Madcombinepilot wrote:Don't get me wrong, I think everyone on this board knows my personal feelings on Vancouver media, but the question I have is this:
Who really is to blame?
The media for being (mostly) uneducated, loud mouthed, rumor mongering, semi-slanderous, panic generating, lazy writers/reporters ....
or the (mostly) uneducted, loud mouthed, rumor hungry, semi slanderous, panic needing, lazy fans?
one feeds the other crap, while the other seems to have a crap need......
Honestly, it's both.
The fans need to wise up and demand better from their local sports writers.
The sport writers should have a certain level of professionalism and in a home city should at least try to look at the positives of the home team - not tearing it to shreds before it's even hit the playing surface. The self defeatism thats' prevailing in Vancouver is really astounding. Even here in Atlanta the beat writer (well, there might be two people writing about hockey... I"ll have to look) are at least trying to put the team in a positive light.
Now the reason there's differences may be many... Vancouver is a hockey market; Atlanta is not. Vancouver sells out and has sold out for many years; Atlanta can only sell out when one of the other big teams (Toronto, Detroit, Ottawa, NYR etc) come to town. In Vancouver, hockey is king... it's what everyone watches. After that is the Lions, then maybe the Giants; as I pointed previously it's about the Falcons here... then the Braves... then the Hawks... then the Thrashers... that's if there isn't a Nascar event or maybe a truck pull.
That's not to say there aren't fans here. Hockey fans, regardless of location are the most rabid, most loyal fans of any sport. However down here, they probably have to be a little nicer in order to help draw fans to the sports whereas back home, people will regardless of what the retards from the Province and Sun print.
What really needs to happen is the masses need to start demanding more accountability from the people at the local papers. I realize it's a hockey mad market, and it's slow right now because it's the offseason... but still...
And yes, I know it's a pipe dream. It's never going to happen.