I am not a journalist.
At least that’s how I see it.
I spent a lot of time over the last year – DetroitHockey.Net‘s 20th season – thinking about what kind of site I wanted to run and what I wanted to write. I decided that I don’t want to force myself to be unbiased. I don’t want to sit in the pressbox, I want to sit in the stands. I want to write about what I find fun.
That doesn’t mean I won’t hold myself to a certain standard. I expect my readers to hold me to that, too. It also doesn’t mean I don’t want to write serious pieces or topical pieces. It just means I want to be more picky about what I write and when.
That said, today I was reminded that no matter how seriously I take myself, I can’t make those who would be my peers take me seriously.
Yesterday I published a post to DetroitHockey.Net that was the result of a not-inconsiderable amount of research and data tracking. After weeks of compiling information about domain registrations, I thought I had discovered the name of the new Las Vegas NHL team, which isn’t set to be announced for another month. Or at least a possible name.
There wasn’t much of a reception. The Red Wings fanbase doesn’t really care about the Las Vegas team name and the Vegas fans don’t seem to really trust a Red Wings blog. Disappointing, but not unexpected.
Until this morning when an article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal was published, featuring all of the same points as my post (though some of them were slightly off, as if paraphrased by someone without full technical understanding of the details).
It was clear that my work was the basis of that article. The original post did not credit me. Since then, the following line has been added:
DetroitHockey.net first reported the new domain name Thursday morning.
It’s credit, and it’s probably all I can ask for, but let’s take a look at how other outlets have picked up the news…
Yahoo:
On Thursday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported the name could be Desert Knights.
Fox Sports:
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal…
CBS Sports:
According to the Review-Journal…
Somewhat hilariously, NBC Sports credited the Review-Journal with breaking the story, then proceeded to quote the part of the article that credits DH.N.
How is it that all of the major outlets came to name the LVRJ as the source even as that paper named DH.N? Why did we not see Fox Sports credit the Review-Journal only for NBC Sports to credit Fox Sports?
Well, lets take a look at the first couple paragraphs from the Fox Sports piece.
The NHL’s Las Vegas expansion team may finally be leaning towards a decision on its name, if recent domain registrations are any indication. Those domains point to the Sin City hockey club being dubbed the Las Vegas Desert Knights.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Moniker Privacy Services — the same company that procured the NHL’s own website domain — has privately registered the rights to lasvegasdesertknights.com, vegasdesertknights.com and desertknightshockey.com. When asked about those registrations and the potential team name, team owner Bill Foley told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he had no comment on the matter.
Fox Sports opens with a summary, immediately credits the LVRJ, and goes into exactly what information they got from that source.
The Review-Journal, however, opened as follows:
Bill Foley may get his wish on his hockey team being called the Knights. Just with a modifier.
Last week domain names were registered that might be an indicator that the NHL team scheduled to begin play in 2017 could be called the Las Vegas Desert Knights.
Last week the domains lasvegasdesertknights.com, vegasdesertknights.com and desertknightshockey.com were privately registered to Moniker Privacy Services, which is the same company that procured the domain name to NHL.com.
DetroitHockey.net first reported the new domain name Thursday morning.
In this case, a summary was provided, then all of the information, then a retroactive credit to the source. Ignoring the fact that said credit wasn’t even in the original version of the LVRJ story, it’s not hard to see that Fox Sports put the source front and center while the Review-Journal slid it in as an aside.
The LVRJ writer, Justin Emerson, apologized via Twitter after being called out. However, it’s clear that the paper got what they wanted out of this. They made no effort to correct the people who were crediting them with the find. Not their job to do so, I suppose.
So – after some prodding – the Las Vegas Review-Journal gave DetroitHockey.Net credit. They also got all the credit.
From a technical perspective, I find it hilarious to see all of these sportswriters trying to paraphrase how domain registration works. Near universally, Moniker has gone from the registrar for all of the related domains to the registrant.
Look for the technically accurate information and you’ll find the original source.
