Our boy, Ron MacLean

Ron MacLean and Colin Campbell on Hockey Night in Canada.

Usually in Canada there’s not a whole of lot of bad things said about CBC’s Ron MacLean. He’s a seasoned sports journalist and broadcaster with a wealth of hockey knowledge and a good head on his shoulders. I’ve always thought that MacLean has done a fairly good job of asking the tough questions and letting his interview subjects speak for themselves. That is, not allow himself and his personal biases and opinions get in the way of a fair interview.

That was until last night.

MacLean interviewed NHL VP of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell on the hot topic of Alexandre Burrows versus Stephane Auger. What ensued, to me, was an embarrassment to MacLean’s reputation.

At various times during the interview MacLean let his opinions as a referee get in the way of his responsibilities as a journalist. When showing the clip of Burrows being hit by Jerred Smithson, MacLean’s comments were not only outwardly biased – which isn’t the biggest issue – but were purely speculative.

For example when Burrows was down on the ice MacLean speculated that he told his teammate Luongo: “Don’t worry, I’m okay. I’m just going to see if I can get more bang for the buck here.”

And then he says Burrows tells the trainer: “Don’t worry, has he signaled five yet?”

MacLean may be right, Burrows could have said those things. But there’s no proof. I understand what he was trying to do: set up a scene and then get Campbell to corroborate it or not. But what he ended up doing is answering Campbell’s question for him. Not exactly what a journalist is supposed to do.

MacLean then went on to say that the hit by Smithson was “obviously just a glancing blow.” Yeah, maybe when you’re watching it in slow motion.

I get it, we all have our opinions and we all have our take on whether Burrows embellished the hit or not. I happen to agree with MacLean that he did exaggerate. But to let that get in the way of asking the questions instead of answering them is a shame to the journalistic process and the integrity of an interview.

Whether MacLean and Campbell are pals or not, and whether MacLean has reffed an NHL exhibition game or not, and whether MacLean needs to tread lightly to continue to have Gary Bettman at the all-star game doesn’t matter. What matters are the substantive facts.

It’s not Ron MacLean’s job to call Alex Burrows a diver or paint any player in any light. Especially when he’s purely speculating. He should leave that to Don Cherry and focus on doing his job: asking the questions.

Here’s the first part of the interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaNNvFCm9XE&feature=related. You be the judge. And I’ll admit it, MacLean gets back to presenting both sides and doing his job in the latter portion of the interview which can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py0avvER-qw.