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Twitter, Dater, and the Block of Love

February 21, 2011 By

So my good buddy and Avs Hockey Podcast partner Jay found a special treat today: he was blocked by Denver Post reporter / blogger Adrian Dater. For Avs fans, Dater is two things, necessary and polarizing.

The necessity of Dater is due mainly to a lack of a second newspaper in Denver (the Rocky Mountain News went out of business a few years back, and nothing has picked up the slack), and the Colorado Avalanche’s lack of a blogger policy, other than ignoring that independent media even exists. For better or for worse, Adrian Dater is the only voice of the Avalanche in the mainstream media. He’s the only one asking questions, and the only one around. You may want to bring up Terry Frei, but Frei isn’t the primary source of news for Avalanche fans. Dater is the guy who is the voice of the MSM Avalanche news.

The polarizing side of Dater comes from his personality, and how it injects itself into his work. Everyone has a bias, and no matter how hard they may try to keep it out of their work. Dater brings a lot of personality to his work, and sometimes that personality is negative and confrontational. His job has changed since he started blogging, and he stopped being a pure beat writer (who are supposed to, by popular opinion, leave their opinions out of their reporting).

So you see the problem when Dater gets his notebook in a bunch and starts blocking people on twitter, a medium he and the Denver Post use to break news on. Blocking people on twitter is essentially denying the news in a medium that the source has chosen to utilize. Or choosing who gets easy access to that news, and who doesn’t.

I have an unrefined block policy. It was based on this article by Derek Powazek. If you use twitter (and who doesn’t) or other social media, it’s a good read, and worth considering. While Derek has a one strike policy, I am much closer to two strikes. If someone is a dink, I will brush it off. If they do it again, I don’t want to waste my time with it, so I block them. I have blocked people I generally like and appreciate due to the interactions we have had on twitter. It’s unfortunate, but twitter doesn’t give me a better tool. If I had my choice, I would be able to remove the ability to receive @ replies from someone, but allow them to read my tweets. If they remove me, that’s up to them. After that, then block would be a secondary choice.

I can understand part of where Dater is coming from. I don’t want to deal with the slew of crap I get at times on twitter, as that isn’t my personality. I don’t lash out the way some people like doing. I have better things to do in my life than deal with that. And so does Dater. He has a job to do, and he needs to do it, not have to defend every single thing he says to each individual that takes exception (even if he baits and deserves some of it). Unfortunately, Dater’s position and the way he uses his twitter account as a news outlet brushes up against the way he also uses that account to interact with his readership. Adrian Dater has a few issues and poor behavior on twitter. When you block someone, calling them names is pointless and rude, for instance. A style guide would be helpful for him, like this one.

But there is a certain contract that is entered into when you sign on with social media. The street is now a two way street, and you are no longer a broadcast outlet, with a readership that no longer has a voice or access. You open yourself up to interaction. If you choose to interact, you can’t expect that everyone will use social media in the same way you do. How does that contract change when the news media signs up for an interactive medium?

Social media and the news is still being sorted out. Twitter is an imperfect medium that has the major benefit of it’s immediacy and it’s interactivity. Most news organizations take a careful look at their social media usage, and generate a policy around it, including an ethics policy. Whether those policies are enforced or not may vary. Hopefully, Dater has considered his twitter policy, and is consistent in the way he uses it. Hopefully you have as well. Think about it.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: ,

ESPN Reports on Self, Melrose

May 30, 2008 By

ESPN just loves to talk about itself. If the worldwide leader isn’t doing it, it isn’t news. What could possibly be more entertaining than one of it’s own analysts in the news, this time in a positive way:

Former Los Angeles Kings coach Barry Melrose brushed aside a rumor he is in line to become the next head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, saying he is enjoying his life as an ESPN analyst.

“This is no different than any of the last 10 years,” Melrose said in response to a report in the Toronto Star. “I’ve been contacted by a handful of clubs every year since joining ESPN. My desire to coach again has never been a secret, but I love what I do at ESPN.”

