The media sucks their own Cox

When did the media start serving their own interests rather than that of the public? Anybody that's taken a journalism course knows that the articles that appear in the paper are there because they are considered "newsworthy". Newsworthiness is normally based on such criteria as locality, subject matter, and public opinion. Despite this, we've been bombarded with stories on the "Wayne Gretzky Scandal", or as the New Jersey Police have called it, "Operation Slap Shot". The problem? Nobody seems to care, and I completely agree with this sentiment.

I've watched countless news reports regarding the public opinion of this scandal, and 90% of the people being polled seem to be annoyed that they are tarnishing the reputation of a public hero, and all hockey players asked to comment have held the opinion that the whole investigation has been blown out of proportion. I guess the whole "public opinion" thing has been thrown out of the window.

Personally, I don't see any story here at all. Wayne Gretzky's wife (which, contrary to what the media would have you believe, is not Wayne Gretzky) bet on football. Whoa... wait... somebody with disposable income bet on a football game? I don't know about you guys, but I'm thinking "firing squad" right off the bat. Beyond that fact, Wayne Gretzky is a co-owner of the Phoenix Coyotes, so even if it were him that was betting... and even if he was betting on hockey... and even if betting wasn't as common as driving 120 km/h on the 401... ah hem... then why would he do anything to sacrifice the income of his investment?

To make matters worse, the betting ring is still being investigated, and no evidence has been presented to the media whatsoever. Suspiciously, New Jersey police are claiming that there is a large amount of people involved in the ring, yet they've only released the names of those people involved in the NHL, and they've done so within a week of the Winter Olympics starting up. The fact that they have released these names along with a media-friendly catch phrase ("Operation Slap Shot") should further raise eyebrows.

In this new age of CNN beating out the major networks in the ratings, the public seems to perceive anything and everything reported by these news organizations as the golden rule. I have tremendous respect for Wayne Gretzky, as he's probably the only leader of his sport that has conducted himself with the utmost dignity. Compared to other athletes such as Michael Jordan--who pretty much invented the well-established wave of selling himself out in order to market to children--he's a saint.

It seems as though the sports pages have become the final frontier for the tabloid-style gossip that has been plaguing the other sections of the paper. The leader of this wave appears to be the Toronto Star's Damien Cox, who seems to think that drawing juicy conclusions based on zero evidence is the norm for a respected newspaper. You might remember his piece on the Toronto Blue Jays being "racist" simply because of the fact that they had the highest number of white players in the league. Although this story earned him a prominent spot on the front page of The Star, I always found it funny that the black players on the team never shared his opinion. The Wayne Gretzky scandal is no different, except this time virtually every major Canadian publication has picked up the story. It's a shame that the Canadian media has stopped catering to the general public, and instead, is catering to the National Enquirer audience.