The concussion lawsuit featured a release of emails and it included a bunch from folks like Bob that were particularly unflattering to him and while his public profile has this mystique, he is not beyond reproach.
It's also not like Bob wouldn't speculate on things. It's being made out in this thread that he never reported on what was going on that hadn't yet happened. That's not true - case in point:
He was reporting what he knew of the situation and it even wound up with the Bruins and Flames trade being reported but not actually being what happened as he was dealt to the Penguins. The volume to which someone like EF puts out his info and then others attempt to emulate is certainly an issue that detracts from EF's level of consumer confidence, but there is this idea that Bob only ever reported on things that had happened without teasing what might happen and that is revisionism. He knew a good hook to throw out there as would befit someone who had risen through print media.
Well that's certainly news to me regarding the concussion emails. It seems even the best of us have skeletons in our closet unfortunately.
As for the speculation, I don't think anyone would deny he didn't speculate ever (it was a large part of TSN Insider Trading segments), however the degree to which he did it and the way he did was far far less than todays Insiders where for every true breaking news/rumor, there are 30 random and baseless speculation tweets that are phrased in a way to get clicks as if it was ever more than their thoughts on the pot.
Maybe more than Bob himself, its probably more the nostalgia that Bob represents for some of us where hockey reporting and issues were simpler, or perhaps just less in the limelight (for better or for worse).
In a world where TikTok became king because Instagram videos were too long to keep the current peoples attention, it seems the demand for clicks and content has beyond saturated us to the point where we EXPECT breaking news and rumours daily- Whereas prior on these boards, there would routinely be weeks where the Trade Rumors board would not have anything beyond "Value of", "Speculation", or "Proposal" threads. We'd have full on discussions and rabbit holes when a true "Rumor" or Insider tagged thread would come up.
*gets off rocking chair on front porch, staring at the sun going down, then slowly walks into house through front screen door and heads to bed*
