Russian hockey journalists

[vorky]

I have followed russian hockey media for 5 or 6 years so I have my opinion about journalists.

Almost all influencial journalists are NHL lovers in my opinion- Lysenkov from SovSport, Dekthyarov from SportFM, Shevchenko from Sport-Express to name a few. It was nicely showed during World Cup when almost everyone published stories about great World Cup and how bad KHL is compared to NHL. They use every opportunity to kick to KHL and its management.

What do you think about russian hockey journalists?

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[malkinfan]

They have their own agenda and so be it. I don't need them to tell me what I can see with my own eyes. KHL has its issues but it has improved in every area since day 1 and we should be happy with that. Remember the days when Kovy ripped the Russian league saying he would never return to rat filled hotels, now look. I am far more entertained watching the KHL than the NHL and its not even close. Thats all I need to know, those guys can write what they want.

 

[vorky]

They have their own agenda and so be it. I don't need them to tell me what I can see with my own eyes. KHL has its issues but it has improved in every area since day 1 and we should be happy with that. Remember the days when Kovy ripped the Russian league saying he would never return to rat filled hotels, now look. I am far more entertained watching the KHL than the NHL and its not even close. Thats all I need to know, those guys can write what they want.

sure, but KHL needs to be presented positively on their home market (Russia), not like it is now. Sure, KHL needs to work more on their image, but journalists should help here. And these journalists are not able to analyse the situation, they talk about - foreign limit, "bazovy klub zborney", how KHL does not have hard salary cap (NHL has it and it is only right path acc to them), bad SKA because they have great players, we dont need foreign clubs, KHL should join CHL to play against great euro clubs (paradox right?) etc - all the time. It is boring. I know what they write in their articles about these topics before reading it.

 

[Caser]

Unfortunately lack of quality hockey journalists in Russia is even more acute than lack of quality hockey coaches or defensmen, imo.

 

[ozo]

Hey, lets not forget that announcers for most part are just as useless.

 

[Atas2000]

What do you think about russian hockey journalists?

I know not one that is decent. That's what I think. A bunch of clowns, attention-w**** and know-nothings.

 

[Nino33]

It seems to me that unless the KHL is mentioned in only glowingly positive praising terms, some KHL supporters simply "attack the messenger" and little if any thoughtful discussion occurs (the bias of such supporters is so evident and so extreme, it makes thoughtful discussion virtually impossible, and IMO contributes to the ongoing problems regarding perception rather than defending/helping Russian hockey in any way....if areas potentially in need of improvement can never be discussed, it's unlikely improvement will ever occur)

 

[Milos Krasic]

Bias in journalism is a disease that plagues not just Russian media, and certainly not just sports. Unfortunately, that will never change. Atas' description is very accurate, but again, it's more a problem with the nature of the profession itself.

 

[Acallabeth]

I can't name a single Russian hockey "journalist" who isn't a concussed idiot. It's not even about them loving the NHL and belittling the KHL (everyone has his own opinion, and I'm an NHL fan myself), but there's not a single professional in the group, it's easy to find a vk poster with more insight. John Snow knows more of hockey than them all. Dekhtyaryov is the worst of them all; I usually come back from my training sessions just in time to tune into his sport.fm show, so I can have a good laugh often enough.

Hey, lets not forget that announcers for most part are just as useless.

Well, it's a bit better with the announcers I'd say.

 

[Nino33]

Bias in journalism is a disease that plagues not just Russian media, and certainly not just sports. Unfortunately, that will never change. Atas' description is very accurate, but again, it's more a problem with the nature of the profession itself.

My reference to bias/etc was not regarding the journalists; IMO wording like "A bunch of clowns, attention-w**** and know-nothings" looks bad on the one saying it, regardless of who it's being said about or why (I don't think such extreme wording/comments are in any way helpful/elucidating and they certainly don't allow for reasonable, thoughtful discussion)

 

[Milos Krasic]

Go on Twitter. Atas is right about most journalists. Attention seeking trolls. My point is, it's not just Russian hockey journalists.

 

[Nino33]

Go on Twitter. Atas is right about most journalists. Attention seeking trolls. My point is, it's not just Russian hockey journalists.

No thanks, I don't consider twitter reputable and I pay not attention to it (and complaints about those on twitter being attention seeking seems to me like someone complaining that water is wet)

 

[Milos Krasic]

Ok, I agree with the "water is wet" part, but you can't just stick your head in the sand and ignore Twitter because you don't like it. And for the record, I don't particularly like it either for the reasons I mentioned.

 

[Nino33]

Ok, I agree with the "water is wet" part, but you can't just stick your head in the sand and ignore Twitter because you don't like it. And for the record, I don't particularly like it either for the reasons I mentioned.

Actually, you can if you choose to I'm 49, and don't find twitter/social media to be necessary in my life at all

 

[RobertR]

I like Malamud.

 

[Acallabeth]

I like Malamud.

Does he even work now? I remember his constant clashes with other Sport-Express writers when SE was a decent paper.

 

[Siberian]

Journalism is dead, not only in Russia. Problem is there is too big of a stream of information available over networks, specifically on twitter that there is no space and time for well balanced journalism. Don't get me started on phony "twitter's official Russian hockey writer", who is not Russian, not hockey and not a writer, just a pretender followed by idiots from TSN, Toronto Star and such.

