Burke on TSN 1050: “Toronto media wants teams to fail.”

[Boreal]

http://www.tsn.ca/radio/audio/burke-...-fail-1.913692

Calgary Flames president of hockey operations Brian Burke joins Michael Landsberg and Mark Roe from the Prime Time Sports Conference and Trade Show. They discuss the state of sports media in Toronto, what it's like in Calgary, and the Golden Knights' start.

Quick but interesting chat with Burke. For me I think it highlights how fortunate we are to have a relatively balanced media in Calgary that doesn’t exalt or demonize the team too quickly or undeservedly. Some are better than others, but they are not cheerleading water boys for the team. They are far from perfect, but could be a lot worse.

[JD]

In the early 2000's, I felt like our media was getting that way. Guys like Dowbiggin were prominent, Francis was ever-present, Pollock seemed to be more negative than ever. I guess it didn't help that the Flames were doomed without a salary cap and the Stamps were a complete disaster with the Feterik years upon us.

It seemed like 2004 was just such a good positive story it even changed the way the media covered the Flames. It really changed a lot.

[Erick Estrada]

Imagine every single media person in a 5+ million market being as glass half empty as Dowbiggin and you have the Toronto hockey media in a nutshell. No kidding Burke likes things better in Calgary as our local media is probably the softest in the country.

[calgaryblood]

Burke is to the media as Trump is to the media. No shocker he believes this. He's always disliked the media and Calgary media are for the most part way too soft and don't ask any tough questions.

Derek Wills is the biggest homer in Calgary as are some other guys on fan960.

[handgroen]

Originally Posted by calgaryblood

Burke is to the media as Trump is to the media. No shocker he believes this. He's always disliked the media and Calgary media are for the most part way too soft and don't ask any tough questions.

Derek Wills is the biggest homer in Calgary as are some other guys on fan960.

[Trailer Fire]

Originally Posted by calgaryblood

Burke is to the media as Trump is to the media. No shocker he believes this. He's always disliked the media and Calgary media are for the most part way too soft and don't ask any tough questions.

Derek Wills is the biggest homer in Calgary as are some other guys on fan960.

I like you because you’re always really positive and upbeat.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by calgaryblood

Burke is to the media as Trump is to the media. No shocker he believes this. He's always disliked the media and Calgary media are for the most part way too soft and don't ask any tough questions.

Derek Wills is the biggest homer in Calgary as are some other guys on fan960.

Most play by play guys are homers to some extent, although overall I'm not a huge fan of Wills' work.
However I would disagree that the rest of the Fan guys are homers. Part of their jobs though is to make fans excited about the games and the team. If people aren't excited, why would they listen to hours of programming each day centred on the team.

But overall I think guys like Steinberg and Kerr offer a pretty balanced view of what is happening with the team.

[BlackRedGold25]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Imagine every single media person in a 5+ million market being as glass half empty as Dowbiggin and you have the Toronto hockey media in a nutshell. No kidding Burke likes things better in Calgary as our local media is probably the softest in the country.

Softer than Edmonton? Or do you just consider Edmonton to not have a media but instead a booster club that works for tv/radio/print?

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by calgaryblood

Burke is to the media as Trump is to the media. No shocker he believes this. He's always disliked the media and Calgary media are for the most part way too soft and don't ask any tough questions.

Derek Wills is the biggest homer in Calgary as are some other guys on fan960.

How dare you! Burke does NOT deserve that sort of comparison. He is critical when deserved and shows disdain when things go too far, yet he has no problem answering media questions and fully understand their role. Grumpy at times? Sure, no question. But you can't blame him with some of the things he's had to go through over the years (remember the lawsuit with the blogger?).

Trump would like to eliminate the 4th estate altogether and run a totalitarian government with propaganda.

It's an awful and hyperbolic comparison. Rein it in a little.

[Flamenspiel]

Originally Posted by Wild GM

But overall I think guys like Steinberg and Kerr offer a pretty balanced view of what is happening with the team.

They are balanced about the performance, not so much about replacing the arena. I don't think they like their current residence in the Saddledome.

[Boreal]

Originally Posted by calgaryblood

Burke is to the media as Trump is to the media. No shocker he believes this. He's always disliked the media and Calgary media are for the most part way too soft and don't ask any tough questions.

Derek Wills is the biggest homer in Calgary as are some other guys on fan960.

Nice hyperbole, incorrect, but nice try. If you actually listened to what Burke said, he refuted exactly what you stated. He stated that media’s role is not to be cheerleaders. His ex-wife was in media so your comparison fall flat on its face.

With media, the sad reality is 90% of them give little more insight than a sizable number of people who post here. Calgary media has 3-5 personalities that are great & the rest are interchangeable plugs. I put Wills in the plug camp, for now.

He sells sunshine, partially because he’s trying to build rapport & trust with players over the long haul. Most of the players have been here longer than he has & he realizes that he’s dependent on his relationship with them to do his job.

[MissTeeks]

Christ, if Wills sounded like a game thread around here when calling the game, I'd want to shoot myself.

