seems as though a blogger, who also holds a real job as a media type, was live blogging from an Oilers game while he was attending the game on a media pass (for his day job). Here is how Covered in Oil described what went on...
All went well until just before the start of the third, when one of the Oiler press guys pulled me aside and informed me that I'd no longer be allowed in the press box, and that if I didn't have a job to do, he would have had someone escort me out of the building right then and there. I was understandably a little confused as to what was going on, and after a little questioning, he told me that I was not allowed to blog in the press box, as I was there on another media pass. I apologized and explained that exactly no one had told me about this, and I'd be more than willing to stop doing it in the future if they had a problem with it.
Wow...seems sort of harsh when you read that. In fact, I can actually picture this happening...with the sort of innocent, 'Who...meeeee?' face to go along with it.
So...what exactly was said to get Oilers management so ie in arms anyway? I mean, if you are a team blogger and you are pumping the internet up with free advertising for your team, wouldn't you, as management, be happy? Well, Elliott Freidman, writing over at Puck Daddy has some quotes from the blog post, with a link to the page (the archived page, as the actual page has been deleted by Covered in Oil)...
6:17 pm: I'll bet Paul Lorieau cleans up at the retirement home mixers.
6:20 pm: Sam Gagner is just a disgustingly talented hockey player.
6:22 pm: Zack Stortini is just a disgusting hockey player.
6:24 pm: Grebeshkov has some of his spaz back.
6:29 pm: SCORECOFF AND DIE! The powerplay looks good, even with Grebs muddling his way around.
6:33 pm: We had better be good on the powerplay, because we can't do fuck all at even strength: that whole sequence before the disallowed goal was just horrific.
Friedman says what he was doing wasn't professional, I say, who cares. What is said above is and should be taken as it is...with a grain of salt. Some people, don't really have a sense of humor...and most hockey fans (especially those of long suffering teams) definitely have a dry wit about them. So, if the Oilers nixed him because he said something naughty, I find that laughable.
However, Puck Daddy makes note of the credentials given to media...he wasn't there as a blogger. Rather he was there in his capacity with his day job. That being the case, I think the Oilers had every right to toss him for his actions. One thing to remember...it is their party...they paid the bill...you gotta play by their rules. It is their business and they are going to want to portray their team in the best light...they have every right to screen those they give passes to.
Moral of the story? If you want to live blog a game...do it at home with a tall frosty one, while watching the TV (although, the FCC has problems with 're-broadcasting or re-transmitting' games, which procludes radio stations from telling you what is happening during a game they might be watching in the studio, but not broadcasting).
The best part of all of this...the blogger quit. Nooo, not his job...he quit blogging. Which, to me, is just a big slap in the face to the freedom of speech he so passionately defended in his closing statement.
I could still theoretically return to the job (I have a feeling that situation might change after I publish this) but that brings me to the second reason for this: I'm pretty much done with the Oilers organization in any capacity for the foreseeable future. Up until this point, I was nothing but cooperative and apologetic for what happened, and was met with nothing but irrational hostility at worst and condescending patronization at best.
Read into that what you may...but I see it as, "I am trying to save my job and I can't blog anymore, so instead of just admitting that, I will make myself a victim here and protest my treatment by discontinuing the blog." Dude...whatever.
I find it all laughable...and it couldn't happen to a better team. Heh...
Comments