Reporting In The Modern Era: The Nichushkin Story Dilemma

Is reporting on a player's "personal reasons" too much in today's sensitive age?

When I came up as a reporter at The Denver Post in the early 1990s, I basically had one directive from my bosses: “If you get beat on a story, don’t bother showing up to work tomorrow.”

When I tell you it was a newspaper war between us at the Post and the other guys at the Rocky Mountain News, I mean, it was pretty close to the actual thing. They wanted to truly kill us, and we truly wanted to kill them. For me, I took it very seriously, as a new hire to the Post.

Get the best story, period. That was always my inner directive. And, preferably, be first on every story, too. Don’t get beat on the news of the day. If you do, don’t bother showing up for work the next day.

I bring this up, after some reflection on today’s Avalanche news of the day, or at least of the last 24 hours.

What I would have considered a HUGE story back in the day - a top player on the Avs - Valeri Nichushkin, leaves the team in the middle of a series because of “personal reasons” - happened yesterday.

For me, the instant question was: what happened? What’s the real story? How do I get that information as fast as I can and get it to my readers?

I made a very early-morning call to Nichushkin’s agent, then did some poking around and found out the Seattle Fire Department and EMTs - and maybe the police department too - came to the Avs hotel yesterday afternoon on an “aid service” call. It’s part of the public record in Seattle.

This all happened, I’ve learned, about an hour before Nichushkin left the hotel - and Seattle itself - with the team-described “personal reasons” explanation.

I have no idea if the Seattle FD/EMT visit is connected to anything related to Nichushkin. But, it’s my job - or so I still think - to ask about it.

Yet, to listen to half of my Twitter mentions today, after posting about the on-the-public-record Seattle FD response to a call, I had NO business inquiring about this.

Except, well: OK, I hear you, but Nichushkin is a public figure and that means there are some different rules when it comes to media/privacy.

As an Avs fan who will pay good money to go to Game 5 Wednesday night in Denver, don’t you think it’s your business to know why a player whose salary you are helping to pay - don’t you think you have a “right” to know why Nichushkin likely won’t play?

Does any public figure who says “personal reasons” never have to account to the public for anything they do?

I am in a different stage of my career now. I don’t consider myself a “beat writer” anymore. I’m not with the team every day anymore. I still think I’m dialed into the team in many ways still, with good sources. But I’m not with the team on the road every day and night. But either way, I don’t need to prove myself anymore as a reporter on the Avalanche. I’ve been there and done all that. I looked it up recently and: from 1995-2023, I’ve flown about 1.6 million miles on the airlines and stayed in hotel rooms almost 1,600 nights - or four full years of my life. For the most part, I loved all of it, but I also paid a price in other ways: Insomnia, stress, loneliness, depression, some alchoholism to fill the void, poor diet and overall health.

It’s time for me to sit back a little and pontificate from the clouds, and let the kids do some of the heavy lifting. I still want to know what’s going on, but I’m not killing myself anymore, physically and mentally, to do that. I would like to be more of a mentor to kids coming up now than Mr. Big Shot. I’m tired of the rat race and ego machinations that are a big part of sports media.

I will sit back and watch with great interest who among the Avs “beat media” can crack this Nichushkin story first. Are they up to the task? So far, all I’ve read are team PR-supplied updates, all accentuating the positive from an Avalanche team standpoint. Are they real reporters, or just stenographers? There is a massive difference. For me anyway, I could never sleep at night if I didn’t break the news first. That doesn’t make me a hero. It doesn’t mean I am better than anyone else. But it means that I would never rest until I got the full story, and, hopefully, the first to get it.

I don’t sense the same urgency among today’s younger generation. But maybe that’s because times have changed so much in the mainstream media. Do they even care anymore? Their organizations are so hollowed out financially now, that maybe apathy is all that’s really left. If news falls in the forest, does it make a sound?

When I did post what I knew today, on Twitter, it didn’t take long for the “It’s none of your/our business Dater, stop prying” blowback to begin. I have a strong hunch the silent majority wants the story and will reward the reporter that breaks the full details first. But maybe that’s a quaint notion today, I’m not totally sure.

I think I already know many of the details. Something clearly happened at that hotel yesterday. But I can’t just report on what I have “heard” and what I know as an absolute fact.

What I know is an absolute fact is the Seattle Fire Department and EMTs were at the Avs team hotel yesterday afternoon, and Nichushkin was whisked out of town right afterward. Are they connected? I don’t know that for a fact. Maybe not. I’m not saying there is a connection. Just saying what I know to this point.

I feel confident in saying this much: this has nothing to do with Nichushkin being drafted into the Russian army by Putin. That’s pure horse hockey.

Whatever the real story is, I believe that it’s still in the interest of Avalanche fans to know. That doesn’t mean every single little detail about Nichushkin’s private life has to be revealed. Of course not. Not at all.

But, like it or not, what happened with him IS a story, and, last I checked anyway, it was part of a reporter’s job description to get the full story.

But maybe I’m being too quaint in my older years?