Can we Officially Label TSN a Huge TO-Biased Network and Move on?

[TOMapleLaughs]

On top of the Dreger shill jobs on the values of TO players in order to help his cousin out the best possible way, there is the matter of the David Clarkson shill job.

29yr old David Clarkson is on-pace for 12pts this season. At 7yrs, $5.25mil per, he is easily the worst UFA signing of 2013. They're already talking about buying him out.

At the time multiple analysts outside of TSN had pegged Clarkson as potentially being massively overpaid in 2013. Devils fans pointed out that he was a 3rd liner. Considering the cap crunch TO was already i, there were multiple red flags going up about the dangers signing him. Basically, everyone said, "Don't do it!!!"

Enter TSN, the Toronto Shill Network, owned by Bell media, who as a matter of fact also own TO's glorious hockey team. This 2013 UFA ranking list was shamelessly put on the interwebs on July 5th by TSN in order to prop up it's latest bloated failure of a UFA signing and you can't help but think not only 'bias', but 'probable interference from ownership.'

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/feature/?id=95306

1 Clarkson

2 Horton

3 Ribeiro

4 Bozak

5 Scuderi

6 Clowe

7 Alfredsson

8 Weiss

9 Grabovski

10 Filppula

11 Iginla

12 Ference

13 Ryder

14 Roy

15 Brunner

16 Raymond

17 Boyes

18 Cullen

19 Cooke

20 Roszival

21 Jagr

22 Zidlicky

23 Hainsey

24 Cleary

25 Gordon

26 Nystrom

27 Stalberg

28 MacArthur - 22g 27a, but wasn't kept by TO, so...

29 Lapierre

Yes, Clarkson is better than Iginla. Jagr. Ribeiro. Horton. All of 'em. Esp. for the money. Huh?!? Not even the blindest of blind homers could put out this list with a straight face, yet here's TSN, who tries to represent a wealth of hockey knowledge with all of it's reporting. It's embarrassing.

For a comparison, here's a look at the 2013 UFA class taken by some schmo on Sportsnet before July 1st: http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/30-pending-unrestricted-free-agents-nhl-2013-class/

Clarkson doesn't even register. (But MacArthur did.)

Here's another which was a bit more recent, taking into account Clarkson's 2012-2013 season. By CBS. http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/transactions/free-agents

Clarkson was 7th, not taking into account money and term. That was high still, but a bit more reasonable.

TSN had Clarkson ranked at the top of the 2013 class. The best! Woo-hoo!

Listen, I understand a homer media outfit putting out these rankings in order to justify it's own teams' moves to their fans, but if that's the case, then how can they ever be considered a serious national network? I think it's simple: They can't. (This to me is part of the reason why they lost NHL game coverage.)

I think most of us already agree here that TSN is and will always be biased, but I guess my main point is if TSN and TO is owned by the same group, then how can they be taken seriously as anything but a TO Shill Network ever again?

Dreger and Co. should hang their heads in shame. Bobby Mack, who is still a very respectable hockey guy, despite being trapped in that outfit, should get out now while they getting is still good. Since TSN has lost NHL hockey, he'll be wasted there. Along with anyone else with a shred of self-respect. Let the TO puppet 'reporters' remain on the sinking ship.

Useless.

[Alex the Great]

Yes.

[Drive-By Body Pierce]

Maybe this contributed to them losing their NHL broadcast rights?!?

[Caboose]

This coming from the guy who thinks the playoffs are rigged lol

[Salmonberries]

yep

[Pears]

Maybe this contributed to them losing their NHL broadcast rights?!?

I actually wouldn't be surprised if this was the case. TSN's Leaf bias is so obvious.

[Gooby]

Are we going through this again?

[Tom Sestito]

It's obvious it's biased, but I don't get why people keep bringing it up. CDC is biased, but it's Canucks run.

