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Who is in Charge?
Throughout hockey history violent attacks have always happened. In 1933 Eddie Shore fractured Ace Bailey’s skull with a vicious hit from behind. In 1944 Murice ‘Rocket’ Richard tomahawked Hal Laycoe over the head with his stick. Back then, games were not broadcast widely and fewer people watched them. The league would punish the players for there acts, players were treated equally, and the story would be over. Does the same occur today? With increased media coverage of sports, more people are watching and the circumstances have indeed changed. Players are still punished by the league for there acts; however, today, the punishment is no longer determined from the severity of the incident, but rather, from the reaction of the public. Penalties are no longer dealt out evenly and fairly. Instead bias generated from the media and the public, plague the minds of those that determine the punishments players will face for there actions. With the expanding media, and a TV being in every household, the opinions of the media reach right into our homes and affect us directly. The media has the power to distort reality. As a result officials that are charged with punishing players must give in, to the cries of an outraged public.
News media does effect our perception of events. Where does one get their information? They get it form the Media, and since the average person will only hear a story from one source they base there opinion on exactly what is told to them. This gives the media power. If they wanted to sensationalize a story all they would have to do is change the language. “Steve Moore suffered two cracked vertebrae in his neck, a concussion and lacerations to the face as a result of Todd Bertuzzi’s punch.”(mine) is looked upon much differently from “the vicious punch [delivered by Todd Bertuzzi] sent Colorado's Steve Moore to the hospital with a broken neck, concussion and other injuries.”( http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=1756628). One of these quotes was written by the media and the other written by me after researching the actual extent of Moore’s. They show just how the media can distort reality. A cracked vertebra in the neck is technically a broken neck, but not in the way one would think of it as. The affects of cracked vertebrae are not the same as a traditional broken neck. Moore had no nerve damage, and therefore had no paralysis; however saying that he had a broken neck will instantly conjure up images of a wheel chair, distorting reality, creating outrage in a common viewer.
Word choice is not the only method that media employs. The constant bombardment of images, showing Todd Bertuzzi hitting Steve Moore from be hind conjured up hate, and outrage for him. Last March the media had a heyday with Todd Bertuzzi. Vancouver Canucks coach Marc Crawford was quoted as saying; the media are, “crucifying,” Todd Bertuzzi. The day after the hit occurred every news agency in America was covering it. At any given time one could probably have turned on the TV and found some program talking about it, whether it was a Sports network like ESPN, News network like CNN, or even an afternoon talk show like Oprah. Bertuzzi’s face was everywhere. It was curious how networks and shows like CNN, Good Morning America, Oprah and The Daily Show (a comedy talk show) were covering the incident when they usually never talk about sports, let alone hockey the least popular of North America’s big sport leagues in US (Baseball, Foot Ball and Basket Ball being the others). In an interview Stan Fischler, a hockey historian commented on the media reaction regarding the Todd Bertuzzi incident. “The reaction to this incident is way out of proportion when you compare it with those in the past. The media is the cause of this… the size of the coverage, the amount of coverage… [Is too much]” (CBC.com)
There is no news like bad news. That is a common saying in media; it is why you always hear about wars and terrorist attacks. And it was the reason there was no media frenzy when Mark Messier speared Martin Strbak's innards, when Wade Belak two-hand slashed Ossi Vaananen's head, and when Marty Turco (Star goalie of the Dallas stars) Slashed Ryan Smith in the mouth. The key difference between these horrendous attacks and Bertuzzi’s sucker punch is no one got hurt. Since no one got hurt, everything turned out for the good in the end and there is no bad news. When a person hears bad news constantly, they tend to generate strong opinions, and such was the case in the Todd Bertuzzi incident. This is what hockeyluv34, a poster on the Atlanta Thashers web forum had to say, “He should get suspended the rest of the season for that crap he pulled last night, that stuff is getting outta control........”. Others like PR2GAL on the TSN Your Call section were saying, “[He] should be banned from hockey for LIFE!” No player in NHL history has ever come close to being banned. The longest suspension ever was 21 games given to Marty McSorly. All of this, because Moore got hurt and the media ran off with it. The public was outraged. Todd Bertuzzi’s selfish attack on Steve Moore was not the worst on ice Hockey incident but as of now history will record it as.
The reaction of the public does effect how punishment is dealt. The saying goes that the costumer is always right. In the situation of the NHL one have a sports league, one that is already suffering from a decrease of interest due to violence on the ice. Who are the costumers of the league? The public is. Leagues will deal out punishment based on public out cry because they want to look good, and look fair. But they are not being fair. The greater the public out cry the more severe the punishment will be. The reaction of the public to the Bertuzzi suspension was wondrous for the NHL. People where saying things like, “they got it right” (TSN.com). The league made an example of Todd Bertuzzi, and the verdict handed down was tremendous. But this wasn’t the first time such an event had happened. In 2000 Marty Mcsorley hit Donald Brasher in the face with his stick Brasher then fell to the ice and cracked his skull. In this case just like the Bertuzzi one the league handed down a harsh sentence. McSorly was suspended for the rest of the year; this resulted in a total of 21 games missed. At that time the league was complimented on its decision.
In the following weeks, Bertuzzi received his punishment, the result of the media firestorm, and the public outrage had created a monumental punishment. Bertuzzi was suspended indefinably. He was to miss the remaining 12 regular season games and the playoffs this ultimately brought Bertuzzi’s suspension to a total of 19 games and he was to forfeit his salary which accumulated to half a million dollars (NHL.com). Bertuzzi suspension continued even after the NHL playoffs were finished. He was unable to play in both the World Cup of Hockey (the following September), nor in Europe (the following fall), nor in the World Championships (this past spring). The suspension was a far cry from the 12 games that Matt Johnson got for ending Jeff Buekebooms career. In 1999 Matt Johnson came from behind while Beukeboom was in the corner and sucker punched him in the back of the head. Beukebooms head hit the glass and he suffered a severe concussion that ended his career and still affects him today. Why did the NHL take action? Both Bertuzzi and Johnson caused severe injury, they both used there fists and both attacked in the same manner, from behind. There was no media flash fire, and because of that, there was no public outcry, the resulting 12 game suspension was incredibly lenient.
The injustice of the NHL can be seen again. Only a few weeks after the Bertuzzi incident, Toronto’s Wade Bel
