Thursday, August 26, 2010

The Passion Strikes Back

Have you been hearing the expressions "dead horse", "stir the pot", and "overblown" a lot lately? I think people are getting really tired of the Toronto mainstream media, and with good reason. We don't get news, we get spun. Especially when the stories originate off the ice and have little to do with what took place on it.

It's bogus, it's lazy, and worse, it's this constant mindless empty truth-mongering that's continually driving away Toronto's top athletes.

If you were Chris Bosh, Mats Sundin, Roy Halladay, Vince Carter, Doug Gilmour, or Carlos Delgado, would you want to see the likes of Rosie Dimmano, Damien Cox, Howard Berger, Steve Simmons, Al Strachan, Dave Feshuck, or Dave "Original Content" Fuller, on a daily basis? Can you imagine what it must be like to have them asking you again and again how you "feel about the controversy surrounding your future in Toronto"?

"Despite repeated denials that there was any controversy, the fact is, this issue just isn't going away. We'll keep you updated on THE SITUATION."
-they all said in unison like the Borg

One of the things I stumbled upon recently was Steve Simmons' own admission that Burke himself was among those who were "shitting all over" him after quoting an un-named source saying Kaberle was at his "wit's end" with Wilson.

"When I wrote Kaberle couldn't stand Wilson Leaf fans and Burke were shitting all over me."

I would have loved to have seen what that looked like. Indeed, a horrible expression and not one that I would ever use but Simmons feels comfortable broadcasting that language for some reason over his twitter account to... ? Who the fuck knows who he thinks he's talking to...

I remember how the players reacted at the time, thanks to the honourable James Mirtle:

"It's to the point in the Leafs dressing room where, for many players, this "story" is a non-story -- just another day under a coach who can be difficult to deal with. Veterans Wayne Primeau and Jamie Lundmark, for example, made light of the media interest in Kaberle today by pretending to be reporters themselves, holding the ends of broken hockey sticks like microphones in their teammate's face and giggling through the proceedings."

Eventually the players are gonna stop laughing.

And the media will be there to make an issue out of that.

Funny enough, I ran across another interesting quote recently. I'm taking it completely out of context 'cause it wasn't related to Tomas Kaberle at the time, but I still thought it was kind of interesting and might give you an indication about Burke's reaction to the Kabby Situation:

"As for rules prohibiting "family advisors" from negotiating with teams, Burke said that rule is routinely ignored. He also noted that if parents think their 14-year-old needs an agent, "You're probably wrong."

Burke added that parents are likely the worst judges of talent and
"have no perspective." "


Obviously Burke has great respect for Mr. Kaberle Sr., much more then he does for the fathers of some random 14 year old hockey players. And Tomas is no ordinary 32 year old hockey player. Still... blah blah blah, dead horse, overblown, stir the pot...

Can you give us an update on the Kaberle-Wilson issue?

"Ronny will sit down with Tomas soon and sort it all out."

Yes! See?! See?! We told you! There is an issue! A rift! RIFT WE SAID!

"I'm not sure there is going to be anything that needs to be worked out."

A meeting to finally settle their feud... sort out this increasingly deep rift once and for all... incompatible differences... continual animosity... a delicious feud...

"But I'm not sure there is going to be anything that needs to be worked out."

A beautiful rift... the rift of my shallow dreams... the rift of a lifetime... the ultimate rift... rifty business... stir pot, beat dead horse, overblow, and suck.

Thank goodness we have the Barilkosphere and don't need these dinosaurs anymore.

4 comments:

blurr1974 said...

It's almost as if media (and I'm not singling out Toronto sports media here, but a broad, but decidedly North American contingent of media) has forgotten what it means to report on the story. Not be a part of the story, not create a story, but report it.

if there isn't one to report, in this 24hr news cycle, they scramble to create one. Hence a fascination with the most mundane, irrelevant, throw away quotes, and the invariable "story" that comes out of them. A story that never really existed in the first place.

Quotes, like advanced stats, require context. But even more than that, they require inflection and emotion, to frame their true intent.

Great post as alaways general!

general borschevsky said...

Thanks blurr. It's pretty easy and fun to play around with quotes to pad your argument and I do it all the time, sometimes with intentional cheek. What really gets me is when the author uses the only quote provided and then does a complete 180-turn on the meaning of the qoute with a contradictory tone in the rest of the article. Lance Hornby, who is usually better then that, has apparently fallen in with the rabble.

Anonymous said...

Berger, Cox, Simmons et al don't annoy me since I went on a "hits on their columns/blogs" boycott. I don't read them because I don't click on them.

If enough people did it, there is a chance that some of these ink stained slugs would be handed their walking papers.

Now, that's the story I want to read!!

general borschevsky said...

Great comment, Anon. Usually I don't give the Toronto Sun clicks and I almost never read Berger unless I'm directed there. But I am interested in what Tomas has to say or what Burke has to say and unfortunately Burke and Tomas don't talk to me they talk to the msm. Hopefully some day I'll have a direct line to Burke's office or the Leafs dressing room but until them I'll probably have to sift through a few opinions I don't like. The trick is not letting the opinions guide my interpretation of the quotes.