Comments on: New York hockey writers will not vote for year-end awards in protest of blogger’s revoked credentials

By: mattcaputo

mattcaputo — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:10:50 +0000

The organizations are responsible to the players who are their investments. If they don’t want Chris Botta to come to their games – meanwhile, he’s passionate as heck about the job and an invaluable resource to Islanders fans – they should be willing to part with an NHL Award winner. Who cares if Grabner wins the trophy? There is one less guy out of the very, very few people in the world that cover the Islanders.

Fans across the country forget, the Islanders have one true beat writer, Katie Strang from the Newsday. After that, none of the other media outlets cover the Islanders every day. This certainly hurt the Islanders fans who seemed to love Botta. It’s hard to say if Botta was ever bad for the organization. There would be zero regular coverage of the Islanders if Botta didn’t do the blogging he does.

Garth snow said Botta became unwelcome because he’d “made himself the story.” I find that hard to believe. The story was the Islanders were amidst a horrible losing streak early in the season and Botta wanted to give Snow a chance to speak to fans and explain the team’s situation via sit-down interview. As a journalist, I’d said Botta’s idea was ambitious, but not outrageous and probably would have made for good PR. Snow declined and banished Botta when he reported so. For this, Botta is kicked out.

He was a blogger that was originally hired by the Islanders to blog. SNY took over his blog and the New York Times hires him in various capacities, including to write for their very well done Slap Shot blog and in their print edition. I do not know Botta at all, but clips in the New York Times and regular attendance to games and practices makes him a journalist in my eyes.

By: Brooks D. Simpson

Brooks D. Simpson — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 22:28:33 +0000

There are better ways to make this protest. The Islanders may have been wrong to revoke the credentials (although Botta’s skilled at making himself the story), but this particular form of boycott simply hurts players. It doesn’t punish Botta’s protagonist, Garth Snow, or the organization as a whole.

Snow had already been giving Botta a cold shoulder, and Snow’s had issues with some other reporters. This is a clash of egos. That said, Snow could have handled Botta without excluding him. Ask Larry Brooks.

After all, Trevor Gillies is expendable.

By: Sean Boulton

Sean Boulton — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 18:58:53 +0000

I’d say the most interesting thing about the Islanders statement is actually in the opening paragraph (can be found in the link), where they describe this as a dispute over “the Islanders decision to not issue credentials to a blogger”. “Revoke credentials from” would clearly be a much more accurate description of the situation than “not issue credentials to”, albeit less supportive of the Isles spin.

Good on all three NY-area chapters for taking a stand, and shame on both the PHWA and the NHL for not doing something about this when it first happened.

By: bcjim

bcjim — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 18:18:59 +0000

**”This unprecedented action taken by the New York chapter members of the PHWA, is not hurting the Islanders organization…”**

Are they retarded?

Clearly if Grabner were to win the Calder, it would help the Islanders. Image wise, PR-wise, etc. Therefore, him not winning an award he otherwise might, *will* hurt the Islanders organization.. one would have to conclude.

By: demons87

demons87 — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 15:09:36 +0000

I think Kevin Allen and the rest of the writers should join in the protest to really put pressure on the Islanders. He looks at it as an isolated incident, but it could have been his credentials or someone from another city. They need to look at the bigger picture.

The Islanders are right when they say that the non votes would hurt individual players, but everyone not voting on the awards would put pressure on the Islanders because the NHL wouldn’t want to see their awards not handed out.