Scott Morrison, a former Toronto Sun sports editor and one of Canada's most knowledgeable hockey writers, has been dropped from Sun Media's freelance lineup.We noticed Scott's hockey columns missing for several weeks, but we thought he was probably taking time off during the holiday season following the death of his wife, Kathy, in late September.
So we e-mailed him.
"Thanks for noticing my absence," Scott replied. "Sadly, I have departed Sun Media again. Prior to the (Dec. 16) staff layoffs, PK wiped out a bunch of the freelance columnists.
"I just can't believe how that guy (PKP) is allowed to run anything because he only knows how to run things into the ground," says Scott, who has watched the Sun he loved evaporate.
Scott's departure and the exit of business editor Linda Leatherdale prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the people making these decisions are brain dead.
Scott, a Hockey Hall of Fame print and broadcast icon and author of numerous hockey books, left the Toronto Sun in 2001 after a 22-year stay. He moved on to Osprey Media, which carried his freelance columns.
He returned to the Sun Media fold when Sun Media bought Osprey Media in the summer of 2007, much to the delight of longtime Sun readers who missed his hockey coverage.
Last month, Sun Media dropped Scott and in its typical Quebecor-induced lack of courtesy to him and his readers, did not advise readers of his departure.
When will Sun management get some backbone and tell readers why their favourite writers are no longer in print? You did it with John Downing, Valerie Gibson, Linda Leatherdale and others and it is so petty.
A protege of the late, great George Gross, founding Toronto Sun sports editor, Scott is widely known from 30 years of hockey coverage in print, on radio and on television.
As the Toronto Sun and Sun Media go these days, Scott is too good for PKP and his rapidly deteriorating newspapers.
But there is no need to go cold turkey.
Scott has two best-selling books on the shelves - Hockey Night In Canada: My Greatest Day and the re-release of Hockey Night in Canada: By The Numbers.
He is still writing for CBCsports.ca and The Beer Store's Chill magazine on a regular basis.
Scott can also be heard and seen on the:
Bill Watters show at 6:10 p.m. on 640 four nights a week;
Hockey Night in Canada radio Monday, Wednesday and Friday on Sirius Satellite;
CKNW radio on Thursdays;
The Grill Room on Sun TV once a week (don't tell PK!);
And CBC radio when called upon.
BTW: Here is how 640 promotes a regular contributor:
"Elmer Ferguson award winner and member of Hockey’s Hall of Fame, Scott Morrison is one of the industry's great insiders. Hockey Night in Canada’s Scott Morrison has a reputation in the hockey world that serves him well. He can be heard weekdays on AM640 Toronto Radio’s Leafs Lunch, providing behind-the-scenes news and expert analysis for the Leafs Nation."
Sounds like a guy you would want to protect and keep on the team at any cost.
All the best, Scott.
"I just can't believe how that guy (PKP) is allowed to run anything because he only knows how to run things into the ground," says Scott, who has watched the Sun he loved evaporate.
Scott's departure and the exit of business editor Linda Leatherdale prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the people making these decisions are brain dead.
Scott, a Hockey Hall of Fame print and broadcast icon and author of numerous hockey books, left the Toronto Sun in 2001 after a 22-year stay. He moved on to Osprey Media, which carried his freelance columns.
He returned to the Sun Media fold when Sun Media bought Osprey Media in the summer of 2007, much to the delight of longtime Sun readers who missed his hockey coverage.
Last month, Sun Media dropped Scott and in its typical Quebecor-induced lack of courtesy to him and his readers, did not advise readers of his departure.
When will Sun management get some backbone and tell readers why their favourite writers are no longer in print? You did it with John Downing, Valerie Gibson, Linda Leatherdale and others and it is so petty.
A protege of the late, great George Gross, founding Toronto Sun sports editor, Scott is widely known from 30 years of hockey coverage in print, on radio and on television.
As the Toronto Sun and Sun Media go these days, Scott is too good for PKP and his rapidly deteriorating newspapers.
But there is no need to go cold turkey.
Scott has two best-selling books on the shelves - Hockey Night In Canada: My Greatest Day and the re-release of Hockey Night in Canada: By The Numbers.
He is still writing for CBCsports.ca and The Beer Store's Chill magazine on a regular basis.
Scott can also be heard and seen on the:
Bill Watters show at 6:10 p.m. on 640 four nights a week;
Hockey Night in Canada radio Monday, Wednesday and Friday on Sirius Satellite;
CKNW radio on Thursdays;
The Grill Room on Sun TV once a week (don't tell PK!);
And CBC radio when called upon.
BTW: Here is how 640 promotes a regular contributor:
"Elmer Ferguson award winner and member of Hockey’s Hall of Fame, Scott Morrison is one of the industry's great insiders. Hockey Night in Canada’s Scott Morrison has a reputation in the hockey world that serves him well. He can be heard weekdays on AM640 Toronto Radio’s Leafs Lunch, providing behind-the-scenes news and expert analysis for the Leafs Nation."
Sounds like a guy you would want to protect and keep on the team at any cost.
All the best, Scott.
Current and former Sun Media staffers know full well who the spineless, gutless weasel "managers" are who perpetrate all these atrocities, or are complicit in them by their silence or acquiesence. They have choices and they choose to stay in the cesspool and do the dirty work. They should be named, defamed and shunned at every opportunity and if they ever find themselves jobless, kept that way with tales of their misdeeds widely disseminated.
ReplyDeleteI've watched The Toronto Sun steadily decline over the last decade or so. Used to deliver it on Sundays when I was a kid, and read it. Then slowly my interest in that paper devolved in to reading it for the sports coverage.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, Leatherdales columns over the last couple of years did grab my eye several times a month - and that genuinely surprised and impressed me given the scant attention paid to business in that paper as a rule.
All in all more poor management decisions and another nail in the coffin. Good luck to Scott and Linda.