By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

Shots is serving a self-imposed, suspension this week for my part in the BB and BB rumors that swirled during the Super Bowl run-up and earlier this week. Before the suspension can begin, please allow me to clarify some things in hopes you will get a little background into the sloppiness I displayed last week. I ask that you indulge me for a few hundred words and then return to the site for a regularly scheduled Shots next week:

As we all now know, the Blogosphere and the Internet as a whole have become the dumping ground for all the news that DOESN’T fit. Rumors, innuendo and accusations float freely and the consumer is expected to separate the wheat form the chafe. Shots, in the existence of this space and throughout my professional career, has ordinarily treaded lightly on such matters. I was groomed on the Time Inc. fact-checking system, long-recognized as one of the most stringent and rigorous in all of publishing. It serves as an excellent foundation for what is publishable and what isn’t.

Last week, for a multitude of reasons (or more likely excuses), I abandoned portions of that grooming and surreptitiously attempted to report on a “huge” rumor that was emanating from Detroit regarding a possible liaison between Bonnie Bernstein and a like-initialed coach who roams nearby sidelines. So intense were the emails and phone calls to Shots last week, that I justified the presentation of the rumor as being “the story of the rumor itself.” (Remember the curious Boston Magazine rumor of a rumor story regarding a certain Red Sox pitcher? A story I hated reading, but one that I understood the ethos of completely.)

In reporting the news of Bersntein’s CBS sideline departure, I also included some speculation about the rampant Super Bowl rumor. More than anything, what I thought the item was doing was showing how, in today’s Internet world, the story of a rumor becomes THE story. But there were other consequences and Bernstein’s name, especially, was unnecessarily dragged through the mud with little to no basis, reason or merit.

Furthering my boldness was the coincidence of Bernstein’s departure from the CBS-TV sideline (with three years remaining on her contract) and some Internet undercurrent that the professional separation was based on inappropriate relations Bernstein was supposedly having with NFL employees at one level or another.

In hindsight, all of those various forms of fact and fiction, were a poor justification for including the rumor in last week’s Shots and that is a decision I now regret. In my race to show how “inside” I could be, I tripped on my shoelaces. It won’t happen again, I promise you. And that it did happen, I am sorry for.

Shots has been assured by both an entry at Bernstein’s own website and several reliable sources with knowledge of Bernstein’s situation that she left her job of her own volition. In fact, the decision had been made in November, and Bernstein deliberately decided not to have a release put out at that time. However, as she began to say her goodbyes following the AFC Championship game, word trickled out about her departure and the rumor mill began spinning into overdrive.

It seemed easier to accept the notion that Bernstein was having inappropriate relationships with a coach or player than it was to accept the reality that Bernstein was leaving to pursue other interests, including, but not limited to, the development of her own consulting business, The Velvet Hammer. (The first line of text at the site might give a clue as to how these things snowball: “The competition is fierce in the world of broadcasting. . .”) Some of her other, planned, future endeavors were chronicled here by Teddy Greenstein this week.

Further, multiple sources have also confirmed that Bernstein and the coach in question do not have any regular contact. “The coach treats Bonnie with the same indifference he does the rest of the media,” said one source.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I did follow up last week’s entry with requests for comment from the Patriots’ PR staff – Stacey James, in a Sunday email exchange, questioned my professionalism and refused to comment on the matter. I explained that the story had legs and that I was giving him the chance to be pro-active rather than reactive. He still declined to comment, but did get the word out through the Herald’s Track Gals that the rumor was “preposterous.”)

As I mentioned last week, I have had the opportunity to sit down one-on-one with Bernstein in the past and I find her intelligent, gifted and one of the premiere talents in her industry. In my somewhat selfish desire to have the rumor be true for the sake of juicy gossip, I ignored my basic instincts that told me she would never put herself in such a ludicrous position.

You can be sure that I will be more careful with such rumor and innuendo in the future and I thank all of you who expressed your opinions (both good and bad) on the matter. I also want to thank My Boss Bruce Allen for allowing me to screw up on the small stage and learn as a I grow – we are all still learning and growing in this New Media world, of that I am certain. Bruce provides me an influential and visible platform to comment on media matters and I abused that platform in this instance.

I will, you should know, continue to responsibly (and with sources) speculate on job moves and critique the media makers near and far, but I will not allow myself to be caught in the web of rumors and falsehoods that populate the ‘Net, the news and the netherworld therein.

Thanks and I’ll get with you again next week.

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. and can be reached at shots@bostonsportsmediadotcom