The Gazette columnist who wins the coveted “Got Maggie All Riled Up” award for Saturday, October 5th, is Jack Todd.
Now, granted, I have never been a Todd fan, from his days as a bombastic “city” commentator through to his new-ish role as a purportedly intellectual sports pundit, but for the most part I just take the “don’t read his column, don’t get ticked” approach.
Today his column, headlined “TV host, agent offside”, dealt with the recent firing/rehiring of Ron MacLean by the CBC. So I couldn’t help myself. On the other hand, by the time I got the bottom of the first column of text I was frustrated enough to give up, and I have not read the conclusion on C2.
His point seems to be that MacLean shouldn’t be represented by agent Don Meehan, who also represents several hockey players. He questions MacLean’s journalistic integrity, suggesting that MacLean would never say a bad word about a fellow-reprentee, and that even if he did, “wouldn’t you wonder if he’s doing it not because that’s what he thinks, but because he is trying to prove that he’s not influenced by his relationship with Meehan?”
Talk about damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Personally, I would trust MacLean further than I could throw Todd.
The part that really rubbed me the wrong way, however, was Todd’s inaccurate and inflammatory reference to MacLean as “the leading greedhead in the world of Canadian sportscasting,” and to the CBC “bow[ing] to his ourageous demands.”
First of all, given that his co-host on Coach’s Corner, everybody’s favorite throwback Don Cherry, makes over $700,000 a year as a reward for being the only man on the planet still willing to wear those collars and for making the whole PC movement appear fruitless, I think it’s a little unfair to call MacLean the “leading greedhead” for asking for $600,000, from $400,000 last year. Secondly, the CBC did not cave, they repeated their original offer of $450,000, and the ubiquitous agent Meehan accepted.
Well, it’s my own fault. I could have read the headline and said to myself, “this is going to be an exercise in frustration, perhaps best to avoid it.” I just hope I remember that next time!