The Jackets held a town hall meeting last night to make their case for public money for the arena to invited bloggers and others. I wasn’t invited. Which is fine. Sitting at Nationwide Arena getting the full Rod Bryden treatment wouldn’t be my ideal Tuesday night. And I don’t even know if anyone in the CBJ front office is aware of this little blog. But given recent events, I can’t help but wonder if my mild criticism of the sin tax plan (see below) ruled me out? For what it’s worth, Dispatches from Columbus was not invited either, and that blog has also expressed skepticism about the Jackets’ message.
Coverage I’ve seen so far from people who were there:
- Eric Smith at Hockeybuzz
- A very detailed set of minutes from Light the Lamp
- Andrew Miller from Elephants on Bicycles
- Bethany
- Walker Evans from CU was there, but hasn’t posted about what happened yet
No disrespect intended to those who were invited, or those who support the idea of the county buying the arena. Reasonable people can disagree on public funding, and bloggers are free to take whatever positions they want on their blogs. Supporting the public plan does not mean they are patsies of the Jackets’ ownership. And I do read and enjoy all of the blogs listed above. But given the team’s propensity over its history to try and control the public message, I can’t help but wonder if they chose to invite people who had already written positively about the plan, or otherwise indicated they would probably be supportive.
1 response so far ↓
Matt W. // June 3, 2009 at 12:59 pm |
For what it’s worth, I wasn’t invited either. I’ve been Fanbase.com’s CBJ writer for a couple of months…and I also posted a critical look at the tax thing when it came out.
On the other hand, that may also be because nobody really gives a damn about Fanbase.com.