 

[malkinfan]

Journalism is dead, not only in Russia. Problem is there is too big of a stream of information available over networks, specifically on twitter that there is no space and time for well balanced journalism. Don't get me started on phony "twitter's official Russian hockey writer", who is not Russian, not hockey and not a writer, just a pretender followed by idiots from TSN, Toronto Star and such.

Ahah are you refering to Kalnins? People follow him because there is a strong enough demand for Englsih KHL news and theres no one else to supply it. Eronko is barely active on his English Twitter. Hell Ive seen TSN on live air source Kalnins and call him a KHL insider.

My response to this is where are all of the recently retired former NHL/KHL player turned TV personalities? No one has made a significant name for themselves in the English language, which is surprising to me. Have a Russian and English twitter, simple as that.

 

[Helistin]

I have followed russian hockey media for 5 or 6 years so I have my opinion about journalists.

Almost all influencial journalists are NHL lovers in my opinion- Lysenkov from SovSport, Dekthyarov from SportFM, Shevchenko from Sport-Express to name a few. It was nicely showed during World Cup when almost everyone published stories about great World Cup and how bad KHL is compared to NHL. They use every opportunity to kick to KHL and its management.

What do you think about russian hockey journalists?

What's wrong with pointing out the flaws within KHL and where it needs improvements? Atleast hockey journalists in Russia can still speak their minds.

 

[Caser]

I think we're fine with journalists having different opinions about KHL and/or NHL, just not fine with the 'KHL is bad because it's bad' thing, I'd like to see more analysis, not just generating content for a popular trend.

There are some decent journalists though: I definitely can read stuff from Andrey Osadchenko, Roman Solovyov and Pavel Klimovitskiy. With a good grain of salt I can read also Eronko, Erykalov and even Shevchenko and some others, mostly for getting some new info from those articles though.

 

[vorky]

I think we're fine with journalists having different opinions about KHL and/or NHL, just not fine with the 'KHL is bad because it's bad' thing, I'd like to see more analysis, not just generating content for a popular trend.

There are some decent journalists though: I definitely can read stuff from Andrey Osadchenko, Roman Solovyov and Pavel Klimovitskiy. With a good grain of salt I can read also Eronko, Erykalov and even Shevchenko and some others, mostly for getting some new info from those articles though.

I agree with you here.

There is almost no analysis about marketing/business of KHL/clubs in russian hockey mainstream media. Once a year there are interviews with Chernyshenko or Dobrokhvalov (KHL Marketing chief), but it is not enough. In my opinion this kind of analysis would be interesting to read (if objective) for fans/readers/KHL followers. For example some blogger at sports.ru published great informations about attendance, now he is working for Biznis Online based in Tatarstan.

I consider as more or less objective the website sportfakt.ru. Agency rns.online (their sports economic section) started this year, will be interesting to follow if there are useful informations.

 

[Jussi]

I think we're fine with journalists having different opinions about KHL and/or NHL, just not fine with the 'KHL is bad because it's bad' thing, I'd like to see more analysis, not just generating content for a popular trend.

There are some decent journalists though: I definitely can read stuff from Andrey Osadchenko, Roman Solovyov and Pavel Klimovitskiy. With a good grain of salt I can read also Eronko, Erykalov and even Shevchenko and some others, mostly for getting some new info from those articles though.

So the problem is that they're criticizing for the sake of criticizing, without clearly defining what exactly is wrong and what should be done to fix things?

 

[hansomreiste]

So the problem is that they're criticizing for the sake of criticizing, without clearly defining what exactly is wrong and what should be done to fix things?

That's arguable. Personally, I hate this "You need to be X to criticize X" attitude, so I believe people should be able to criticize just anything without having to come with solutions for them. I mean, do we all need to be mothers first to criticize a lady who locks her kids in basement and feeds them horror and human flesh? Or, should we just ignore what's happening because we don't have a good solution to change things? So, I'm fine with people saying KHL sucks. However, the bolded part in your question is a little bit trickier. If you think KHL sucks, then you have to have a reason to think so which is what you need to share as a journalist. It's your job to observe and inform people. So while not proposing any solution is totally fine, bashing KHL for no apparent reason is problematic and ugly with bad intentions, in my opinion. This is why I think most of these guys have inferiority complex since they're biased about NHL or simply just KHL. To them, everything Russian sucks and everything Western is cool. I get this idea very well because we Turks also have it. Some people just go too far with criticism and to the point of hating something only because of its nationality and culture. This is disgusting. Well maybe those Russian journalists have a totally different mindset but to me, from here, it looks like they have problems not with the hockey league itself but the place it belongs to.

 

[Milos Krasic]

I don't know if he'd be interested, but TSN should hire someone like Oleg Saprykin. His English is fine.

 

[Atas2000]

My reference to bias/etc was not regarding the journalists; IMO wording like "A bunch of clowns, attention-w**** and know-nothings" looks bad on the one saying it, regardless of who it's being said about or why (I don't think such extreme wording/comments are in any way helpful/elucidating and they certainly don't allow for reasonable, thoughtful discussion)

And you are wrong because you actually probably have no idea about russian sports journalism at his point in time.

I am very thoughtful of my wording. If I go out on a slam dunk like that, I mean it and have reasons. They are that bad.