I'm pretty big on morality, so making sure that, as a journalist, I do my job and do it the right way is something that is extremely important to me.
I wan to write the best stories I possibly can, but I want it all to be the truth.
At the same time, however, I do realize there are lines that can be crossed. If someone being interviewed wants to say something off-the-record, then I have enough respect to keep that promise and keep it out of print.
Unfortunately, former Flyers beat writer Randy Miller (South Jersey Courier Post) didn't have the same idea.
The Flyers bought out the contract of goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov at the beginning of the summer. Now, Bryzgalov was always a topic of conversation for Flyers fans due to his unique personality and inconsistent play and there were many fans that didn't like him because of that.
Bryzgalov also developed issues with the Philadelphia media towards the end of his two year run with the Flyers, calling the reporters out for being unprofessional after a report of him falling asleep in a team meeting came out.
When Bryzgalov finally got bought out, Miller called him for a quote, but Bryzgalov hung up on him. Then Miller opened up the floodgates with a bunch of tweets revealing information about the goaltender that was never reported on.
Miller then tweeted this when he started getting some backlash:
So instead of keeping off-the-record material actually off-the-record, Miller went ahead and put all of that out there for the world to see.
This happened at the beginning of the summer, but this still doesn't sit right with me to this day.
Miller has since been laid off by the Courier Post, but cutbacks were cited as the reason why.
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