TSN is biased, but it's run by owners of the MLSE. (Yes, Bell has a position in MLSE)

Just let it be, we have Sportsnet Pacific and the Team 1040 (outside of the morning show with the useless clowns) for our own material.

[goalie13]

It's taken you this long to realize the T in TSN stands for Toronto?

[GLASSJAW]

i don't get what's wrong with the list?

Clarkson was a hot commodity last year, just because we know now that it didn't work out doesn't mean TSN was wrong for recognizing he was an attractive player at the time. and just because there was speculation that he would be overpaid (as will probably be the case with Callahan this year) doesn't matter. he was still EASILY the most discussed name at this time last year

MacArthur may have been able to score 20 goals, but (according to my two die-hard Leaf fan friends) he was also quite inconsistent and played minutes on every line, disappearing sometimes for weeks at a time. even if that is true, i do agree that putting him that low on the list does seem a bit ridiculous

don't see much issue with the rest of it though, if you remove hindsight from your reading of it

also, i have seen nothing but Leaf-trashing on TSN for like two weeks now. for such a station in love with its own team (as you suggest), they sure are slagging it off constantly. new marketing technique?

[TOMapleLaughs]

This coming from the guy who thinks the playoffs are rigged lol

Care to weigh in on how Clarkson was ranked so high? Or are you believing them in full?

[TOMapleLaughs]

i don't get what's wrong with the list?

Clarkson was a hot commodity last year, just because we know now that it didn't work out doesn't mean TSN was wrong for recognizing he was an attractive player at the time. and just because there was speculation that he would be overpaid (as will probably be the case with Callahan this year) doesn't matter. he was still EASILY the most discussed name at this time last year

MacArthur may have been able to score 20 goals, but (according to my two die-hard Leaf fan friends) he was also quite inconsistent and played minutes on every line, disappearing sometimes for weeks at a time. even if that is true, i do agree that putting him that low on the list does seem a bit ridiculous

don't see much issue with the rest of it though, if you remove hindsight from your reading of it

also, i have seen nothing but Leaf-trashing on TSN for like two weeks now. for such a station in love with its own team (as you suggest), they sure are slagging it off constantly. new marketing technique?

Um, that would be part of the shill.

[Derp...]

Where would they be without Raymond!!!!

Haha

[Tom Sestito]

Where would they be without Raymond!!!!

Haha

They wouldn't be falling.

[LuongovsTuuka]

I usually argue against the bias being there, but it is really obvious on TSN, CBC and even Sportsnet with anything based east of Saskatchewan. These are guys who admit they go to bed before the west coast games are over and then prattle on and on about who should win awards at the end of the year?

Yes the Canucks have had a poor season, but they are in the same position as Ottawa and I don't hear anything about how poorly Ottawa has played or their goaltending problems. Lehner has regressed badly this year, but you'd never know it with all of the Canuck bashing they do. I have started to find it hard to watch, especially since the Leafs made the playoffs last season. The Leafs are losing and say it's because their starter got hurt. Fine, but half the Canucks' top guys get hurt and they go on and on about how terrible the team is? The Canucks are one point behind Toronto and the Leafs have a game in hand.

I am so anxious for the playoffs to start so that there is something else to talk about when the Canucks and (hopefully) Leafs are both golfing.

[JeremyCuddles]

The real travesty was Jagr at 21.

[chrisbanks]

clarkson was ranked high by almost everyone.... there is a reason he got paid so much .... there was a bidding war for him.... yeah things havnet panned out...so what...tsn has ragged on him a ton during this season as he hasnt panned out....but just because he was at the top of the free agent list at the begging of the free agent period doesnt mean they are homers....

[Ding-Dong]

On top of the Dreger shill jobs on the values of TO players in order to help his cousin out the best possible way, there is the matter of the David Clarkson shill job.

29yr old David Clarkson is on-pace for 12pts this season. At 7yrs, $5.25mil per, he is easily the worst UFA signing of 2013. They're already talking about buying him out.

