Catching Up With Pat Burns

So Pat Burns, coach of the New Jersey Devils and formerly of the Toronto Maple Leafs, finally got around to dying of lung cancer yesterday. He was 58 years old.

That might seem to you a harsh way of reporting Mr. Burns' passing, I know. But he was two months later in leaving his mortal coil than the Canadian news media would have preferred.

The coach had been ill for some time, so when rumours of his death began circulating in September, the Fourth Estate thought nothing of publishing them as fact, post-hate, without verification of any sort. It was hilarious unless you were actually Pat Burns. Then, not so much.

The story had its genesis in wire service reports describing Burns taking a turn for the worse in Quebec last Thursday. The next day, a shaken Toronto Maple Leafs executive Cliff Fletcher told several reporters that he'd heard Burns had passed away. It made sense in the context of the previous day's story about Burns's declining health. Without consulting Burns's family or double checking the story, Damien Cox of The Toronto Star reported Fletcher's story on his Twitter account. Within an hour the story was viral. (twitpic.com/2pbckt)

The FAN 590 broadcast a prepared obit during Andrew Krystal’s show. Wire services picked up the story. The Globe & Mail, Canadian Press and Rogers Sportsnet did not report the story, because they had not verified it with a second source. But with today’s “this-just-in” culture, a significant portion of mainstream media and blogosphere ran with the story-- till Burns himself phoned TSN’s Bob McKenzie a couple of hours later to say he was out shopping, not checking out.

Typical was Vancouver's all-sports station TEAM 1040, where former NHLer Ray Ferraro, now morning drive co-host, received an e-mail from a trusted source. He went with the incorrect report on-air. Ferraro's report was subsequently sourced by a number of people. “I should have called [TSN colleague] Bob McKenzie to verify it,” a contrite Ferraro told Usual Suspects Friday. “He's a friend of Pat's. I was wrong. I can tell you it will never happen again. Never. I just wish I could tell Pat and his family how embarrassed and sorry I am about this.”

Krystal echoed Ferraro, telling Usual Suspects that mistakes were made in verification. “It will not happen again on my show. I plan to apologize Monday to the Burns family.”

At least Ferraro and Krystal wore the blame. Cox offered no apology, explaining it away as “an honest mistake” on the part of a distraught Fletcher. No mention of having failed himself to get a primary source with the Burns family or a secondary source to verify the story – the basics of reporting. This was no honest mistake, just a breakdown in the reporting process to claim primacy on a hot-sounding story. Blaming Fletcher was self-serving.

The best part? This isn't the first time the Canadian media has done it this year. They managed to kill Gordon Lightfoot back in February.


What do both hoaxes have in common, you might ask? Twitter. In the Burns case, a Toronto Star writer posted it on Twitter without verifying the story, and in Lightfoot's case, a Twitter user in Ottawa just made it up. Both times, the national media fucking ran with it just as fast as they could.

Well, it occurred to me that I have a Twitter account that I barely use and a morbid desire to fuck with the press. I'm also a pretty creative cat when it comes to new and exciting ways to die. Also, a few media figures are following me.

So here's what I'm thinking. I invent truly odd deaths for prominent people on Twitter and see if the newspapers run with it. I'll bet you the do. How great would be if, say, the Montreal Gazette reported that, say, Stompin' Tom Connors was killed in an auto-erotic asphyxiation accident that I made out of whole cloth? I would say that it'd be pretty fucking great, indeed.

Let's see what happens ....