gdp's Comments

Truth & Rumours | On Sports And The Media | By William Houston : Sources say Stroumboulopoulos could be heading to Fan590

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:38:14 +0000

Stellick is a survivor and, arguably, nobody in Toronto broadcasting has done as much with as little talent as Gord. Mike Hogan would like a word with you ...

Truth & Rumours | On Sports And The Media | By William Houston : Oops, British broadcaster misses England's goal

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 22:08:12 +0000

Blair on PTS has turned into a bit of a horror show. He rarely actually engages with the points callers make, and instead just states that he disagrees without any counterargument. Recent examples concern the UFC, Cito's handling of the BP, the Jays' plan for competing in the AL east, realignment, etc. "i don't like it" makes for terrible talk radio. McCown at least tells people why he thinks they are wrong. on Wilner, Blair tweeted that he thought Wilner should have taken up his questions one-on-one and not in front of the other journalists, and accused him of trying to "make it about himself". KLaw's comment was likely in part a response to Blair's position that people who cover the team shouldn't ask tough questions about in-game decisions after late inning losses. i'm with Keith. let's be glad Blair doesn't cover the Jays anymore.

Truth & Rumours | On Sports And The Media | By William Houston : The CBC's World Cup panel will make an impact

Wed, 9 Jun 2010 19:42:50 +0000

the lack of an official statement from the FAN on the reason for the Wilner suspension speaks more loudly than anything else at this point. until they say otherwise, the policy seems to be "no criticising Cito".

Truth & Rumours | On Sports And The Media | By William Houston : The Fan590 radio station bounces a reporter – for doing his job

Mon, 7 Jun 2010 15:17:40 +0000

until the FAN issues some sort of comment it looks like they slapped Wilner for asking a legitimate question about an in-game decision, and then following up a BS dismissive answer with another legitimate question. this completely undermines the credibility of their reporters and hosts.

Truth & Rumours | On Sports And The Media | By William Houston : Don Cherry -- the movie. Is it worth four hours of your time?

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 23:19:13 +0000

i wonder how the movie treats Cherry's latent racism.

Truth & Rumours | On Sports And The Media | By William Houston : SOURCES: CTV's Olympic boss Keith Pelley set to walk

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:03:45 +0000

thanks for the update Bill. Like (probably) many others, i don't check back on one of your postings and just subscribe to the comments instead (and sometimes regret it). As a result i miss a lot of your updates. Perhaps you might consider just making new posts rather than updating existing ones. There is very little risk of you clogging up the internet by posting too many times.

Truth & Rumours | On Sports And The Media | By William Houston : SOURCES: CTV's Olympic boss Keith Pelley set to walk

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:34:46 +0000

Bill - should we expect a post on the new FAN GM, and what changes might be in store?

Truth & Rumours | On Sports And The Media | By William Houston : Media pushed NHL and general managers to move on head shots

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:10:29 +0000

while McCown's ego is far out of proportion with the value of his insights he must be commended for being on the front line of this issue. this is a question of will. the NFL crafts its rules to fit the kind of game they want to see on the field. they are constantly tinkering with what counts as a legal hit and the players usually fall in line within the same season. One can only infer from their entrenchment that the current NHL game reflects the will of the owners and the commissioner. i'm not interested in what they are selling, and outside of about 10 cities, many others share my opinion.

Truth & Rumours | On Sports And The Media | By William Houston : MacLean came to praise CTV's Olympic coverage, not bury it

Mon, 8 Mar 2010 15:46:52 +0000

i'm not sure that MacLean's opinion matters very much. Like Cherry, he has become increasingly pedantic. The recent officiating controversy exposed him as lacking basic journalistic skills. in my opinion this is a function of the lack of competition for eyeballs on saturday night. HNIC has a monopoly on hockey viewers and this is reflected in the quality of their broadcasters. the tsn/sportsnet turf war is largely irrelevant to the average viewer. people tend to follow personalities rather than networks.

Truth & Rumours | On Sports And The Media | By William Houston : Olympic hockey final produces record Canadian audience

Tue, 2 Mar 2010 00:20:05 +0000

it was great to open the globe today and see a full page ad thanking first and foremost VANOC for putting on the greatest games ever, then thanking the athletes and the fans for their contributions. it's funny how you can lose a hard-earned reputation for integrity so quickly. i've held the globe in a category of its own my entire life. now it's just another news rag.

Truth & Rumours | On Sports And The Media | By William Houston : Why cheerleading at the Olympics is a bad idea

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:42:54 +0000

the Campbell call of the Ricker race was embarrassing. he is so far removed from professionalism, it feels like i'm listening to a high school announcer. the explanation is simple: the consortium was too cheap to hire professionals and thought they could just shuffle people who were already on the payroll into action. this was a major mistake and as a Canadian i'm ashamed to be associated with the product they are selling.

Truth & Rumours | On Sports And The Media | By William Houston : CTV's alpine coverage went downhill, fast

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:13:57 +0000

it sounds like CTV has taken the NBC approach to presenting the games: focusing on Canadian stories at the expense of letting the competition unfold, cramming commercials in prior to start times, fluffy announcing, etc. the games need to be on another network next time around. NBC is admitting to losing 200 million on these games (who knows how high the real number is). hopefully "the consortium's" losses are sufficiently high so as to dissuade them from doing this again.

Truth & Rumours | On Sports And The Media | By William Houston : A triumph, gaffes and Dutchyshen's champagne toast

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:07:45 +0000

i still can't get over the NBC Michael J Fox/Terry Fox mix-up. it was spectacular. http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/blog/f...

Truth & Rumours | On Sports And The Media | By William Houston : How VANOC snubbed Olympian Kerrin Lee-Gartner

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 16:43:49 +0000

wait, so you're telling me after all his condescending opining about journalistic ethics Brunt didn't even write about his experience running with the torch?

Truth & Rumours | On Sports And The Media | By William Houston : CTV and CBS sell out Super Bowl commercial time

Tue, 2 Feb 2010 19:18:38 +0000

Focus on the Family is a political lobby group and, while CBS is within their rights to air the ad without any countering point of view, this is a poor decision for a network that broadcasts over the air to the whole country. A better policy would be to exclude advocacy adverts. As it turns out, abortion was illegal and highly punishable in the Philippines at the time so it is highly unlikely that any doctor advised Ms. Tebow to have one. The ad should be labelled as a dramatization to avoid charges of false advertising.

Truth & Rumours | On Sports And The Media | By William Houston : Getting the scoop on a blockbuster trade

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:20:57 +0000

At about 8:45 p.m. ET on Sunday, he tweeted that a major change on the Leafs would be announced that day. i presume that should be 8:45 a.m.

Truth & Rumours | On Sports And The Media | By William Houston : CBS under fire for accepting advocacy ad

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:06:59 +0000

the American wing of Focus on the Family is extremely politically active. Dobson's group have consistently fought against marriage equality and hold a strong anti-gay position. Dobson himself campaigned against Obama and warned that the future of America would be in jeopardy if he was elected. it's a shame that CBS and Tim Tebow have allied themselves with this intolerant and politically radical group.