At the time multiple analysts outside of TSN had pegged Clarkson as potentially being massively overpaid in 2013. Devils fans pointed out that he was a 3rd liner. Considering the cap crunch TO was already i, there were multiple red flags going up about the dangers signing him. Basically, everyone said, "Don't do it!!!"

Enter TSN, the Toronto Shill Network, owned by Bell media, who as a matter of fact also own TO's glorious hockey team. This 2013 UFA ranking list was shamelessly put on the interwebs on July 5th by TSN in order to prop up it's latest bloated failure of a UFA signing and you can't help but think not only 'bias', but 'probable interference from ownership.'

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/feature/?id=95306

1 Clarkson

2 Horton

3 Ribeiro

4 Bozak

5 Scuderi

6 Clowe

7 Alfredsson

8 Weiss

9 Grabovski

10 Filppula

11 Iginla

12 Ference

13 Ryder

14 Roy

15 Brunner

16 Raymond

17 Boyes

18 Cullen

19 Cooke

20 Roszival

21 Jagr

22 Zidlicky

23 Hainsey

24 Cleary

25 Gordon

26 Nystrom

27 Stalberg

28 MacArthur - 22g 27a, but wasn't kept by TO, so...

29 Lapierre

Yes, Clarkson is better than Iginla. Jagr. Ribeiro. Horton. All of 'em. Esp. for the money. Huh?!? Not even the blindest of blind homers could put out this list with a straight face, yet here's TSN, who tries to represent a wealth of hockey knowledge with all of it's reporting. It's embarrassing.

For a comparison, here's a look at the 2013 UFA class taken by some schmo on Sportsnet before July 1st: http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/30-pending-unrestricted-free-agents-nhl-2013-class/

Clarkson doesn't even register. (But MacArthur did.)

Here's another which was a bit more recent, taking into account Clarkson's 2012-2013 season. By CBS. http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/transactions/free-agents

Clarkson was 7th, not taking into account money and term. That was high still, but a bit more reasonable.

TSN had Clarkson ranked at the top of the 2013 class. The best! Woo-hoo!

Listen, I understand a homer media outfit putting out these rankings in order to justify it's own teams' moves to their fans, but if that's the case, then how can they ever be considered a serious national network? I think it's simple: They can't. (This to me is part of the reason why they lost NHL game coverage.)

I think most of us already agree here that TSN is and will always be biased, but I guess my main point is if TSN and TO is owned by the same group, then how can they be taken seriously as anything but a TO Shill Network ever again?

Dreger and Co. should hang their heads in shame. Bobby Mack, who is still a very respectable hockey guy, despite being trapped in that outfit, should get out now while they getting is still good. Since TSN has lost NHL hockey, he'll be wasted there. Along with anyone else with a shred of self-respect. Let the TO puppet 'reporters' remain on the sinking ship.

Useless.

Wow! It's hard to deny that TSN very obviously has a bias for everything TML, but this is a bit ridiculous. We can sit here and say that it's not that big of a deal and that every network does it, but to actually have Clarkson ranked as the #1 UFA and to portray that to the viewers when it's potentially a farce makes you really question the integrity of TSN.

I'm not absolutely suggesting that this was intentional on their part, but if it wasn't would that be any better? Would you want to trust a sports news network that in their professional opinion, would be willing to put a player that has never had more than 46 points in a season over the likes of Horton, Ribeiro, Alfreddson and Iginla? They didn't just put Clarkson high on that UFA list, they put him on top of it.

Very interesting find and read TOML. It'll definitely make me think twice when watching certain analysts on TSN

[Tre Mac]

Well can't argue with that. I'll still watch the world jr.'s on TSN as that is my favorite hockey of the year.

[Jiggs50]

Nonis screwed up big time!!! Screw Toronto and their media. Loving the fact that Toronto isn't going to make the playoffs. Dreger can go suck on that..