It is Believed that Darren Dreger at TSN May Have Been Among Those Mentioned as Someone Who Possibly Could Be Pulling S*** Out of His *ss

by Quisp on May 19, 2009 9:56 AM PDT in WTF

bozo Here's the text of Dreger's recent "report" with my comments/interpretation in bold [I'm having a bit of formatting trouble with the quotations, so I put everything from the Dreger article in italics; Dreger italics, bold me]:

[begin Dreger:] The conversations surrounding Tampa Bay Lightning forward Vincent Lecavalier are likely to heat up as we get closer to July 1, when the no-trade clause on his contract kicks in. [TRANSLATION: something will happen in the future, but is not happening now.]

The two teams mentioned most [by ______? See, that would be important information to have, who is doing this mentioning; we do know who it's not: the actual parties involved, who, after all, don't do any public "mentioning" of potential future trades] when Lecavalier's name comes up seem to be ["seem to be" means this sentence isn't even true enough for him to use the word "are"] the Montreal Canadiens and Los Angeles Kings. With regards to the Kings, defenceman Jack Johnson is one of the players mentioned [again, mentioned by ______] as possibly [really high standard here, since everyone is "possibly" involved] being involved in any deal with Tampa. [A reasonable translation of that sentence would be, "people who aren't involved in the situation think anything could possibly happen at any time."]

I had an interesting chat with Barry Smith, who is the head coach of SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL - and he said Johnson's father, Jack Johnson Sr., contacted St. Petersburg [Dreger does not say that Smith said JJ Sr. contacted him, but "St Petersburg," presumably meaning the team, not the town. If Smith had talked to JJ Sr., Dreger would certainly have written that. I am fascinated by the possibility that Jack Johnson's dad speaks Russian; alternatively, how exactly are we to believe this "contacting" took place? He saw someone in the hot-dog line prior to one of the games? He cold-called the GM of the team? The mayor? What?] prior to the World Hockey Championship to see if the team would have interest in signing his son to a one-year contract.

Smith said he would have interest in Johnson, [I can't tell if the ambiguity here is intentional: who did Smith say this to? I'm guessing, to Dreger. But Dreger makes it sound like Smith said it to JJ Sr., whom he apparently didn't really speak to] and believes he can make the defenceman a better player.

It is believed [although not by anyone in particular; is this what Smith said to Dreger? It is believed by whom?] there is some unhappiness from Johnson's camp [which presumably consists of Johnson, his agent and his dad - but probably just his dad], as the young blueliner is a restricted free agent [note that this sentence actually says: "Because Johnson is a restricted free agent, he or someone he knows is unhappy."] While Smith has not heard back from Jack Johnson Sr., it is a possibility. ["it" in this sentence refers to "some unhappiness in Johnson's camp." Therefore, the sentence actually says: "While Smith has no reason to believe Johnson is unhappy, it's still possible that he's unhappy, since (per above) anything could possibly happen at any time."]

The speculation that continues to hover around Lecavalier and the Los Angeles Kings [speculation is a free-floating entity, apparently] really began just prior to the NHL's trade deadline - there were some conversations between the Lightning and the Kings. [Here Dreger veers dangerously close to reporting an actual fact. My attention is piqued.]

How serious were the conversations? If you talk to both sides, they'll say they weren't very serious - but they always say that anyway. [I especially love the "they'll say they weren't serious" part. He's actually anticipating in his own article that the people who are actually involved in the rumor he's spreading will say it's all b.s.. Actually, I especially-ESPECIALLY love the "if you talk to both sides" bit. If I talk to both sides? Shouldn't he have done that?]

via TSN .

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Comments

After reading your almost incoherent rant above all I want to say is “You are wrong”. The least you could do to discredit another writer is write an actually post/column, as opposed to make this almost incomprehensible response to every line of a “rumour”.

good luck with life,

by Prop Jay on May 19, 2009 1:52 PM PDT reply actions

Wrong about what? And, obviously, the “least” I could do is what I did, which is respond line-by-line to the original story.

by qwisp on May 19, 2009 2:19 PM PDT up reply actions

Prop Jay – A good rule of thumb when trolling the internets and criticizing other people’s writing would be to know the difference between an adjective and an adverb. It might bring some luck to your life.

qwisp – Dreger has made a career out of peddling baseless rumours like this, and you’ve pretty much nailed his shit to the wall here. Good job.

by kimjorn on May 19, 2009 4:37 PM PDT up reply actions

I understood your comments just fine quisp. Even if his story is true, it is written poorly.

