Hawks-Thrashers owner takes AJC to ask

Joe: Not a leap at all. You had a potential situation of an owner ripping his own sports market. It's one thing to rip me, the paper, whatever. But if an owner -- or even one of his employees, for that matter -- is anonymously ripping the market where he owns a team, markets a team, publicly supports a team and is pitching the fans he's trying to sell to, seems to me it's a story. Again, this is NOT about criticism of me. I've got pretty thick skin.

On IP Addresses: No, we don't trace. There's no reason to or point to it. I could care less where praise or criticism comes from. We live in an age of anonymity. It is what it is. ... Bad analogy on the letter to the editor because he's the one who posted. And no, it doesn't make sense to delete a comment that might be from the owner on the suspicion it's the owner. It's backwards thinking. Why delete it? Delete it and THEN ask him? You serious?

On what separation is OK: That's a good question. Obviously, Owner A could tell No. 1 Son, post this comment. Or the guy in the office next to him. Or Fred in accounting. Happens all the time, I'm sure. So in that sense, I guess the separation is a member of ownership. The Atlanta Spirit has three owners who own UCG. But the IP address was UCG, not some crackpot sitting in the studio apartment, as you put it. Certain things said in various comments (not just the one posted) suggested it wasn't some guy far removed in the mailroom. I'll leave it at that.

As for what I need to rise above (or not), thanks for the peptalk. Fact is, I did so for a year. The only thing that prompted my posting here was Levenson writing his op-ed piece in Sports Business Journal (which by the way never phoned anybody at the AJC), then having it picked up by Poynter (which also never phoned). You'll note that neither I nor Kristi still commented on, although I believe our public editor finally wrote something last Sunday, only because we were getting quizzed by some readers via email who had been "Twittering" about it (honest). Only posted here because for somebody to make the suggestion here that we must be overly sensitive to criticism and that's why "Whammer's" IP address was traced was laughable and I felt I needed to clear the air once. That's all. No hidden agendas. You want to disagree, fine. I can live with that.

 

I hope this is missing the blue font. If not, it's a really stupid question.

Any team owner in any city, from a minor-league baseball team to an NHL owner, who rips the city and fans becomes newsworthy if a newspaper has any shred of credibility and pursues that story.

 

But my point was, and remains, how did the AJC know a poster might be the owner of a local franchise (ripping the fans in that town or not) without running down the IP address in the first place?

Is that the default position: Check out all IP addresses in case something gets sent from a computer that might belong to an owner or other public figure? Seems to me someone was tracing the IP addresses IN ORDER TO find out if it was Levenson or someone in close proximity, rather than having any evidence that it might be him/them and THEN checking the IP address.