A Dark Day For Ice Cream Sandwiches Everywhere

With two off days on my hand, the time is ripe to touch upon something I couldn't quite make time for this weekend. This is due to a variety of reasons- personal obligations that needed attending to, as well as allowing time for my thoughts on the matter to simmer into a boiling pot of hot oil. I am now covered in this stuff.

As those of you who attended our Sharks-Ducks live blog are aware, DMFB (in the real world he goes by Dave) from Covered In Oil ran into a situation with the Edmonton Oilers organization during their season opener against the Colorado Avalanche.

For the sake of my fingers, his explanation can be found here. A cached version of the post in question is available as well. I suggest you take some time to read both of these, preferably beginning with his explanation. I'll be waiting here, eating coffee ice cream (I'm not too fond of ice cream sandwiches).



Back? Okay, sounds good. This is the part where I fight against every single ounce of my nature, and attempt to provide some insightful commentary.

The Edmonton Oilers organization had every right to handle Dave the way they did. Legally. That's an important distinction to make. Sitting in the Edmonton press box and blogging about the Oilers means, at that moment, you are representing the entire organization. Therefore, your words and commentary are a reflection of them, and ultimately, a reflection on how they run their organization. The forthcoming example may be a tad misdirected, but it makes some sort of sense. Especially if you're drunk. You're drunk right?

I invite one of my friends to join me in my room, where he proceeds to put up the following Myspace bulletin.

Friend: "Well the ugly loaf is sitting at his computer again. He's currently licking the grease off a Hot Pocket container and giggling at some inane Lolcat pictures on the interwebs."

I hurtle some curse words in his general vicinity, and kindly ask him to get the hell out of my house.

Obviously, this is a very extreme example- as you can see from the cached version of the post that caused trouble, DMFB was not overly malicious in any of his commentary. And as the Battle of Alberta notes, "If he just was live-blogging scoring chances and who "looks sharp out there", he wouldn't have been touched." Game, set, match.

So now that it's been established the Oilers were entitled to deal with DMFB the way they did, albeit with a total lack of common human decency, the real question is why would they go about it in such a pompous way? His account of the situation makes it clear that he was apologetic and compliant with their demands- civil and orderly. So why force him to remove the post? Why adopt a stubborn ignorance when dealing with him?

This problem is twofold. If we assume my previous assertion is valid (while in the press box DMFB is representing the Oilers organization), then shouldn't that apply to the yahoo who kicked him out of the press box as well? Shouldn't he be held to the same standards, if not even more so considering he receives a paycheck from the organization? Why alienate the people who are shelling out millions of dollars a year to your franchise in exchange for nose-bleed tickets and merchandise? For without them, oh esteemed ones, you would have not a business, but empty arenas. Then you would feel the pain of selling silverware out of your parents garage to make ends meet (love ya ma!).

Secondly, by forcing him to remove the post, the Oilers organization is acknowledging that someone out there is reading it. Therefore the author/blogger has some form of clout amongst the fanbase, correct? Why attempt to belittle a fan who clearly loves the organization enough to write about it on a website which he is not getting paid to run?

Illogical, and frankly, a PR nightmare.

Now I've never met Dave, nor do I intend to. His affinity for ice-cream sandwiches confuses me. And that which I cannot understand is immediately rejected as unimportant, below the ivory tower on which I perch.

With huge players such as Puck Daddy, James Mirtle, and Eric McErlain covering the story, you have to wonder whether this is the last time we hear about the ever-intensifying battle between blogdom and the MSM.

The sooner they remove the covers from their eyes, the better.