News Article: The Eugene Melnyk era in Ottawa (The Athletic)

[613Hockey]

At this point we're almost waiting for a part 2 to the article to come out. Already several Ottawa area media/former staffers have offered to "fill in the blanks" on some of the stories. Wonder if/when that comes out or if they just choose to move on now that the primary piece is out

 

[bert]

At this point we're almost waiting for a part 2 to the article to come out. Already several Ottawa area media/former staffers have offered to "fill in the blanks" on some of the stories. Wonder if/when that comes out or if they just choose to move on now that the primary piece is out

This is just the start. Once one person has the courage to do it there are always plenty to follow. Especially now that there is no threat to be sued or whatever retribution they were worried about.

 

[branch]

Yes, I can agree with that. My interpretation was the most recent piece, the Ukrainian guy angle would have been the last piece of the puzzle. But , for me anyways, they most damning parts of the articles existed in 2019 and 2020, and even 2021, the LGBTQ and BLM comments

If Bruce knew about Eugene's LGBTQ and BLM infractions and chose to not write about it, and you know he did, he should be cancelled just like everyone else would have been in this day and age

 

[Do Make Say Think]

I was making a point that they are incredibly selective with who, when, where they will engage. The examples of people who do this do not paint a flattering picture.

I don't diagree with your point that the manner that they have chosen to support their article has been a bit strange but I think that I'd also be hesitant to start taking questions publically since the piece is so inflammatory.

I guess I'm saying I understand why Ian is not looking to discuss the article publically. I also understand that if the goal is to raise awareness then he should be going around promoting his work.

I'm just not sure why you have to be seemingly so angry about it.

 

[ksens]

I'm just not sure why you have to be seemingly so angry about it.

He's obviously got an axe to grind with Mendes for whatever reason.

I don't think Mendes walks on water, but as far as sports journalism goes in this city (I know, low bar) he's at the top of the list and it isn't particularly close. I'd rather encourage more of his reporting and more longform pieces like this than fluff pieces from people like...

If Bruce knew about Eugene's LGBTQ and BLM infractions and chose to not write about it, and you know he did, he should be cancelled just like everyone else would have been in this day and age

...who should absolutely be cancelled.

 

[Ice-Tray]

Obviously not being able to challenge, make amends, or explain the behaviours mentioned in the article is a strike against the timing, but I don’t think that was ever the point.

To me it almost feels like a bunch of stories cobbled together quickly after his death so that his legacy changes from just philanthropist and Sens saviour, to also include erratic tyrant, with questionable social justice decisions. I understand that it was a story that was underway for quite some time, but I’d this is all that came of over a year of investigative journalism then clearly this wasn’t a deep pool. Perhaps there was hope or an expectation that there would be more when the rug was pulled up?

In terms of an exposé it is extremely shallow, feeling like the stories were from people who didn’t want to officially share stories while he was alive, which is understandable.

I don’t know, it just feels like it was to temper the legacy rather than do a deep dive into a hidden realm of serious misdeed. In the end there is nothing else to gain beyond that if these are the types of stories available. All they have done is publicize that he could be quite the unpredictable asshole, and by the sounds of it there are more examples out there to prove the point.

The racist, and homophonic accusations are lacking on their own, at the moment anyways, which is likely why the article makes no claims to that effect. Without EM being alive we won’t likely ever understand his rationale behind the BLM and LGBTQ campaigns.

My take away is pretty much How Ian has characterized the man; a philanthropist and passionate Sens fan capable of great acts of kindness, along with unpredictable acts of bizarre tyranny. It doesn’t sound so far as though there is much more to take away than that.

 

[Chainshot]

Has the suspected Melynk burner on Twitter chimed in on anything since Eugene's passing?

 

[Ouroboros]

Has the suspected Melynk burner on Twitter chimed in on anything since Eugene's passing?

Nope. Jack Maxwell's final tweet [thus far] was on March 20th.



Draw your own conclusions.

 

[coladin]

If Bruce knew about Eugene's LGBTQ and BLM infractions and chose to not write about it, and you know he did, he should be cancelled just like everyone else would have been in this day and age

For sure. It just speaks to journalism, and the fall from the standards that were created by those from another generation

 

[SensHulk]

Obviously not being able to challenge, make amends, or explain the behaviours mentioned in the article is a strike against the timing, but I don’t think that was ever the point.