by wavesinair on May 19, 2009 3:55 PM PDT reply actions

I think at least part of the point is, whatever truth there might be in the story is only true because it’s written poorly. That is, the poor writing is not just randomly, generically poor, it’s poor in the way in which every “it is believed” (etc.) drains potential meaning from every sentence, until finally all we’re left with is, “I talked to a guy on the phone who heard that Jack Johnson’s dad is ‘off the reservation.’” Wow. Late Breaking News Item.

by qwisp on May 19, 2009 4:52 PM PDT up reply actions

Qwisp, next time you take a swipe, try to do so at someone with less credibility, and perhaps with a better tactic than simply dissecting the composition of said message. Your assertion that there is a half-truth because of how it is written does nothing to address what Dreger has clearly done, and that is had a conversation with the coach of the team in question. Have you taken the time to call Mr. Dreger and clarify otherwise? Because your linguistic reverse engineering of a simple article would hold some water if you had done any of the work Dreger has, instead off simply teeing off on his verbiage.
It is clear that he has spoken to qualified and legitimate hockey personnel who would certainly know if Johnson’s camp had made contact with the team they work with in Russia. That is the point, which itself (outside of anything else) yields other logic – if JJ is happy in L.A., why is he seeking options?
While it may pain the odd King fan to know that a player would like to play elsewhere, it is a common theme amoungst the somewhat self-serving royalty that play the game today. And certainly in this case, if and likely when Tampa decides to move Vinny, the management team in L.A. isn’t going to hurt relieving themselves of JJ knowing that this may well be the case…
But unlike the frauds of the hockey world cough-fakelund-cough, Dreger is actually well known in hockey circles, has connections, and works with Bob McKenzie – the man with more connections than Al Capone. These things alone lend to his credibility, and it might be best served in this case to reserve judgement on the core of his message here until one can postulate otherwise in something better than a critique of his writing style. You said the “least” you could do is respond line by line, but in truth… you really haven’t responded at all, with anything of merit, research, or of valid note otherwise.

by ghostofpierremcguire on May 20, 2009 8:11 AM PDT reply actions

So what you’re saying is basically, you should not criticize Dreger unless you’ve “done any of the work Dreger has” and have “taken the time to call Mr. Dreger” for clarifications, in other words…you’re a reporter, and even then you shouldn’t criticize him because “Dreger is…well known in hockey circles, has connections and works with Bob McKenzie.”

I can’t speak to Dreger’s reputation or credibility, except as it is reflected in the piece I wrote about.

Your point — “that I really haven’t responded at all with anything of merit” — really just means that you cut this particular writer a ton of slack simply because of his reputation. I would argue that his reputation makes what is annoying in the piece I criticized more annoying, precisely because people (like you, for example) take everything he says so seriously.

However, I feel I should add that I have nothing personal against Darren Dreger. I don’t have an opinion of him or his work, outside of this one article, which I obviously didn’t like. And I think I explained in pretty good detail why I didn’t like it.

Keep in mind also that what I wrote had a context, and that context was in response to several somewhat distraught comments on a Kings blog, “Inside the Kings,” where people were panicking about the potential truth of the Dreger piece. Accordingly, I was responding in a very literal way to the actual words in the article, to see if they actually said anything worth (Kings fans) worrying about. I concluded that they didn’t.

Only about ten people in the world would have ever read my comment had it not been picked up by the Edmonton Journal blog, and from there Oilers Nation and three or four other places. Some who have taken the time to comment (either here or at those other venues) have characterized my comment as “hate” or a “swipe” or a “rant” — but really it was a lot less personal and a lot more measured than that. I was just looking at what he wrote with an eye toward whether or not the words actually said anything. I don’t think they do, other than, “I talked to a guy who says that Jack Johnson’s dad is ‘off the reservation.’”

But, really, I think the original article and my comment on it speak for themselves.

by qwisp on May 20, 2009 10:18 AM PDT up reply actions

Quispy! Edmonton Journal picked up on the Kool-Aid!?………..Consider it officially on the map!…….. I’m joking, but I honestly thought maybe just a few inside the kings readers checked it out regularly..

by 4thliner on May 20, 2009 12:55 PM PDT reply actions

Me, too. And, aside from this isolated case, that’s still true. It’s just a few ItK readers. And that’s as it should be.

by qwisp on May 20, 2009 1:16 PM PDT up reply actions

Great stuff qwisp

Clearly some actual journalists were annoyed with you’re calling out of BS when you see it.

Personally I’m more than a little annoyed with “I heard this dude say this thing one time, that his brothers cousin’s uncles aunt found out through their friend that Jack Johnson of the Kings might get traded … or … go somewhere… or something.”

by therealmattgeorge on May 20, 2009 3:00 PM PDT reply actions