Montreal Canadiens Media Review (Excerpt)
June 29, 2009, by Homme De Sept-Iles
Outside Opinion
What follows is a thoughtful November 20th, 2008 post from “Haddock” of the HF Boards. The thread in its entirety is here.
Montréal Media: Evil or not? (Not) by “Haddock”
Who are we talking about?
Let’s see:
La Presse :
* Mathias Brunet
* Jean-François Bégin
* Marc-Antoine Godin
* Richard Labbé
* Simon Drouin
* François Gagnon
* Pierre Ladouceur
* Miguel Bujold
* Réjean Tremblay
* Ronald King
* Michel Blanchard
Journal De Montréal :
* Pierre Durocher
* Martin Leclerc
* Marc De Foy
* Serge Touchette
* Bertrand Raymond
* Daniel Cloutier
* Charles Rooke
* Serge Vleminckx
* Gilles Vachet
* Mario Brisebois
* François Ferland
Le Devoir :
* Jean Dion
The Gazette :
* Red Fisher
* Pat Hickey
* Dave Stubbs
* Jack Todd
* Ian McDonald
* Paul Carbray
* Stephanie Myles
* Dave Yates
RDS:
* Luc Gélinas
* Joel Bouchard
* Martin Dion
* Alain Crête
* Chantal Machabée
* Renaud Lavoie
* Félix Séguin
* Denis Casavant
* Rodger Brulotte
* Alain ‘Le Baron’ Chantelois
* Michel Bergeron
* Dave Morissette
* Yannick Bouchard
* Jacques Demers
* Gaston Therrien
* Normand Flynn
* Pierre Vercheval
CKAC-Chorus Sport :
* Michel Langevin
* Dave Morissette
* Gabriel Grégoire
* Jacques Thériault
* Jean-Charles Lajoie
* Michel Villeneuve
* Martine Lemay
* Jérémie Rainville
* Ron Fournier
* Martin McGuire
* Dany Dubé
* Jeremy Filosa
TEAM990 :
* Denis Casavant
* Shaun Starr
* Elliot Price
* Rod Francis
* Tony Marinaro
* PJ Stock
* Mitch Melnick
* Andie Bennet
* Picard
Most guests of La Zone and 100% already work either for a newspaper or a radio station, so there’s no need to rewrite them all. The few exceptions are former players who had to retire early because they weren’t good enough (Marc Bureau, Éric Fichaud, Patrick Boileau, Donald Audette, Stéphan Lebeau, Jocelyn Thibault, ect). Aside from Bureau who I think we can all agree has some personnal issue (i.e. he’s a dick), the others are doing a fine job on La Zone. So is Enrico Ciccone who is a former player but also an agent wich brings an interesting and different perspective. Radio-Canada does have René Pothier and Gérard Gagnon creeping in their corridors, so they get spots around the table. They’re not controversial, just boring.
The names of Michel Bergeron, Jean Perron and Jacques Demers could have linked to almost every network and radio-station from one time or another. Those three need to go. Demers is the less annoying of the three and doesn’t have a history of being a xenophobe like Bergeron or a kid who probably rode the small bus like Perron, but his expertise is pretty narrow. He’s not a detriment like the other two so I guess I can tolerate him, but Bergeron and Perron shouldn’t be hired by anyone with respect for the viewers/listeners.
So what are we left with? La Presse and Le Journal De Montréal have a majority of good, objective, decent and competent journalists. Of course, Réjean Tremblay and Bertrand Raymond are becoming old-timers more interested in their own prestige and human-interest stories than real information. Tremblay has a personnal vendetta against the Habs organization since Gainey banned columnist from flying with the team. He now needs second-hand information to write his Lance & Compte scenarios and it pisses him off.
That leaves us with the likes of Mathias Brunet who is probably the most competent and interested in talking about the team’s prospects. Jean-François Bégin and Martin Leclerc who are both no-nonsense writers. Pierre Ladouceur, Marc De Foy, Pierre Durocher, Marc-Antoine Godin and François Gagnon as pretty good beat writers. Yes Gagnon has a special place in his heart for the Sens, big deal, he’s still a good journalist.
Red Fisher is the veteran of veterans and deserves everyone’s respect. He is getting old and little less pertinent, but the man’s an institution and we should enjoy him as long as we can. The Gazette does have Jack Todd on its payroll, but Dave Stubbs, Pat Hickey and everyone at Habsinsideout are doing a great job covering the team. Can’t complain there.
