All Things Hockey In The Carolinas

Friday, March 14, 2008

Stop the Hate: Anti-Cane Bias in the Media!

For a while, I've been noticing a serious lack of respect and just outright laziness when it comes to coverage of the Hurricanes. I know we aren't an original 6 team. I know we aren't located in New York. I know we aren't located in Canada. But jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, you'd think the media hacks could at least do a little research or avoid taking unnecessary potshots at us in random articles. Are there any journalistic standards anymore? You'd think (and you'd be wrong) that any hockey writer (and/or sports publication) would have heard of Eric Staal by now. He's been in the league for 5 years now. He played a big part in winning the Stanley Cup a couple of years ago. In fact, he won the All Star MVP this year. He's got 2 brothers excelling in the league, and another on the way. But somehow, Sports Illustrated can't spell "Staal" correctly?




Sure, Eric "Stall" isn't that important a player in the NHL, but you'll note that they made damn sure they got "Ovechkin" right. For Pete's sake, how long does it take to look up "Staal". Hell, if you type "Eric Stall" into Google, it will friggin tell you to see "Eric Staal". The kid wins All Star MVP, and S.I. (Sports Ignoramuses) is too busy blowing the Ovenchicken to take a second to spell "Staal" correctly. Jeeez. And you've got to love the heading: "Kennedy: NHL gets YoungStars game right" . Well, how about getting an NHL young star's name right? ...Jackasses...



And for good measure, let's see what TSN is up to. Oh yeah, they are taking shots as well:



Yes, I know what they meant. But half that equation is a direct swipe at John Grahame. And it's just unnecessary to the article. Hell, it isn't even that funny a quip, and I don't even LIKE John Grahame. I know, I know... TSN is Canadian and they have the Cup Envy real bad. And it's a mortal insult that TB and the Canes won (essentially) back-to-back Stanley Cups over (dare I say it?) *gasp* Canadian teams. But you'd think that if they truly had a love for the game of hockey, rather than just some nationalistic hard-on for a geographic location, they would not stoop to taking swipes at teams/players that are sporting SC bling just because their beloved 'local' teams can't get it done.

And finally, here is the worst of all. Our own local media is getting into the act. The other day, I am perusing the news on WRAL-dot-com (I'm not trying to be cute with the "dot-com" nonsense, I just ain't linking to those traitorous scumbags...) , and what should I see? Here... Look for yourself:


Nice banner ad don't you think? I must admit that I am disgusted that the local news entity that hosts John Forslund's blog is shilling for the Crapitals. THE CRAPITALS! For god's LaRose's sake, the Craps are located in a crime-ridden, crackhead-mayored, traffic-nightmare of a cesspool FOUR AND A HALF HOURS in the wrong direction on I-95. Yet, WRAL is advertising for them? Did they forget that the Canes are located less than 3 miles (as the crow flies) from their offices? Talk about bad form. Seriously. Maybe if somebody would get a crowbar and pry Tom Suitor's face out of Roy Williams' turd cutter, this crap wouldn't happen.

Seriously. They need to get over the hate. This crap has to stop.