[Flamenspiel]

Wills is a good PBP guy, it seems like everything else is just to keep him busy and earn his salary. Peter Maher was better PBP, but his insights were were only a shade better than Wills, though he had some great experiences and anecdotes. Peter L. knows hockey inside out and is the guy for player detail, much better then the fellow that Mahar worked with.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Flamenspiel

They are balanced about the performance, not so much about replacing the arena. I don't think they like their current residence in the Saddledome.

Disagree.
Folks seem to have a hard time understanding that someone else may have a different view of the arena plan, and if they do it must only mean they are biased or in the Flames' back pocket.
If you step back and look at someone like Kerr - he has a long established history of supporting and actually being an active pusher of more infrastructure. He simply believes that sports is core to a city culture - and it should not be surprising that he isn't opposed to models where the city carries more of the expense.
Nothing about his opinion is surprising, nor does it mean that he isn't objective. It just means he has a different opinion.

[I_H8_Crawford]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Imagine every single media person in a 5+ million market being as glass half empty as Dowbiggin and you have the Toronto hockey media in a nutshell. No kidding Burke likes things better in Calgary as our local media is probably the softest in the country.

Calgary is pretty soft, but the Edmonton media is like USSR-era ministry of propaganda stuff.

[jammies]

Originally Posted by Wild GM

Folks seem to have a hard time understanding that someone else may have a different view of the arena plan, and if they do it must only mean they are biased or in the Flames' back pocket..

Having a different view IS bias. Some folks seem to have a hard time understanding that. Agreeing with someone's - or, in the case of the Flames/CSEC, some entity's - position is demonstrating bias in their favour.

There is no such thing as an "objective" opinion. There are rational and irrational opinions, that's all. If you clearly stand to gain from arguing your position, people will assume you are arguing from rational self-interest, and trying to obfuscate or deny it, even if you feel you really aren't, is both unconvincing and naive.

Why bother? Just acknowledge that you aren't objective, but explain your rationale, which is far more effective than whining about how people don't understand your truly disinterested perspective. Nobody cares if you think you can see both sides, especially when you then proceed to clearly take one side over the other.

[the2bears]

Originally Posted by calgaryblood

Burke is to the media as Trump is to the media. No shocker he believes this. He's always disliked the media and Calgary media are for the most part way too soft and don't ask any tough questions.

Derek Wills is the biggest homer in Calgary as are some other guys on fan960.

Is there no topic immune to your unique contrarian ways?

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by jammies

Having a different view IS bias. Some folks seem to have a hard time understanding that.

Then people need to own up to their own biases instead of claiming that the other side is the only biased point of view.

In any case, opinion ≠ bias.

Originally Posted by Oxford Dictionary

bias |ˈbʌɪəs|
noun
1 [mass noun] inclination or prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair

Having an opinion is not having a bias. Selectively ignoring those facts that don't support your opinion, and exaggerating those that do – that's a bias.

[bubbsy]

Here's what, in my opinion, one of the dumber guys in the toronto/canadian sports media realm think:

Damien Cox‏ @DamoSpin 3m3 minutes ago
So basically Brian Burke likes Calgary more than Toronto bc more media there openly cheering for the team. Which should be about the most insulting thing you can say to a CGY media person.

I think burke's involvement with the leafs will be looked at as a negative period for the team. The move to trade 2 x 1st round picks for a non-franchise player, especially when the leafs were not a lock to be a team on the rise, and it essentially blowing up in his face really left burke looking like a very poor GM here. He made some other great trades (JVR for schenn, the phaneuf trade, the kaberle trade, the Beachamin trade), but for the leaf fans/media, there is no discussion, he f'd it all up.

The leafs' (and therefore Burke's) biggest downfall was the unwillingness to go full rebuild, and think that the fans of the city wouldn't be able to stomach it. Even though the media were always critical of the leafs not going that route. So yes, i do believe the leaf media here were like wolves and were critical of the leafs' to the point where i think they were happier to see the team fail just so that they could say i told you so.

The leafs are now media darlings in toronto in my opinion. Shanahan can do no wrong. He was right in getting Lou as the GM, and Babcock as their Coach, and between the 3 of them, i don't think there has been a single point of contention/cynicism for a move made/not-made. Right or wrong, the new management was willing to go full rebuild, and to date that plan looks PERFECT given that they have a core built around Mathews, who actually looks more valuable to a team's general success than "generational talent" Mcdavid.

It's amazing to think how different the leafs would have turned out if they somehow didn't win the draft and came out with Laine or Dubois out of their bottoming out season.

[Classic_Sniper]

Burke is flat out wrong. Toronto media don’t want their sport teams to fail, that city is starving for a winner of any kind. Just look at the Jays, they are beloved in that city. Burke just has a hard time taking any kind of criticism and loathes having his methods questioned.

This is the same guy who traded a 1st, 2nd and a 3rd just to move up a couple spots so he could draft a barely servicable defensive defenseman while missing out on a boatload of incredible defensemen including a generational talen in Erik Karlsson. He also didn’t trade Mike Cammalleri because of his pride and stubbornness or how about that draft pick we spent on one Lane MacDermid to add truculence only to have him retire from the sport a few months later. Maybe it’s just Burke making questionable moves that gets him into trouble with the media. As tough as he is, the man takes criticism poorly and that’s a character trait you must have in abundance as a gm in the NHL or in any other sport for that matter.