KAMLOOPS DAILY NEWS STICKS UP FOR ITS EMPLOYEE

I can't say enough good things about the Kamloops Daily News and their support for longtime junior hockey writer Gregg Drinnan, who was banned from talking to Kamloops Blazer team personnel for simply being too critical.

Over the years, media outlets have become cheerleaders for their local sports teams because of a number of reasons, but I believe the two biggest factors are

--The advertising dollar that comes into radio stations and newspapers from the team in question over powers and controls any critical comment that may come from a reporter or editor.  It's become a no-no in media circles to criticize a business that spends money with you and major junior hockey franchises are businesses who spend money with print and broadcast media.'

--Young reporters who are not ballsy enough to ask tough questions and look at the athletes as idols and, therefore, don't want to make anyone mad.  I'm not saying you have to be a complete putz like Jim Gray (remember the Pete Rose interview?), but if the obvious tough question is there, then it should be asked.

As this story continues to develop, I expect Drinnan and his newspaper will win because the Blazers will take an unbelievable amount of bad press on this.

Having said that, 95% of the rest of the country's newspapers and radio stations would call the reporter out on the carpet and smooth things over with the team, therefore making it so fans, and the rest of the general public, would have no idea there was ever a rift.


Here's a link to the Drinnan/Blazers story:
http://gdrinnan.blogspot.com/2011/01/editors-note.html