Just like the Half-Hour News-Hour, except funny

Howard Berger confirms what many of us have long suspected in today’s edition of his HockeyBuzz blog:

Toronto’s sports reporters invent the news.

You might recall the circumstance in which former Toronto president Ken Dryden attempted to lure his ex-Montreal teammate, Bob Gainey, away from the Dallas Stars' front office to become general manager of the Leafs. It later became known that Dryden went so far as to offer defenceman Matthieu Schneider to the Stars as compensation for losing Gainey. The story reached the point where it appeared all but certain that Gainey would take the Toronto job. One morning around that time, I got a call from a "source" telling me that Gainey had apparently been spotted walking into Maple Leaf Gardens. In my haste to "break" the big story, I immediately phoned my radio station (The Fan-590) and breathlessly told our listeners that the Maple Leafs and Gainey were finalizing their arrangement and would soon announce Gainey's appointment as GM. Ooops!

Oops is right. A friend of Berger’s told him that Bob Gainey was seen walking into Maple Leaf Gardens, and Berger reported on the air that Gainey was finalizing arrangements with MLSE and would soon be announced as the Leafs new GM. Quite the leap.

It turned out that not only was Gainey nowhere near Toronto, but he had recently phoned Dryden to officially reject the Leafs' overture.

Ooops!

Looking around for a rock to crawl under, I couldn't find so much as a pebble, and I had no other choice but to confess on the air that I had obviously been given erroneous information.

The problem isn’t that Berger was given erroneous information. The problem is that Berger took this information (Gainey seen walking into the Gardens) and then aired a fictional story about Gainey finalizing arrangements to be the next Leafs GM. Jayson Blair would be proud.

Which was a cop-out in itself. No one had confirmed to me that Gainey was at Maple Leaf Gardens, or even in Canada, for that matter.

Yet, for some reason, Berger went on the air and announced that Gainey as GM was a done deal. This is nothing short of sloppy, lazy reporting, and I imagine Berger was fired for this one.

It was nothing short of sloppy, lazy reporting, and my sports director at the time -- Scott Metcalfe -- had more than enough justification to fire me.

See.

Thankfully, he took a deep breath and saw a reporter that generally worked hard -- and much more responsibly -- in most situations. And one whose aggressive nature had resulted in the odd triumph. So, I was given a reprieve.

There sure seem to have high-standards over at the FAN 590; as long as Berger doesn’t make-shit-up in “most situations”, his job seems to be safe. Does Howard Berger have incriminating photos of Ted Rogers locked in a safe-deposit box somewhere?