I would not call anything a conspiracy, just poor reporting or poor attention to detail that causes damage, the kind a burried retraction does not fix which even Mr Witt was not happy about.

Mr Botta in 2006 blasted Alan Hahn in Newsday and the papers coverage that year so there is a history of this.

Mr Botta told us all we needed to know about the problems with Ted Nolan, his gm and his own players these were major items brought up at the first post-season meeting.

All I do know is our beatwriter the same day he complained in print about the club’s injury policy on Guerin/DiPietro was either contacted by Yashin’s agent or Mr Logan contacted him and it stirred up a lot of negative fan reaction and another incorrect headline.

Just as bad Gandler was one of Bergenheim’s agents, our beatwriter did not even bother that day getting a comment on Bergenheim’s negotiations for us which was far from a normal situtation.

A few weeks later in a chat he answered a question and confirmed he did speak to Gandler about Bergenheim that day but never even bothered telling the fans.

Sometimes Mr Logan does a very good job, other times his work raises some very fair questions considering most articles these days all begin with according to Greg Logan of Newsday.

Thanks again

Your enthusiasm for righting the media is wonderful, but I just don’t see the same conspiracies as you. Logan had been talking about this rift for a lot longer than he was writing about it. It’s not like he just pulled the theories out of thin air like you suggest.
Regarding Gandler, why assume Greg chased him? It’s clear that he was putting his clients name out there to create a buzzin the hopes he could return to the NHL.

There was no talk of Yashin prior to Logan’s article, you assume Logan is responsible for far too much.

Mr Logan dug into nothing. He made a ton of mistakes and got behind whatever problems he had and gave it a push with contradictions in his work. If someone says it’s going to rain ten days in a row and finally the tenth day it does rain only means they finally got it right but were wrong nine other times.

All due respect to Mr Botta but Mr Logan told his story in the paper and put it mostly on Chris Dey and it seemed done not to praise a good man for twenty plus years but to assign blame for a resignation. Mr Botta blamed no one but told his side on his blog.

One part you and Mr Logan left out in that question/answer part.

Almost all of those negative articles Mr Logan comments about all came with the words according to Greg Logan of Newsday in the first paragraph.

Take Care

Katie Strang covering an event for Greg Logan is not our fans getting two writers, it’s one taking over for another for a day.

Sure they can contradict one another but if one writes on a Monday the coach took issue over Dubielewicz and the next day at a team even the other writes the coach is quoted as saying he did not even know there was a problem that is more than a contradiction between reports.

Greg Logan did not write a word after that report by Ms Strang at the business meeeting. Only a full month or so later did Mr Logan finally tell us there were more problems at that meeting between them with again no quotes confirming this from either one of them, a meeting he did not even cover that day.

Regarding your other point sure Nolan and Snow can lie to us every time however it does not excuse one writer claiming Nolan took issue (without supporting quotes) while the other did produce supporting quotes it was not a big deal. Garth Snow even said the reports of a disagree on Dubie were overdone.

Mr Logan also wrote recently the coach talked about his coaching status RECENTLY in his article the a day before the change happened, that was back on 5/2 in the Sault Star begging the question where had Mr Logan been for almost a month and a half?

I can appreciate bonds made with Mr Logan among fans and bloggers but this is a writer who took what amounted to an attack at the club on it’s injury policy the same day he or Mark Gandler went to the other for some quotes on Yashin and then Newsday gave us a headline on Yashin returning that had to be retracted after a mountain of negative publicity.

This was after an earlier retraction of an article title Nolan threatens veterans with trades.

You’ve bemoaned the fact that Logan’s voice is the only voice providing regular coverage of the Islanders. If Katie Strang is contradicting Logan, then isn’t that another voice we’re getting? Why can’t two Newsday writers contradict each other? No, Katie is not on the beat full time, so her perspective is not as prominent. But if the answers she gets and the manner in which she interprets those answers differ from what Logan gets and says, then it seems to me that contradiction at least provides a little more diversity of opinion.

You’ve also expressed concern over Nolan and Snow lying to us about the status of their relationship and Nolan’s future. It’s no real stretch to imagine that they were less than straight when giving quotes to Logan and Strang, whether to advance their own agendas or to cover up their differences. Either way, that could be the cause of the contradictions.

I know you believe strongly in what you’ve written about these matters, but I just wanted to present another way of looking at it.

I found this Q&A in Logan’s last chat indicative:

QUESTION: Greg, the Isles are getting killed in the media. Do you think things are as doom and gloom as the picture being painted? It seems the Islanders have a plan and that this just a case of "piling on", but we’ve been through this before. I think the Isles really are missing Chris Botta.
11:17

LOGAN: Well, I’ve talked about this subject in the past with a lot of writers I respect. Not in regard to the Islanders but in terms of picking the easy target and then firing the stereotypical response. It’s a kind of school of knee-jerk journalism. Which is not to say that it’s always inaccurate, just that it’s easy to produce. I think everyone is going to respond most strongly to the commentators with a message they either love or hate. But in the end, you have to judge the commentary on the dpeth of accurate information, research and understanding the writer has of his subject. And decide on that basis whose writing you want to pay attention to. Then, don’t worry about the rest of it.

