Editing a Legend

The wrong pronunciation or misspelling of a name is a no-no when it comes to journalism.

It's a mistake that can possibly stay with the journalist for a long time.

For Canadian television personality Don Cherry, these "mistakes" are just a part of his character. Cherry is widely known for his disapproval of European and French hockey players. And one of the ways he shows his "love" towards these players is by absolutely botching their names. Whether it's on purpose, or whether he just can't get the hang of those names, it's rare that Don will go through one episode of his "Coach's Corner" intermission show without getting tongue-tied over a name.

In fact, if our instructor Duncan McMonagle gave us a transcript of a Coach's Corner episode to view for our "Spot the Screw-up" assignment that we occasionally get, the paper would be filled with scribbles and marks from our editing.

Here are some of Don's finest examples:

Roberto Luongo "La-longo played good tonight"

J.S. Giguere (jig-AIR) "Gig-air made some great saves"

Jaroslav Halak "Havlak played poorly tonight"

Alexei Ponikarovsky "Pokahonsky was horrible"

And the suits at CBC really have no idea what Cherry is going to say before he comes in, and they can't really control or edit his opinions.



A famous quote from former Hockey Night in Canada producer Ralph Mellanby goes like this:

"Canada has two official languages (French and English) and Cherry doesn't speak either one of them."

Amazing that a guy can become one of the most iconic television personalities in Canadian history with his english skills.

An example of this language can be found in his book titled "Don Cherry's Hockey Stories and Stuff". All the stories in this book are written in a "Don Cherry conversational manner", as if he was telling you the stories face to face over a beer.

Here's the intro to his book:

"I’d like this book to be just like we’re sittin’ down tellin’ stories in my own language. I know I’ll be criticized because for some reason people are not too thrilled with the way I speak.

In fact, CBC wanted to fire me my first month on Hockey Night in Canada. The brass told my boss, Ralph Mellanby, “This guy is awful. Get him off the air. We owe it to the English-speaking children of Canada.” I stayed because Ralph, who had just won an Emmy or somethin’ for the Olympics, said, “If he goes, I go.” But Ralph stayed and said, “I have to admit, Canada is a land of two official languages and Cherry speaks neither.” It kinda hurt my feelings.

So don’t blame Random House or Al Strachan for the way the book is presented, I wanted the book to be like a couple of guys sittin’ down with a few pops tellin’ hockey stories.

I hope you enjoy it."

(P.S. The "Emmy or Somethin' comment" makes me laugh)

Despite alot of questioning by CBC brass when he first started, Cherry was kept on and now 30 years later, look what has happened. And we all know Cherry is there for one reason. To speak his mind and therefore boost the ratings of Hockey Night in Canada.

The fact of the matter, though, is he has been botching names for the last 20 years and has made no attempt to get better at it.

If any other television personality was doing this, they would be ripped in the media until they were eventually removed. And sure, some of the media love Cherry as much as cats like mice. But he somehow gets away with it every single time without any sort of punishment, other than a 7-second delay he recieved back in 2003.

I guess there's no point in trying to edit a legend.