June 13, 2007
Blog In A Box, Pig In A Poke
Congratulations to the New York Islanders for coming up with the "Blog Box" idea and getting a day's worth of free publicity out of it. Here are a couple of thoughts:
* I don't know why anybody would apply for a watered down version of a press pass that only allows guarded access to Islanders players and staff and no access to visiting players at all. Ironically for me, two of the visiting players I talked to this season in Washington were Jason Blake and Richard Park of the Islanders.
I've had complete access for a whole season, along with more than a dozen other bloggers, and we've never experienced any sort of incident here in D.C., so I'm not really sure what anybody is afraid of. In fact, I would have been happy to talk the the Islanders or any other team about my experiences this season, but let's just say my phone hasn't been ringing off the hook.
The Islanders idea is a press pass with training wheels. Then again, if I were in the shoes of Islanders Army or The View From Section 317, I'd give it a shot.
* I couldn't help but see that the team felt the need to throw a bone to the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA). From Islanders VP Chris Botta's interview with Deadspin:
Deadspin:You seem pretty concerned about how the actual hockey press "establishment" would react to this. Have you heard from some of the bigwigs since you announced it?
Botta: We want them to know they're still loved, appreciated, respected, welcomed and needed. That said, sure, I've gotten a few emails from members of the PHWA nominating the Blog Box for this week's Sign That the Apocalypse is Among Us. If they haven't gotten over it by then, they'll see when the season starts that their world hasn't changed.
As far as I'm concerned, the actions of the PHWA aren't terribly encouraging in this area. After all, this is an organization that when it went looking for somebody to talk to about blogging, asked Eklund to address them at this year's All-Star Game.
And though I can't find the link right now, I know that Michael Farber of Sports Illustrated mentioned something snarky about the PHWA and blogging during the Finals. I called SI and got his phone number to interview him about it, but he's yet to return my call.
Whenever I see a reference to the PHWA, I have to stifle a little laugh. After all, we know that in a number of cities that there are plenty of open spaces in the press box as newspapers and other MSM outlets cut back their coverage. In light of those facts, just where do they get off trying to dictate who gets access to the press box?
This would include outlets like the LA Times, a newspaper that cut back on road coverage of the Ducks just as they moved to the cusp of a Stanley Cup. Amazing.
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.ericmcerlain.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/7604
Personally, I'd much prefer this "watered down" press pass to the real thing. I am not, nor do I make any claim to be, a real journalist. I just want to go to the games and cheer hard for my team, which is not something they look kindly upon in the MSM press box.
Posted by:
at June 14, 2007 01:12 PM
The thing that annoyed me the most about the Islanders' thing is that they assume that bloggers are just fanboys who write on the internet. I guess I just read the more "professional" behaving of the sites and can't imagine why they would want to be lumped in with sweater-wearing yahoos.
Posted by:
at June 14, 2007 03:18 PM
One of the most common things you hear from bloggers who don't want press credentials is that they can't imagine watching a game and not being able to root for their team. I think this solution is directed at those types of bloggers--the passionate heart on their sleeve and maybe don't care as much about the game as they do their team set. From a critical standpoint this isn't the solution I want, but don't the two are mutually exclusive. This solution wouldn't prevent the team from issuing full credentials to bloggers who can pass tougher criteria or who have earned that right through good behavior in the blogger box.
Posted by:
at June 15, 2007 09:30 AM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in,
.
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)
06:33 PM
![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.ericmcerlain.com/offwingopinion/nav-commenters.gif)