AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > December > 04
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Thrashers to bloggers: Buy a ticket
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
First, a couple quick things from practice: Mark Popovic sat it out and Steve McCarthy skated with Alexei Zhitnik in his place. Popovic will likely practice at the morning skate on Wednesday and I expect Mac and Popovic to come out for pregame warm-ups. So we’ll monitor that situation closely. Kari Lehtonen will start in goal on Wednesday against the Islanders.
Former Thrashers defenseman Andy Sutton whiffed when trying to clear the puck last night against Boston, leading to one of the Bruins goals in the latest Islanders loss. Not a good moment for Sutts. Here’s what he told the New York Daily News: “I shouldn’t be making those at this point in my career,” Sutton said. “It’s definitely hard to rebound from mistakes when we’re not generating a lot of scoring as a team.” I’m sure he’ll get a warm reception at Philips, considering he took a run at Kovalchuk the other night. For the record, Kovalchuk had no problem with it saying Sutton was just trying to spark his team.
Toby Enstrom was named the rookie of the month, so congrats to him for a well-deserved honor. He joined Kovalchuk, the NHL’s first star for November, as Thrashers earning league-wide recognition.
The blogging debate continues - Almost a year ago, we discussed on this blog the question whether or not hockey bloggers should get the same access in hockey as traditional media. Well, Hockey Night in Canada and Elliotte Friedman had a great feature on the same topic this weekend. I know it’s inside baseball, but I think it was a very interesting piece. Now, I’m not suggesting we rehash the debate, but I thought it would be interesting to check in locally with the Thrashers to see their take on the issue and if it’s evolving.
They have reached out to the Thrashers bloggers, like The Falconer and the folks at Southeast Shootout, through nights like Blogger Night where they credential the bloggers and let them write about the experience. And I think they’re looking to expand on events like that.
But, for now, that’s as far as it will go. If the Capitals, and their blogger-friendly credential policy are one end of the spectrum, the Thrashers are at the other end. To be fair, they are probably still in the majority with the rest of the league.
Their official stance comes from the PR department: “Our policy is only to allow bloggers from accredited news agencies.”
So if ESPN or the AJC wants to send a blogger who isn’t the beat writer, the Thrashers would give a credential. But if, any number of the Thrashers bloggers (here’s a good collection of them at Thrashers Times) want a credential, they’re out of luck.
We’ve heard a lot of the arguments back and forth, but ultimately it comes down to one thing: accountability. One Thrashers staffer explained it to me this way: “If we have a problem with you, we have someone we can go to.” Presumably my editor or somebody up the food chain at the AJC.
If the Thrashers have a problem with something The Falconer writes, who do they complain to? The Falconer? Blogger? For the record, I’d credential the Falconer and that’s where my opinion differs from the Thrashers. Instead of a blanket policy, I’d do it on a case-by-case basis, and approve a blogger I think could help increase and improve the coverage of the team.
But I understand the Thrashers stance, for sure. In light of the whole Jiri Tlusty internet photo flap teams are more careful than ever about the access to their players. I know there’s fear that if the floodgates are opened to stockbroker-by-day, journalist-by-night bloggers, that eventually there’s going to be an incident. Do I think opening the doors to bloggers would mean naked pictures of Jim Slater on the Internet because of a camera phone in the lockeroom? No. But, at this point, the Thrashers aren’t willing to take that chance. Your thoughts?
