By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
August 22, 2016
On Sunday morning, former Detroit Free Press assistant sports editor (and current NHL.com writer) Nick Cotsonika had a Twitter exchange with Sports Illustrated media writer Richard Deitsch.
The back-and-forth started when Cotsonika questioned the journalistic ethics involved in a story that Fox Sports‘ Ben Way happened upon regarding the Ryan Lochte “robbery” story in relation to an interview Way did with Ileana Lochte, the swimmer’s mother.
Here is that exchange ….
Now, why am I writing about this subject? Well, I think it’s hilarious for two reasons.
One, Cotsonika now works for a website run by the NHL and Gary Bettman in particular. It’s not true journalism and you have to wonder if a supposed journalist like Cotsonika would even be allowed to post an article on NHL.com that contradicted Bettman’s horrific stance on brain injuries and CTE.
I mean, do you REALLY think Cotsonika could write an article titled “Why Gary Bettman Really Should Have Kept His Mouth Shut on CTE” now that he is currently a de facto employee of the league?
Well, he did write that exact article over a year ago when he was earning a paycheck from Yahoo! Sports.
Writing for the “official website” of the league is more paid public relations than actual journalism and Cotsonika should really keep his mouth quiet about other folks’ ethical issues.
But that’s not all. Cotsonika was the assistant sports editor at the Freep during the time period when columnist Drew Sharp plagiarized the work of blogger David Harns for his story about the friendship between Connor Cook and Miranda McCoy.
The DSR gave ample opportunity for Cotsonika to react to the fact that Sharp not only stole the work of the iSportsWeb.com writer, but also lied to his boss Kevin Bull about said theft.
And did Cotsonika Tweet about that situation?
Did Cotsonika have “a lot of questions about how this went down from a journalism standpoint”?
Uh, no. This was Cotsonika’s response to my inquiries ….
Yep, the same dude who is concerned about Ben Way’s journalistic ethics decided to remain mute regarding plagiarism in his OWN SHOP.
When Cotsonika decided to leave the toxic Freep sports section after a whopping eight month stint and head to Bettman’s lair, I once again gave him the chance to address the Sharp plagiarism scandal …
So to summarize, Cotsonika refused to discuss Sharp’s theft of another writer’s work both while he was still employed at the Freep and after he had left. He said he wouldn’t answer me when I questioned about it because he does not respect me. Finally, Cotsonika refused to discuss the issue with former Freep writer Steve “Motor City Muckraker” Neavling.
But he sure wanted to get to the bottom of how Ben Way got that information from Lochte’s mommy!!!!!
The irony in Cotsonika leaving the Freep for NHL.com is he is now working with a writer named Brian Hedger. If that name rings a bell with you it’s because Hedger accused Mitch Albom of plagiarism back in May of 2013 over a column the Keebler Elf wrote about a Wings/Blackhawks playoff series.
Since Cotsonika refuses to address any of this publicly, you’d have to wonder if his time at the Freep was brief because of dissatisfaction over how the paper handled the Harns situation.
Because as compromising as it is to work for a corporate website like NHL.com, it’s a helluva lot better than writing for a newspaper that publicly ignored two plagiarism scandals; let a COLUMNIST with an axe to grind run an investigation of Rich Rodriguez; and replaced baseball writer John Lowe with a child who has a checkered history with women — including sexually harassing one at his college newspaper.
We are still waiting for Cotsonika to Tweet about any of THAT.
(You can follow the writer of this piece on Twitter @JeffMossDSR. Also, you can join in on the discussion of this article on Facebook by clicking here.)