To me it almost feels like a bunch of stories cobbled together quickly after his death so that his legacy changes from just philanthropist and Sens saviour, to also include erratic tyrant, with questionable social justice decisions. I understand that it was a story that was underway for quite some time, but I’d this is all that came of over a year of investigative journalism then clearly this wasn’t a deep pool. Perhaps there was hope or an expectation that there would be more when the rug was pulled up?

In terms of an exposé it is extremely shallow, feeling like the stories were from people who didn’t want to officially share stories while he was alive, which is understandable.

I don’t know, it just feels like it was to temper the legacy rather than do a deep dive into a hidden realm of serious misdeed. In the end there is nothing else to gain beyond that if these are the types of stories available. All they have done is publicize that he could be quite the unpredictable asshole, and by the sounds of it there are more examples out there to prove the point.

The racist, and homophonic accusations are lacking on their own, at the moment anyways, which is likely why the article makes no claims to that effect. Without EM being alive we won’t likely ever understand his rationale behind the BLM and LGBTQ campaigns.

My take away is pretty much How Ian has characterized the man; a philanthropist and passionate Sens fan capable of great acts of kindness, along with unpredictable acts of bizarre tyranny. It doesn’t sound so far as though there is much more to take away than that.

Hayley Salvian brought up another takeaway from the article in their podcast, which was that *nothing* was done abkut Melnyk’s abhorrent behavior. The workers, the media ppl that he f***ed over never really saw any resolution, and the woman who approached the league got nothing from them either. Litigation was a real threat and intimidating factor for everyone under Melnyk, including the media.

 

[SensHulk]

As a side note, has anyone seen ‘The dropout’ or know the background on Elizabeth Holmes? Not saying that what Melnyk did was the same, so don’t gaslight me, but as far as behind the scenes in terms of toxic environment and threat of litigation against their own employees was a huge factor that kept the indiscretions of Theranos covered up. Even the author of the WSJ that ultimately took theranos down had several key witnesses retract their stories or were unwilling to go on the record out of fear of retribution. I see A LOT of parallels (and yes, I don’t think this is unique only to Melnyk)

 

[Chainshot]

Nope. Jack Maxwell's final tweet [thus far] was on March 20th.



Draw your own conclusions.

Thanks. I've leaned toward it being his for a long time, hadn't looked back into it in recent weeks.

 

[Ice-Tray]

Hayley Salvian brought up another takeaway from the article in their podcast, which was that *nothing* was done abkut Melnyk’s abhorrent behavior. The workers, the media ppl that he f***ed over never really saw any resolution, and the woman who approached the league got nothing from them either. Litigation was a real threat and intimidating factor for everyone under Melnyk, including the media.

In truth there isn’t much that could be done in terms of the incidences in the article. It isn’t against the lay to be rude, or make bizarre decisions.

In life you don’t get resolutions for people who are mean to you, unless there is a crime commited, or some sort of Karma comes into play. People do, however, have the freedom to remove themselves from that persons presence or employment.

They can also contribute to an article after the person has died, to make sure that his legacy is remembered for the negative things he did along with the positives.

I really don’t see any grand social injustice here, more like a balancing of scales.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Very good article

The Ottawa Senators at the Crossroads

The time for real change has arrived

www.silversevensens.com

 

[Oscar The Grouch]

The racist, and homophonic accusations are lacking on their own, at the moment anyways, which is likely why the article makes no claims to that effect. Without EM being alive we won’t likely ever understand his rationale behind the BLM and LGBTQ campaigns.

If he was alive and it got out, we would get a carefully crafted apology from his PR team. How does that add value to what we have now? An honest tirade that he never thought would go public. A true view into his mind and beliefs.

It's time to stop the delusion Ice-Tray. Get off the boat. It's already under-water.

 

[Ice-Tray]

If he was alive and it got out, we would get a carefully crafted apology from his PR team. How does that add value to what we have now? An honest tirade that he never thought would go public. A true view into his mind and beliefs.

It's time to stop the delusion Ice-Tray. Get off the boat. It's already under-water.

I like the discourse in truth, and I prefer not filling in the blanks myself so that I can let loose my pent up righteous fury.

These are interesting and current social topics that deserve to be fleshed out with conversation rather than ending with hot takes, in my opinion. There are some interesting perspectives in here.