Le Devoir doesn’t really cover sport per say, but Jean Dion is a gem of a sport journalist. If you like philosophical references and jokes about Nelson Santovenia and some obscure Serbian javelin thrower, then he’s your man!
When it comes to radio stations, the TEAM990 holds a candle to no one. While CKAC has given jobs and prime-time spots to the like of Michel Villeneuve and Jean-Charles Lajoie and has hired a poutine cook who received too many blows to the head in Gabriel Grégoire, the TEAM only has PJ Stock in the ‘I can’t believe this person is allowed to speak into a mike’ kind of deal. Aside from these three human beings which I find intolerable to listen to, the rest of the staff on both station can be entertaining and interesting.
When it comes to RDS these days, then all hell breaks loose! A station that once had intelligent discussion between Claude Maillhot and Yvon Pedneault on Sport30 now serves us a pale copy of 110% with the likes of Chantelois, Bergeron, Morrisette and other incompetent buffoons. There’s still good elements in that station, but the failed junior coaches (Therrien, Flynn) and Alain ‘I get too much airtime’ Chantelois are killing the efforts made by Joel Bouchard and the good reporters like Renaud Lavoie, Félix Séguin, Luc Gélinas (who could improve his English but still does an overall good job).
I could mention Sportsnight360 on CTV. Ron Reusch is still doing a great job with his guests. He’s also very good when he replaces Melnick on the TEAM990.
So, who should be on the blacklist? Because that’s my main goal with this thread, to go on a witch hunt. Hey, I’m not a bad person, au contraire. I happen to be, like a lot of you, a hockey junkie and I’m not looking to turn the radio and TV off nor do I wish to stop reading the papers.
So I hereby humbly suggest the names of the following individuals in the HF Boards Yellow Journalism Hall of Fame:
Michel Villeneuve
A side note on Villeneuve and his nationalist antics. Some of you may be surprised to find out that for all his Québecois-first comments, Mr.Villeneuve is an ardent federalist who mocks les ceintures flêchées on a regular basis. Just something to throw out there to the misinformed teens from the ROC who use every occasions they can get to insult the evil separatists when someone makes a comment about francophone players or affirms himself as a proud Québécois. The like of Villeneuve and Denis Coderre are not members of the pesky sovereigntist movement, so no need to use their stupid speeches and actions to bash your least favorite political movement. That was a big side note. For overall performance appreciation of his work, refer to the next name on the list as they are pretty similar.
Jean-Charles Lajoie
Obviously went to the Michel Villeneuve school of yellow journalism. Demagoguery, intellectual dishonesty, easy shortcuts, generalization, insults presented as ‘humour’, playing the devil’s advocate just to stir crap up. If there’s a bad behavior to have or something misplaced to say, Jean-Charles is votre homme!
Gaston Therrien
Therrien’s latest comments about Kostitsyn and Siberia were not only stupid and offensive, they were also very ignorant. His analysis skills are the same of those of a fourteen years old with a X-Box and free time. He and Normand Flynn shouldn’t be on TV at all.
PJ Stock
Annoying, hypocritical, dishonest, immature, unable to accept another opinion than his own, will never say something in the line of ‘you’re right, I didn’t see things like that’. Looks like a fool everytime he’s not sharing airtime with Marinaro. Shows his true colors when some sort of language controversies rears its ugly head.
Jack Todd
Suffering from intellectual sclerosis for many years, Jack Todd might be the worst journalist in town. Personnal attacks and overall lack of ethics, Todd is un minable. I just wanted to put his name In there so I can post this link. Reading this makes my nipples hard everytime.
Réjean Tremblay
Reasons mentionned above. Personnal issues with the organization leads to bad journalism. Treats fans with little respect calling them fe-fans. Guilty of intellectual dishonesty when it comes to Québec players and draft. Was at his peak in 1984. Been on the decline for close to twenty-five years.
Let’s add the names of Jean Perron, Michel Bergeron, Marc Bureau, Alain Chantelois, and to a lesser extent Dave Morissette and Gabriel Grégoire who were probably hired as part of some special programs for the mentally challenged.
That’s what? Ten-twelve guys out of almost eighty counting the guests, the collaborators, the athletes writing columns. Is the media as evil as some make it sound to be? Could it be that we see things darker than they are when the team is not winning? Of course it is. Take a deep breath, chill … out, stay away from yellow journalism at all time and enjoy the intelligent coverage.
The preceding was a November 20th, 2008 post from “Haddock” of the HF Boards. The thread in its entirety is here.
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