I bet he sure does love what he does at ESPN. As the only face of hockey, he has to actually work somewhere around two hours a day (I would speculate). Why would you leave all the glory as one of the most recognizable faces of hockey in the US, and have so little to do?

Try this on your sports loving friends who don’t track hockey. Hold up a picture of Melrose, and let them guess who he is. Then hold up a picture of John Tortorella, and see how they do. Dollar to “Have another donut,” you know what is going to happen.

Classic ESPN narcissism. If the World Wide Leader doesn’t report on it, it doesn’t exist. And if they are talking about themselves, they are the happiest sports network on earth.

Filed Under: Jersey Tagged With: , ,

Best Foote Forawrd

March 4, 2008 By

I know, a groaner. And who hasn’t used that title yet? I’m such a hack.

But no sooner do I put up my defense of Adam Foote, or more to the point, my disappointment in the MSM reporting that has followed Foote out of Columbus, than Bob McKenzie comes riding in on his white stallion to save the day. From his blog at TSN:

It was with great interest, and perhaps a great deal of incredulity, that I read the Columbus newspaper accounts on the weekend that implied departed Blue Jacket captain Adam Foote was something of a fraud and that he deviously orchestrated his exit from Columbus to Colorado by poor faith negotiating and threats of being a ”bad teammate.”

Interesting.

I would imagine most who have played alongside Foote in his illustrious NHL career would be hard-pressed to come up with ”fraud” as a statement of his leadership qualities. Precisely the opposite, I would think.

So basically, Bob McKenzie, a true hockey insider, doesn’t care for the published reports. Here’s some more:

If I’m looking at this one objectively, it has all the earmarks of someone spinning the loss of the captain for the sake of $600,000 a year. I can’t imagine it would be Columbus’ general manager Scott Howson. For one thing, it’s not his style. For another, no GM is going to pull that kind of stunt with his local media because it’s hardly how an organization on the rise would go about attracting free agents to play in your town this summer.

While I have no issue per se with the Blue Jackets deciding to go in a different direction than a two-year extension for Foote, I can’t imagine it’s advisable to obliquely smear a stalwart NHL defender with a reputation for character and competitiveness on his way out of town.

So I can’t imagine anyone in the Blue Jacket front office would do that, but someone somewhere is feeding the local Columbus media this stuff about Foote being a ”fraud” or threatening to be a ”bad teammate” or a ”bad captain.”

Thank you, Bob. My favorite part is the “someone, somewhere.” At this point, it’s most likely in the better (if not best) interest for the Blue Jackets to step forward and say whether or not this actually happened, or for the paper to name their sources, and if they can’t do that, retract the statements. Most likely, though, since this is a home town paper, it will just die quietly. Who in Columbus is going to hold the reporter accountable? A city scorned, an article making them feel justified. And the MSM says bloggers aren’t accountable. Whatever.

This part is really interesting, to me, at least.

In fact, in their final conversation just before the trade to Colorado was made, Foote was asked again. He said, yes, you put the contract on the table for $4 million a year and I will sign it, right here, right now.

Simply, if the Blue Jackets had offered the $4 million times two, Foote would still be in Columbus right now. The Blue Jackets knew that. Foote knew that. That is the gospel.

But they didn’t offer it. They wanted Foote to remain in Columbus without the extension, to ”talk about” it later. Foote, as no nonsense a guy as they come, said either the Jackets want him at $4 million a year on a two year deal or they don’t and nothing was going to happen in the ensuing weeks or months to change that.

Foote makes his final offer, says this is exactly what it will take for me to stay, and the Blue Jackets want to “talk about it?” They want to dangle their feet? Moments after the Foote deal was announced, the Fedorov to the Capitals deal was announced. They wanted to talk about it? I have to believe that this was an easy out for a GM that inherited two contracts that he didn’t want to keep, and that Foote’s contract extension falling through was not what made the Blue Jackets sellers. They were sellers to begin with. A simple yes or no, and the speculation would have been over. This all feels like a parting of ways where fingers didn’t have to be pointed. Someone else did the pointing for them.

Filed Under: Avalanche, Hockey, Minors Tagged With: , ,