If my boat is sinking, so be it, it’s where I’m choosing to be.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

I thought the podcast was a good listen. They touched on the requirements for sources with Mendes bringing up a story from someone claiming that Melnyk paid them back in pennies he was so bitter. Mendes said he would require at least 5 or 6 other corroborating pieces backing that up to run it and had 7 or 8 on all the stories in the article.

Said the story could have been done 5 years ago if it was just passing along well known stories. Agreed with Katie's claim on another interview to feeling they were only 95% done at the time they ran it and also discussed the no win release date for the story and doubled down on the claim it just wasn't ready. Mentioned how terrible they feel for Melnyk's daughters. Both agreed Melnyk's behavior was widely known and leads to lack of shock to Melnyk stories and response to the article. Laughed about the story about loving the young man, but also trying to put him in jail as a good example of the extremeness of his behavior.

Hailey said there's a lot not in the article from all the digging and the report could be 10,000 pages long if they had used all the info they got including sources and info not up to snuff for their corroboration standards. Mendes didn't correct her. Mendes said he personally didn't fear litigation because of how solid the info was, but Hailey talked later about the threat being well known in Ottawa and she had a story that was buried from it. Hailey seemed to allude to her leaving Ottawa because of it. They conveyed that they feel this has essentially been buried all this time because of that and the enabling from many involved.

Ian called himself out saying he wished he could have run this long ago and is embarrassed that it happened with him covering the team. They are all complicit or something to that effect. Hailey then talks about the bullying of media in Ottawa and the wall he was up against, to which Ian said he still should have tried harder. They finished with talking about all the good people in the organization that deserve a chance to work without the culture of fear and hopefully can move forward with a fresh start for everyone.

 

[MeanJoeGreene]

Instead we see commentary on it staying within the Athletic to push subscriptions. We heard Mendes flat out say he wouldn't be discussing it anymore.

Do you have any links that support this assertion about Mendes? I likely have not heard everything but the only time I heard Mendes say that he didn't want to discuss the article was when he was filling in as the Insider for the Sens pregame show and I assumed that he didn't want that time slot taken over by the article. Have there been reports of him turning down requests for other interviews? Have there been other requests?

 

[JD1]

Seems like Eugene spent the last 10 years of his life as a crotchety, unpredictable, tyrannical ass. But, I think that was pretty well known. All that got published was a bunch of stories cobbled together that demonstrate his assishness (made up word alert). I'm no better off today knowing a bunch of examples of his behaviour.

What would interest me is a longer view of his life. He seems to have gone from being a fairly jovial fellow that had an interest in philanthropy to a maniacal tyrant. Examples of tyranny aren't that interesting if you'd already accepted he was a tyrant.

 

[Micklebot]

In truth there isn’t much that could be done in terms of the incidences in the article. It isn’t against the lay to be rude, or make bizarre decisions.

In life you don’t get resolutions for people who are mean to you, unless there is a crime commited, or some sort of Karma comes into play. People do, however, have the freedom to remove themselves from that persons presence or employment.

They can also contribute to an article after the person has died, to make sure that his legacy is remembered for the negative things he did along with the positives.

I really don’t see any grand social injustice here, more like a balancing of scales.

It could be argued Melnyk created a hostile work environment (seems pretty much a given if the stories are all true), and an employee can make a human rights complaint, and seek damages.

They could also seek a constructive dismissal which would get them pay in lieu of notice.

 

[coladin]

I thought the podcast was a good listen. They touched on the requirements for sources with Mendes bringing up a story from someone claiming that Melnyk paid them back in pennies he was so bitter. Mendes said he would require at least 5 or 6 other corroborating pieces backing that up to run it and had 7 or 8 on all the stories in the article.

Said the story could have been done 5 years ago if it was just passing along well known stories. Agreed with Katie's claim on another interview to feeling they were only 95% done at the time they ran it and also discussed the no win release date for the story and doubled down on the claim it just wasn't ready. Mentioned how terrible they feel for Melnyk's daughters. Both agreed Melnyk's behavior was widely known and leads to lack of shock to Melnyk stories and response to the article. Laughed about the story about loving the young man, but also trying to put him in jail as a good example of the extremeness of his behavior.

Hailey said there's a lot not in the article from all the digging and the report could be 10,000 pages long if they had used all the info they got including sources and info not up to snuff for their corroboration standards. Mendes didn't correct her. Mendes said he personally didn't fear litigation because of how solid the info was, but Hailey talked later about the threat being well known in Ottawa and she had a story that was buried from it. Hailey seemed to allude to her leaving Ottawa because of it. They conveyed that they feel this has essentially been buried all this time because of that and the enabling from many involved.

