2019-2020 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion
- Thread starter herman
- Start date
Phileas Fogg
New member
I think clearly most of the US has moved on to considering any further deaths as acceptable loss of life at this point, with the economy being a bigger concern and I don't think that's an attitude unique to trumpers.
It will only be the NHLPA that will put the brakes on anything at this point.
It will only be the NHLPA that will put the brakes on anything at this point.
https://twitter.com/simmonssteve/status/1274411602515824640
Steve Simmons is mad that more people aren't talking about his big scoop.
Steve Simmons is mad that more people aren't talking about his big scoop.
Heroic Shrimp
New member
The Boy Who Cried Hot Dog.CarltonTheBear said:
herman said:
I haven?t thought this through completely and i?m curious about people?s opinions. (I?m also super-bored.)
How does this relate to revealing player injuries? We also regularly hear about players who have cancer or other ailments.
In this case, there is some public interest in knowing about covid prevalence. We might want to understand whether we should be supporting an nhl reopening or not.
Where should we draw the line here and why?
bustaheims
Active member
princedpw said:
The difference is where the information comes from. With injuries, it?s usually from the team, the player, or the player?s agent; or it?s speculation based on observable, publicly broadcast events - and its job related, in that it occurred at work/training for work. In this case, it did not come through any official channels or observation, not was it a job related medical issue, which changes the calculus. That makes this quite likely a privacy issue.
herman
Well-known member
The season is paused and this was not incurred in the Phase 3 bubble (or even the Phase 2 pod). It?s newsworthy for the league that a player tested positive, but who the player is should be irrelevant. And so it is for the Senator that tested positive and the three Tampa players and additional staff member that tested positive etc. Or any of the baseball players and football players.
The whining from this tabloid hack about no one else publishing a verification of his ?scoop? says all we need to know about his motivation here. There might not be a law against this specific instance, but everyone else in the industry is demonstrating where the b-hole line is.
The whining from this tabloid hack about no one else publishing a verification of his ?scoop? says all we need to know about his motivation here. There might not be a law against this specific instance, but everyone else in the industry is demonstrating where the b-hole line is.
Phileas Fogg
New member
herman said:
I found it interesting that the Toronto Star, and several other publications, reported on the "report", without giving it attribution, simply calling it "another media source", very soon after Simmons' story came out.
So if there's a line, most media crossed it, not just simmons. And quite frankly, I thought it was distasteful that attribution wasn't given, regardless of the rag that the Sun is.
L K
Active member
herman said:
From Simmons, no. Depending on who leaked the information to him, it potentially could be. Journalists aren't held to the privacy standard for Health Protection. However if a hospital employee leaked the information by looking at his chart, it could be a big issue.
Again though it's just the lack of decency to jump at releasing this information just to be the one to get a scoop and his persistent whining after the fact is humorous.
herman
Well-known member
I mean just about everyone already got the hint before Simmons' 'scoop', so I think it was a hockey circles loop of info, rather than HIPAA violation.Bender said:
He talks about it 5 min into his June 18 podcast.
There's a yapper in AZ who is reaching out to media/media-adjacent folk with this information. Simmons obviously wasn't the only person who received this information.
Frycer14 said:
This is what was distasteful to you about all this?
Kin
New member
bustaheims said:
On top of that, I think teams have a real responsibility to fans to be honest with them about injuries. If someone like Matthews may miss a game, a team should be as upfront as possible about that before I as a consumer buy a ticket or choose to watch the game on TV.
That said, I don't think teams are under any obligation to tell us why a player might miss a game. So breathlessly reporting something like this I feel does cross a line.
ZBBM
Active member
I don't know how it works in Canada, but in the US people deemed to be "public figures" generally have fewer privacy rights. However, personal medical info also involves a layer of confidentiality:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3228620/
Doctors are bound by this; journalists ... it's hard to say. In any event, in this case Matthews is very definitely a "public figure" and was in the US at the time of the disclosure (so far unconfirmed) of his Covid-19 status. If Simmons has his facts straight, he's probably on solid legal grounds ? in the US.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3228620/
Doctors are bound by this; journalists ... it's hard to say. In any event, in this case Matthews is very definitely a "public figure" and was in the US at the time of the disclosure (so far unconfirmed) of his Covid-19 status. If Simmons has his facts straight, he's probably on solid legal grounds ? in the US.
This is just embarrassing now.
It is clearly unethical (and illegal in the US) for a healthcare worker to release information about a patient.
However, there are all kinds of situations where it may be unethical or inappropriate for someone to release information but it isn?t viewed as unethical for a reporter who somehow obtains the information to report it. For instance, in politics, insiders often release information and their bosses don?t want them to so they are unnamed sources.
In general, I think reporters should weigh potential harm vs public interest when releasing information.
So a more specific question: is reporting health information about an individual always wrong? Do people do this about movie stars or other celebrities? Is it unethical when they do? (There?s a lot of reporting about celebrities but perhaps much of it is unethical? A politician?s health is often reported on.). To me, athletes are in a similar category as movie stars. It would be kind to keep their private lives private. It doesn?t happen very often.
However, there are all kinds of situations where it may be unethical or inappropriate for someone to release information but it isn?t viewed as unethical for a reporter who somehow obtains the information to report it. For instance, in politics, insiders often release information and their bosses don?t want them to so they are unnamed sources.
In general, I think reporters should weigh potential harm vs public interest when releasing information.
So a more specific question: is reporting health information about an individual always wrong? Do people do this about movie stars or other celebrities? Is it unethical when they do? (There?s a lot of reporting about celebrities but perhaps much of it is unethical? A politician?s health is often reported on.). To me, athletes are in a similar category as movie stars. It would be kind to keep their private lives private. It doesn?t happen very often.