Good For Don Cherry

It's not lost on me how bizarre and infantile Montrealers have been acting when it comes to the CBC and Don Cherry. It was so bad that it reduced The Montreal Gazette (from columnists to letters to the editors) from a newspaper to a tabloid for thin-skinned babies.

Ugly stuff.

Not only was it shockingly one-sided and selective it was borderline incoherent and libel.

Although Cherry doesn't really need this blog to defend him as he can dish it out and take it - unlike some Gazette writers and some Montrealers.

As I said, we're good at stirring the pot when it suits us but the minute someone else stirs it with ingredients we disapprove of, we're up in arms. Such immaturity.

I'm glad Cherry used a few minutes on Coach's Corner to defend himself (without making any apologies) and scold us whiny Montrealers.

Too bad most of those who attack him were watching the blase RDS.

Of course, this won't stop them from grilling him anyway. After all, everyone picks and chooses what they want to hear and shout these days.

He's not anti-Montreal. I never detected that much from him. He's a Boston Bruin. End of story. This doesn't offend me as a Montrealer. We really should get over ourselves.

Nor is he a journalist. He's paid to provide opinions. There's a lot of things I don't like about Montreal sports radio and The Gazette (heck, I don't always agree with Cherry) but I personally choose to avoid as much as possible the level of anger Montrealers have exhibited in their excessive personal attacks on him.

And for those of you who will counter the CBC is national broadcaster, recall that Quebec hasn't exactly worked hard at wanting to be a part of the Canadian mosaic.

Besides, we have Radio-Canada as the French-language CBC to serve this market. RDS or R-C are both free to dictate the flow of their programming as they see fit. Furthermore, has anyone watched the wretched TQS and their sport show 110%? A show that exists to push and often go over the envelope? TQS once had the classless nerve to throw a hardcore, former FLQ seperatist on their panel during the insipid Shane Doan affair.

Why did they do that? What possibly could people have gained from it? Raymond Villeneuve did not disappoint. He proceeded to showcase no ability to talk sports and his awful ignorance when he called Canada a "nation of assholes."

Not one person on the panel said anything. No apologies. No outcry.

Luck us.

The difference is one is a parochial sports talk show that no one watches except for Quebecers and the other is watched nationally and is constantly scrutinized.

Like I said, lucky us.