NEW YORK - In the modern day dog-eat-dog world of sports journalism, the priority of "Getting the Story First" has left the concept of "Getting it Right" behind in the dust.
Yesterday was a prime example.
As a group of Canadian scribes including yours truly made the picturesque 40-minute train ride along the Hudson from Grand Central Station to beautiful Tarrytown, N.Y., the area where the Rangers practice facilitity is located, the goal was to focus on Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan.
With the Rangers down 3-0 in the series, would tonight be the final appearances for Jagr or Shanahan in a Rangers jersey, let alone an NHL sweater? That was the angle I was headed toward, anyway, until John Dellapina, a good friend and respected journalist from the New York Daily News, told me to check out his paper's website.
There it was, in all its world-wide-web glory. A story that Sean Avery had been rushed to hospital with a cardiac problem and was reportedly not breathing upon arrival.
Yes, Dellapina's name was on the piece, but he took second billing to the byline of some news writer with the paper. It is my understanding the news scribe was primarily responsible for the story, a yarn which was not, in fact, true. The real deal? Avery had a lacerated spleen, which is a far cry from not breathing.
Without asking or understanding Dellapina's secondary role on the piece, he was ripped. By the Rangers PR staff. By one of the trainers. By coach Tom Renney. And by his fellow New York reporters, who appeared to take glee in the screwup. If this were the NFL, a flag would have been thrown for piling on.
I feel for John. I've been there. When I wrote a story early in the season citing Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. president Richard Peddie as saying he may have made a mistake years ago by hiring a rookie GM in John Ferguson, Peddie must have done at least a dozen interviews the next day with journalists who insisted I must have "misquoted him."
Peddie could easily have thrown me under the bus. He didn't, and I'm grateful for that. He said what I wrote was accurate.
Unfortunately, in the case of the Daily News, the Avery story was not. In the media crazed market of New York, it was just another example of getting a story first, even if it wasn't right.
John was hung out to dry. He had to take all the verbal abuse. The news guy was no where to be found.
And that's too bad.