Quote:
Originally Posted by 19Yzerman19
Exactly what I said, this is the argument. Should a reporter be counted on to make a judgment as to whether a player's commentary is over some sort of line, and where is the line? How do we decide, and is each reporter's personal compass allowed to be different on this point?
My hypothetical was intended to be the extreme opposite type of content in the same factual circumstances. Obviously you're going to have some situations where the player's interjection is somewhere in between analysis of power play strategies and a joke about him stroking his dick. The question is, where's the line, if it's a grey area? Let's say you ask Marleau about the power play and Joe pipes up and says "there'd be no problem if Todd would give me more minutes"? Or, "Our defensemen have done a crap job getting pucks through from the blue line and they need to get their heads in the game?"
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Yes. As I said, much much worse is said around every locker room ever and you never hear about it. Why? Because most reporters have tact, class, common sense and brains. If Botchford can't figure out the difference he needs to find a different line of work. All the other reporters seemed to have good gauge on it.
You're liking it to a guy actually talking about hockey. If all he printed was 'Thornton chimed in and said "shut up, have you ever played the game?" there would be no issue. If Botchford had stopped Thornton and asked him to elaborate and held a mic up to him, than anything he says is fair game. An off color comment as he walks away from the scrum is not what should be printed.
It doesn't take a journalism degree to figure it out, and honestly, the fact that he printed shows he really did never play the game, and if he did, he was the kid that was telling on his teammates for using a bad word (aka dooosh). I would compare this more to a player discussing hockey, a teamate walks by and gives the camera bunny ears and the guy being interviewed screams "hey f*** your mother Hertl!" Is that printable?