Ian called himself out saying he wished he could have run this long ago and is embarrassed that it happened with him covering the team. They are all complicit or something to that effect. Hailey then talks about the bullying of media in Ottawa and the wall he was up against, to which Ian said he still should have tried harder. They finished with talking about all the good people in the organization that deserve a chance to work without the culture of fear and hopefully can move forward with a fresh start for everyone.

I agree, it basically answered everything in my head and I am ok with it. Clearly, the Ukrainian angle held up the piece, as this was the most recent infomration...but that article as they stated could have been issued a lot earlier. And I am ok with his rationale.

I am glad for Ian to include himself in the pathetic kowtowing that took place, although Hailey went at Bruce, I think, about the PHWA rep in Ottawa ( which I thinkis him?) for being complicit. But poor girl tried and basically sounded like she left over the stress. Ian said never again will he stand by, and he is embarrassed that he stood by and watched the victims of Melnyk continue to be mistreated.

Good stuff, and I rightly guessed from my encounters that the personal toll for Ian was massive. You can tell he doesn't like animoisty directed towards him and I know how hard it is to deal with waking up and going to bed with that

 

[Tuna99]

I agree, it basically answered everything in my head and I am ok with it. Clearly, the Ukrainian angle held up the piece, as this was the most recent infomration...but that article as they stated could have been issued a lot earlier. And I am ok with his rationale.

I am glad for Ian to include himself in the pathetic kowtowing that took place, although Hailey went at Bruce, I think, about the PHWA rep in Ottawa ( which I thinkis him?) for being complicit. But poor girl tried and basically sounded like she left over the stress. Ian said never again will he stand by, and he is embarrassed that he stood by and watched the victims of Melnyk continue to be mistreated.

Good stuff, and I rightly guessed from my encounters that the personal toll for Ian was massive. You can tell he doesn't like animoisty directed towards him and I know how hard it is to deal with waking up and going to bed with that

melnyk made people take sides and that’s what was so damaging about him. You either enabled the abusive behaviour and propped up a fake imagine of him(Garrioch) or you stood on ethical journalistic grounds and paid a real price (Wally, Mendes, Hailey and others)

the media that comes from the traditional sun columnist is horrible and always has been opened mouth slacked jawed writing, because the sun was terrible Melnyk went with it because the standards before he arrived were already so low supporting a jerk was not a problem for them, they actually think of it as a good think. Problem with them is they can’t separate the team from the owmer— than fans and city did this with Melnykiut but the sun media employees couldn’t separate those two things and now they are pulling their opinions and pretending to be deaf and bl8nd because that’s what you do when somebody finally calls out the abusive person you’ve been proppingnup for years, you go into your little cave and pretend you were just doing your job.

 

[coladin]

melnyk made people take sides and that’s what was so damaging about him. You either enabled the abusive behaviour and propped up a fake imagine of him(Garrioch) or you stood on ethical journalistic grounds and paid a real price (Wally, Mendes, Hailey and others)

the media that comes from the traditional sun columnist is horrible and always has been opened mouth slacked jawed writing, because the sun was terrible Melnyk went with it because the standards before he arrived were already so low supporting a jerk was not a problem for them, they actually think of it as a good think. Problem with them is they can’t separate the team from the owmer— than fans and city did this with Melnykiut but the sun media employees couldn’t separate those two things and now they are pulling their opinions and pretending to be deaf and bl8nd because that’s what you do when somebody finally calls out the abusive person you’ve been proppingnup for years, you go into your little cave and pretend you were just doing your job.

I think that Garrioch is part of a type of journalism tha existed when he started the beat. Red Fisher always had an in, and rarely reported on something controversial. Cam Cole, the guy on the island whose name escapes me, Fischer is it? If you want the scoop they have to sacrifice some journalistic integrity. The Sun did try and go afetr Melnyka dn Rick Gibbons was sued over it. I think they ended up settling out of court and a retraction waspart of that agreement

 

[Gil Gunderson]

It could be argued Melnyk created a hostile work environment (seems pretty much a given if the stories are all true), and an employee can make a human rights complaint, and seek damages.

They could also seek a constructive dismissal which would get them pay in lieu of notice.

Didn’t Katie Strang say some employees actually went to therapy because of the working conditions?

 

[JD1]

Anyone have a link for the podcast?