Thread: Rich Hammond leaves Lakings.com, LakingsInsider for OC Register

Originally Posted by Dana

It sucks for Hammond when he was just trying to do his job. It really does. Hopefully this new gig at the Register isn't going to hurt him financially or anything like that.

But if you're the NHL, do you want technically an NHL employee, publishing player comments that might be critical of the league during a labor dispute, on websites run by an NHL owned team? No. I don't agree with the NHL's stance, but at least I understand it. The NHL was afraid Hammond's blog could be manipulated by the NHLPA at the NHL's expense.

If you worked for a company and were going online and posting negative reviews of the place you worked, how the business was run, etc, and your bosses found out you were doing it, do you think you'd still have a job?

Why does the NHL need to back off on controlling the teams at this time? If you're the NHL, you want to do everything to appear unified in your stance so the NHLPA doesn't think you have any weaknesses. I've said all along the NHLPA needs to do a better job in controlling what the players say because they often come across as sounding like unsympathetic figures.

Dana gets it.

Unfortunately, when Hammond started drawing a King's paycheck, he gave up (some degree of) his journalistic independence. Yes, he did a fine job of maintaining an appearance of being independent, but in the end, he just didn't have the ultimate control over his reporting.

Do I understand what the league is trying to do? Yes, of course, because I have at least half a brain that can reason this sh** out. But I can tell you, when I don't get to read the independent and uncensored reporting that for decades of my life, I've been fortunate enough to have access to in this great country, I'm not happy. I'm in my sixth decade of life, and due to the resulting life experiences (and declining testosterone), I've mellowed quite a bit. But these circumstances with the league's heavy-handidness, the workings of a handful of arrogant and truculent owners who run the show, and now the gagging of a quality news reporter and his subsequent departure from the sport, has me pretty steamed.

F*** the league, f*** the owners, f*** Bettman.

Proud of Rich. Proud of the Kings. The league can go screw!

I admire that Rich stuck to his guns and showed integrity and I like that the Kings were supporting him but sadly this is the kind of thing that happens when you go from being "independent" to getting a paycheck from the team/NHL. I hope Rich enjoys his new gig and I hope they find a good replacement.

Sucks to see Rich go, but I respect him for why he left. Now...


When does gescom get the gig?

If fans expect a journalist to report with total indifference to what the owner's agenda is, then that writer cannot be paid by the team. Period.

Its like having a food critic paid by the restaurants they review. It doesn't work.

I don't know about this. The insider concept was created to fill a hole. Presumably that specific hole of independent sports journalism in regards to the team has now been filled. I'm pretty sure the site will evolve to be something different now that its original premise will hopefully not be required. I do think the Kings will want to develop the site as an outlet outside of the nhl.com control. We didn't see it here but other teams really didn't want to come under the nhl heading for site control that happened.
I'm sure the Westgarth thing happened, but at the same time Rich had to be looking at what the site was originally intended to be, realized that purpose might no longer be a priority and decided he wanted to stay on the journalist path rather then whatever the next step might become.

Anyone else notice that all the bylines on lakingsinsider.com are now listed as Nick Nickson? I think that's kinda hilarious myself.

One thing I won't miss: "In Goal: It's still Quick and X."

That feature of the game coverage made it seem like Rich thought he was watching baseball. Given that a goalie change between periods happens maybe once each season, it doesn't make sense for that to be the first info you provide after every intermission.

That said, the past five years of watching the kings were certainly enhanced by Rich's coverage. For that, I am grateful.