Sunday, September 12, 2010

Damien Bischoff and Hypocrisy

Damien Cox is hockey's Eric Bischoff.

There's no way around it. He's a self-promoter, bringing things back from the dead when it doesn't go the way he wants it to go and never heeds his own advice. However, he will do the exact deed that he condemns when it suits his fancy.

In a world where Twitter is king, Cox went to the masses with his distaste for Ted Leonsis's when Leonsis called him out for his mis-fact of Alex Ovechkin's deal. Cox went on a rant about the book he was writing with Gare Joyce about Ovechkin and saying Leonsis was getting sour-grapes over one thing or another-- I couldn't follow it because it was as scattered brained as Cox himself. Then, before I went to work on Saturday night-- Cox goes on another tirade about Leonsis after Teddy Puckgame went on and called out the mainstream media (one can assume singling out Cox) and telling them to respect the blogosphere and Twitter because it's the next big thing....today. Cox went on a rant about how Leonsis has to hire bloggers to be in the press box and that the book of Joyce and Cox isn't the fluff piece Leonsis wanted and other crap about Caps fans and the organization.

First off, why would anyone get Cox and Joyce to do a book when you could just hire someone a little more closer to the situation than those two?? It's one thing to want a "fluff" piece, but apparently, the Caps fans have been upset with the overly Canadian approach to the book that was taken and pretty much used to dismiss Ovechkin and say he's not as good as Crosby. I haven't read it because I can't deal with Cox; who basically fetches water for Dave Hodge on TSN's The Reporters and thinks he's the big deal in a dying media. Second, the funny thing about all of this is that Cox is using the media he said is "low-rent" to convey his message. It's a bit off that he would do that, rather than write a column about it for the daily-- maybe even stop the presses for this hot scoop.

Even funnier is that Cox claims that Leonsis will block him from the Caps press box and that's not right; then he blocks people on Twitter who call him out on the same thing and who don't agree with his opinion. Got to love the hypocrisy that Cox puts out there; proving that he is not better than the man he is putting down...like he was up on that level anyway.

That said, say what you will about Cox and his tactics-- he's getting the Caps fans riled up in hopes that it'll move units of his book. If nothing else, he's promoting something other than idiocy in his tweets and actually getting the attention from the core he wanted to. Controversy creates cash, as one Eric Bischoff once said and then penned. Even if they do get it in order to burn it; he's still moving product. You have to somewhat respect him getting his name even more out there, even if it's for the wrong reason and with no message that is sensical enough to warrant a serious response.....or not.

However, good on Ted Leonsis to stick up for his organization and defend his assets. While Cox may be digging himself a hole he can't get out of (we can only be so lucky, though), Leonsis is pretty much inviting Cox to take him on head-to-head. I'd love to see Cox go to Washington when the Leafs are in town and have a meeting with Leonsis and settle this thing once and for all. Let's see if Cox is as strong as he is on Twitter and let's see of Leonsis will stick up for his team as strongly as he does in his blog.

This is what happens when new media collides.

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