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Blogging in
'Grey Area' Raises Eyebrows
No 'rule book' for blogging, says Garner
by Josh Brewster
Hockeytalk.biz

MARCH 29, 2008 -- Over the weekend, a journalist revealed a huge “grey area” where the blogosphere meets the world of journalism. It raised questions about whether blogging is entertainment or legitimate journalism, and whether a popular blog site’s presentation was misleading.

Friday morning on Hockeybuzz.com, Ryan Garner’s “It’s Payback Time” read like a drunken fan’s shouts from the top of an arena. It raised eyebrows around Honda Center amidst players and writers alike.

Garner argued that because of a recent hit on San Jose Shark Jon Cheechoo by Anaheim Duck Chris Kunitz, the Sharks should seek retribution of the physical variety.

Garner wrote something of a disclaimer off the bat, stating that “the purpose of payback is not to injure,” but then rattled off a list of acts that the Sharks should consider, including a bunch of methods that would easily result in injury. Curious logic.

“The Sharks need to give Kunitz a taste of beaver food, attacking him with a solid slash across the ankle or a cross-check to the face,” he wrote, also offering that “a firm elbow/cross check to the back of the head would get the message across.”

The most astounding thing about this blog is that at the top of Garner’s piece, Hockeybuzz points out that the writer works for the Vallejo Times-Herald. Garner is credentialed to cover Sharks games.

A real journalist for retribution? Only in the blogosphere.

“With a lot of the traditional media, newspaper columnists, I don't know whether they can come out and say (that) someone should take care of Chris Kunitz tonight,” Garner told Hockeytalk Saturday. “I don't really know, exactly. As for myself, I don't know what the difference is between a newspaper column and an online blog.”

Interesting question, one which I’ll be happy to answer: No legitimate news outlet, web or print, would have run the piece.

Hockeybuzz, in its fast and loose style, erred in this case.

Eklund, the “anonymous hockey blogger” who runs the site, has always argued that Hockeybuzz is an entertainment site.

But it wasn’t presented as such, in my view. If Garner’s piece was pure entertainment, then why is his newspaper’s handle at the top of a piece that no newspaper would run?

“I would have submitted it to a newspaper,” says Garner. “I am a little less hesitant to submit something like that in the blog, obviously, because I don't have an editor. It doesn't have to clear through any type of editing process, so yeah, there might be some hesitation to write something like that for a newspaper, but, at the same time I'd still submit something like that, if that's how I felt.”

At least Garner owned up to what he wrote and didn’t shrink in his explanation of his screed.

It appears to me that Hockeybuzz likes the appearance of legitimacy that noting the writer’s newspaper affiliation lends, and that’s where Hockeybuzz is irresponsible. If it’s entertainment, don’t pass it off as something else (calls to Eklund for comment went unreturned).

Eklund should have some type of process for his blog site, but obviously doesn’t, which is why bloggers are looked at suspiciously by traditional journalists, and rightly so.  Much of what’s flying through the blogosphere is garbage.

Call Garner’s piece a “slob comedy,” Eklund. Put a picture of a cartoon character next to a piece like this if this is entertainment. Maybe throw a picture of John Belushi or Jim Carrey (maybe even a monkey?) on the page so that we know this is a goof, because it was presented by Hockeybuzz as something other than entertainment, for sure.

“The way I see it, they're both meant to entertain, they're both meant to inform the reader,” says Garner. “I don't know. It leaves a lot of questions up in the air.”

Karen Francis, who writes for this site (Hockeytalk.biz), noted in her blog on MVN.com, that “Blogs are becoming a more accepted form of media, but that takes a blow when a member of the ‘traditional’ media uses the ‘new’ media to call for ‘payback.’”

According to sources at Honda Center Friday morning, some prominent NHL players and writers were stunned by the piece.

Blogs can try to use the “entertainment” excuse if they’d like, but if the bloggers can’t find a way to establish editorial process, then the NHL’s member clubs may find a way to clarify team access matters for them.

“There's no rule book,” Garner told Hockeytalk. “There's no black and white. I guess we're all just learning as we go…It's really a big grey area, I guess.”

Hockeybuzz should present its content as entertainment and stop passing it off as something else.

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