Why I Prefer Legitimate Sources

The apology by Eklund yesterday for erroneous reporting of Alex Tanguay's non-signing in Florida moved me to explain one peeve of mine with the business of reporting.

I work at a wire service, and the information which we compile to go out on our site has to be culled from primary sources, i.e. newspaper, TV, team websites and such. That means something official has either been leaked to a primary source, or the primary source has finalized the information and deemed it ready for publication.

After that, we steal it, re-work it in our own words, and send it to our site, which is then picked up by all our clients. Once it's out there, you can defend your work by saying "X legitimate site" reported this, either in the body of the story or verbally to the boss...and you're off the hook if something gets retracted or changed.

The business of rumor milling really clouds and bastardizes the whole process.

My very good friend is a hockey fan board nut. He follows a ton of them for the Flyers and other teams, and very often he'll text me with a story about a player or coach which I intend to put on here or look for to do a story on at work.

Most often, the source he cites is one of those sites or boards, and I can't do anything with it because the source isn't really recognized as legit or it's in fact second/third/fourth hand information wrecked by the internet's version of "Whisper Down the Lane."

The story MAY in fact be true and MAY be scooped before any major media get to it, but independent fan discussion forums with MAYBE one person connected to a legit source STILL won't ever be fully trusted, I don't care how big internet plays a role in news from now until time immemorial. The checks and balances which ensure major media are doing their job are still not there on the world wide web.

One time he did come up big for me is when he led me to the Peter Zezel death story in late May. I can't recall where he got the original info, but that original tidbit led him to an AM radio site in Toronto - from which I was able to legitimize the story and run with it.

See the difference?

While most HockeyBuzz writers are bloggers sanctioned by their respective clubs, I have a hard time understanding why anyone really follows the head man as a legitimate source.

I understand he's supposedly got people ferreting out news at the team and league level, but he's even admitted that 97 percent of his rumors never even lead to bona fide news!

I also understand that his source in Florida reported in so many words that a deal is done, but even by skeletal journalistic standards, you can't slap an arbitrary high-level code on something and report it as solid news - especially when you readily admit your percentages are low.

In hockey as in life, the first person to go blab a rumor as fact usually is the first person to get majorly burned when it gets back to them. Hence his major front-page apology yesterday.

He at least did a solid by doing his mea culpa and at least did another solid by not diming out his source. But that leads me to wonder - who exactly are his sources at the team level?

Lord knows why people would pay for this, because all it is, is an endless push-and-pull, will-he-won't-he soap-opera of quasi-truths. Then to quantify all this juicy stuff with a pale take on the old Terror Level threat system makes the mistake even more absurd.

I can even understand the race to be first and correct and to beat the competition, but can it really be that even in the blogosphere, it's better to be first and wrong then retract, than it is to be safe and second and right?

I would really like to know the process by which he vets his information, but I assume that probably falls under the secret provisions of source-reporter protocol.

So, the point here is that while I do enjoy reading HB and other independent fan sites and message boards, I'll always remember that it's more a conduit for discussion and venting from the fan base, and can never be a primary tool to distribute legitimate news.

Oh, and by the way, lest you think I'm being some sort of media snob, I felt this way long before I got involved in this crazy business, because as a practical lad, I always valued the facts and how they got there than mere endless discussion of possibilities. Like ESPN before whoring out and bastardizing Patrick and Olbermann's shtick and converting the whole franchise to what it is now.

It's why I have shifted to writing as a media career, instead of winding up on radio as a sports talk host. There's a big difference between thinking you know something and convincing others it's the way it is, and knowing you know something - and knowing how you know it.

Accept no substitutes.
As far as this blog is concerned, it's either opinion or fact, and when it's a rumor I'll try to give a source for the rumor but won't pass it off as solid fact.

I was wrong 2 weeks ago about Antero Niittymaki going to Russia because he went and signed with Tampa, but, well, I'm not trying to get my name out there. This is just a little ol' blog for personal use. Still, you click on the link and see the source.