Contradictions do happen all the time everywhere. When they happen with this club it’s portyared as a disaster with coveage that ignites a firestorm of negative fan reaction that even has Mr Witt critical in his blog of Newsday’s burried retraction on it’s article about Yashin or it’s earlier retraction headline on Nolan threatens veterans with trades.

The damage is done.

Mr Logan makes this huge deal out of Dubie with Nolan taking issue with Snow. Ms Strang covers the event tghe next day and afterward has comments from both it was not a big deal with Nolan saying he did not even know there was a problem with even Snow quotes as saying the media report was overdone.

Then Mr Logan (who did not even cover the event) writes the other day it turned into a full blow conflict that night which he never even wrote about, until the other day over a month later?

Don’t you think Mr Logan and Ms Strang should have spoken to one another?

Am I that up to speed on all the other 29 teams? No.
Do I see clubs with a lot of problems (I used Tampa’s problems which were far worse than the Isles) ever take the beating the Isles do?

Cannot say I do, maybe Toronto but they did not even take the beating the Isles did for firing Paul Maurice.

Not much else to write, I hope things are good with Hank, I tried following up a few times.

Take Care.

Contradictions happen all the time – Katie is obviously not talking to Greg. The editors likely are not picking up on this either.

And how can you say the other clubs don’t have laundry aired? Are you THAT up to speed with the 29 other teams? Let’s not get ridiculous here.

You are right though, it shouldn’t play a role on decision making – but when people on the outside of the organization pick things apart before they become a full on problem, how can the team not react in someway. Be it a statement or personnel change.

There should always be coverage.

Twenty nine other clubs and most of them do not have their dirty laundry aired to this degree that receive a lot more coverage than the New York Islanders during Mr Logan’s Islansder tenure at Newsday.

It only seems to turn into Toronto around this team in this paper when there is bad news, not for playoffs, Al Arbour, core of four, Rick DiPietro all star game ect.

The media coverage should never be necessary or play any part in any internal decision regarding a team employee on any club so we respectfully disagee on that part of it.

And as I wrote above we have seen writers contradict one another and retractions issue.

Not about the blogger at all here but the professional media writing in the paper and a question of limits which we see for most of the teams in this league but not in Newsday when there are problems.

Thanks again.

The point of the what I wrote was two-fold, number one – there is coverage, period.

Logan does do a good job for the most part, he digs around and gives us a story. Whether or not you agree with that is your own opinion.

Did dirty laundry get aired, yes. Was it necessary? If it was what it took for some sort of decision to be made then yes, if there was no problem with Nolan I would feel differently.

We are in a position to really take advantage of the situation – which is all I am trying to do.

Sorry but Mr Logan is a big part of the problem too and works for the same paper Mr Wallace, the guest amateur writer who blasted the club recently that was so poor it had to be pulled and Mr Baumback/Rieber and Mark Herrmann who are never shy about blasting the club first and anything else second.

You think the die-hard writers who have covered the same club for decades beat down a team barely being covered like this? You think the Hawks or Kings take this kind of beating all the time over the years?

Tampa just took a cup winning coach and threw him out the door for a broadcaster, their gm sat on the sidelines for the draft and free agency in silence and the ownership inherited a club that finished 30th who threatended Dan Boyle after signing a contact to where he was furious by his own words.

Tampa media did not throw the club or anyone under the bus like Mr Logan and Newsday did or turn it into a soap oprea for months airing all the dirty laundry they could.

Rangers spent 90m on two centers who could not play with Jagr, he admitted loafing this season and things were so bad he preferred Russia as opposed to playing with them again while the gm sent a public message to his coach they will play more offense.

Mark Herrmann did an article on a family of Ranger fans in California they day they were eliminated after an article gushing about Jagr even though he loafed all season, I did not see that when the Isles lost to Buffalo in Newsday.

Mr Logan did a great job airing the clubs dirty laundry in a way he never did covering the Rangers when they struggled and had their problems for years.

Meanwhile Al Arbour returns, Rick DiPietro starts the all star game and Mr Logan does not even write about it?

Along the way he and Katie Strang contradicted one another in the paper, retractions had to be issued,
he took what seemed like public tantrum at the clubs injury policy among several problems.

One beatwriters opinion has become the only voice for all media impression everywhere. Even Mr Botta blasted Newsday in the past (April 2006) for poor coverage and singled out Alan Hahn who actually was an Islander fan, nothing new.

Lamoriello fires his coaches in first place in March and his club does not have it’s dirty laundry aired to this degree.

Everyone gave us a poor show here.

Thank You.