Islanders ban blogger/former team employee

Surprised I haven't seen this floating around here yet - the Islanders have cut off team access to former employee Chris Botta, who is an AOL FanHouse writer and runs NYI Point Blank.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Islanders-pull-popular-blogger-s-credentials-to-?urn=nhl-287090

 

Without having read the link, this might tell you why the Islanders are so bad -- they care more about banning access to writers than providing a winning product for the few fans remaining.

 

chris, a friend and neighbor of mine, is respected by all. this incident has even been a topic on wfan and the obnoxious mike francesa, who NEVER addresses hockey issues. chris was even interviewed by francesa this afternoon.

no doubt in my mind that botta's popular blog will be back in business within 48 hours. the isles never get publicity in n.y.; for this to be the primary pub they've received in forever cannot be something charles wang is happy about.

what a laughingstock this once dominant and proud franchise has become....

 

Deviating a bit from the topic at hand, but the LA Times' Helene Elliott fired off a salvo at the Islanders in her NHL column this week:

<<New York Islanders Coach Scott Gordon, fired Monday after the team's losing streak hit 10, was a scapegoat for years of mismanagement and penny-pinching payrolls. Jack Capuano, coach of their American Hockey League farm team, will take over on an interim basis. If the NHL relegated bottom-feeders to lower leagues, the Islanders would be in whatever is below a beer league. …>>

 

This story keeps getting more and more interesting as it seems now that both sides are pointing their finger at the other.

 

When he worked FOR the Isles, Botta started first major push to bring bloggers into the press box, creating a blogger press box. Got some pub for them at the time. A few teams have copied it, in some capacity.

Very good guy.

 

This might be the first time in history where fans overwhelmingly back the journalist and not the team. That says all you need to know about Chris Botta ... and the Islanders.

It's still unclear whether or not they'll credential him for FanHouse. He's only our senior hockey writer. Will the Islanders credential other writers from FanHouse, but not Chris? Will they credential Chris for FanHouse as long as he promises not to write about them for his personal blog? What a foolish decision by a team that obviously could use a good PR firm.
The Islanders could have told players and execs not to talk to Botta ... that's the route taken by the Knicks and Yankees and probably hundreds of other teams, big and small, when they have a conflict with a single journalist.

 

http://www.newsday.com/sports/hockey/islanders/isles-botta-ban-looks-firm-1.2476302

 

I don't think they have much to worry about with the Cup finals.

 

Isn't Botta trying to have it both ways> He's agreed to interviews with journalists he trusts, shutting everyone else out, yet the Islanders are shutting him out because they don't trust him.

http://www.islanderspointblank.com/2010/11/point-blank-with-wfans-mike-francesaabout-30-minutes-on-the-latest-and-on-the-nyi/