Facebook’s ban on publishing journalistic content on its platforms led to another jaw-dropping circus this week, all at the expense of Connor Bedard’s mother.
For several hours while surfing Facebook, we learned that Connor Bedard’s mother was close with Corey Perry, a senior teammate of his son’s. And that would have explained Perry’s mysterious absence from the Blackhawks’ entourage.
No reputable media picked up this news. They all did some research to find out if it was true before dropping such a bombshell.
Four hours after this spectacular rumor broke, NBC reporter Charlie Roumeliotis, assigned to cover the Blackhawks, wrote that it was all 100% false.
But on Facebook, several click media outlets (Gossip or Hockey) jumped on it without embarrassment. These media are not censored by the social network. So it was an open bar that took up the entire room and collected thousands of readers and a lot of advertising revenue.
Viral in Canada
And this rumor was especially circulating in Canada, because with the ban on journalistic content, these gossip media are taking up more space on Facebook.
Although several credible sportswriters have denied the report, Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson was forced to state Tuesday night that Perry’s actions did not affect any other player on the team or his family.
So there are dozens of websites that wrote everything and had tons of space for it on Facebook. And I obviously haven’t seen a single erratum. They don’t care at all.
On the contrary: they made a lot of money spreading this false story. And good luck finding the authors of these texts or the managers of these small media outlets. Everything is often anonymous. You are not accountable to anyone.
It was amazing to see how much they indulged in the titles and photo montages featuring Perry and Bedard’s mother.
I find it hard to believe you when you tell me that you saw a headline like this and didn’t click because you thought it was an unreliable website and it was probably fake. .
Especially when you have seen this message 14 times across different websites.
Discouraging for journalism schools
Even more spectacular is the process that led to the click media publishing this news. There is nothing more discouraging for journalism.
An anonymous X-Account (formerly Twitter) called HockeyyInsiderr published this story on Monday around 1 p.m.
By the way, this is the same account that announced that Vladimir Taransenko would be heading to Carolina this summer and that CH would be signing Matvei Michkov. It was wrong.
“According to a source close to the Blackhawks, Corey Perry left the team because he had close relationships with Connor Bedard’s mother. The team tried to sweep another sex scandal under the rug.”
So. That’s it. Hundreds of sites saw a comment on
In fact, they probably didn’t say that to each other. These sites don’t care whether it’s true or not.
But it just shows how ridiculous it is how the quality of information on such sites is controlled, and it shows that they are the ones who have become the source of information on Facebook.
And all of this on the backs of a woman and an 18 year old boy.