Competition's one thing but this is just plain childish

From William Houston's column in today's Globe:
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Rogers Sportsnet has devised a way to lower the profile of its main competitor, TSN.

It's a reasonable pursuit, but the way it's being done seems a little strange.

The sports channel has installed a program on its Sportsnet.ca website that simply makes TSN go away.

Sportsnet.ca gives registered visitors access to a discussion forum in which sports fans can ask questions and exchange information.

But TSN and the names of its on-air personalities rank among the unmentionables.

Sportsnet.ca removes all references to TSN. At least one weblog has noted that if you type in TSN in the context of a statement or question, it's removed and replaced with three stars. If you type in the name of TSN announcer Rod Black, the stars also appear.

The editing applies to all things pertaining to the word black. If you wanted to talk about the Hamilton Tiger-Cats' gold-and-black sweaters, the word black would come back misspelled b.lack in order to avoid the dreaded B word.

David Akande, the vice-president of content for Sportsnet, says TSN references are removed by an automatic function built into Sportsnet.ca.

He says it's not unusual for websites to restrict topics of conversation.

"If people want to comment on TSN either favourably or negatively, we don't think we're the appropriate forum," he said. "And I would assume TSN would take the same perspective relative to us. Or The Globe and Mail relative to the Toronto Star et cetera.

"We like to have an open discussion, but is it unfettered? No, it's not unfettered."

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Nice weasely comeback from the suit at Sportsnet. Bullshit.