December 22, 2005
The Real Picture
Damian Cristodero writes a nice piece in today’s St. Petersburg Times:
There is a moment after every Lightning home game that reminds Brad Richards what truly is important.
It happens shortly after the final horn, when Tampa Bay's star center walks into a room under the stands of the St. Pete Times Forum and into a world of smiles and thank yous.
It is when Richards meets the childhood cancer patients who watched the game from his suite.
"Sometimes it's tough," Richards said. "I run in there 10 minutes after a game, and sometimes I have different emotions.
"But then you go in there and see their faces and the great attitudes they have and how happy they are and how they think the world is great. That's all you have to see. It really puts things in perspective."
Speaking of perspective, as I was reading this article, I couldn’t help but think back to last summer, when Richards’ hometown newspaper in Prince Edward Island printed a scathing editorial criticizing the Lightning star for failing to sign autographs during his local Stanley Cup parade celebration. At the time, the newspaper’s managing editor Darlene Shea claimed that the intention of the column was to “express an opinion that will get people talking.”
Here’s how I reacted to Shea’s comments last year:
The purpose of an editorial is to express a legitimite personal opinion. Period. Ideally, a writer would love to engage his readers in constructive dialogue on the subject matter, but this desire should not consume the writer to the point where it becomes his sole incentive for authoring material. Once an opinion writer finds himself driven solely by the dissenting feedback he receives from his readership, he essentially becomes a predictable, insincere pawn, penning stories for the purpose of eliciting a reaction, rather than presenting a heartfelt personal belief.
Brad Richards wasn’t the only victim of the Summerside-Journal Pioneer’s irresponsible journalistic behavior. All readers that rely on the press for honest reporting, as well as the passionate writers that diligently attempt to provide it (including those in the blogging community), took a punch that would make Dave Manson proud.
Too often, athletes get nailed to the cross unjustly. It’s one thing to pick on a guy for supposedly lacking leadership qualities, but to go to town on someone who has repeatedly dedicated his free time to disadvantaged young children is just tasteless. Kudos to Cristodero for penning a fine, and fair, profile of Brad Richards.
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12:02 PM