Latest Bruins Media Beef Is as Silly as All Previous Bruins Media Beefs

Can't we all just get along?

Photo by Kyle Clauss

Photo by Kyle Clauss

You don’t see stuff like this in any other sports team media in Boston. Patriots beat writers often keep to themselves, united in the trauma of weekly Bill Belichick press conferences. The Celtics and Revs press corps don’t make much noise either, and the Red Sox media is relatively well-behaved, with only the occasional hiccup.

But in the Bruins press box high above the TD Garden ice on Level 9, it’s another story. Every few weeks, tensions between new and old media, male and female reporters, skeptics and apologists, boils over onto Twitter in spectacular fashion.

The latest Bruins media beef involves some familiar faces. It began when Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe subtweeted Joe Haggerty of Comcast Sportsnet New England.

Keep in mind, Benjamin and Haggerty have something of a history. Last year, Benjamin and Matt Kalman levied a similar charge against the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association chapter president.

And in 2013, around this time of year…

Fast-forward to present day. Former Bruins writer, then Montreal Canadiens writer, and now Bruins writer again Jimmy Murphy came to Haggerty’s defense, as is his wont.

Murphy defending Haggerty is nothing new. In an excellent piece from October, Paul Wheeler at Stanley Cup of Chowder demonstrated how Haggerty floated Brad Marchand for Patrick Marleau rumors in a since-deleted blog post on CSNNE.com, Murphy reported on Haggerty’s rumors on his own blog, and CSNEE later credited Murphy for the thoroughly debunked pseudoscoop. Wheeler calls it a “hot take ouroboros,” and there really isn’t a more apt description.

The blowback Haggerty received for running with—again, thoroughly debunked—additional rumors concerning Marchand and Bruins captain Zdeno Chara inspired a lengthy post on Murphy’s blog, titled, “When did reporting on possible trades become offensive?”

Haggerty, meanwhile, has shared beefs with any number of Bruins writers and bloggers, like expert GIFsman Pete Blackburn of Uproxx…

and even the author of this piece.

Someday, the Bruins media will resolve their differences, log off Twitter, join hands in the press box, and sit down to a sumptuous, stale hot pretzel banquet.