They normally write for a low rent newspaper (Journal de Montréal)

Fair enough assessment, I suppose. It should be noted, however, that the Journal does boast the third highest circulation in the country, behind only The Toronto Star and The Globe. To describe The Star as low rent in comparison to The Globe would also be a valid opinion. It just seems to me that your phrasing is intended to discredit the paper as invalid, when more people read it than any publication in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, or even your preferred source, Dater at The Denver Post.

The paper continues to get published by the Journal de Montreal executives

As Exit716 alludes to, these executives from Quebecor may have newspaper credentials, but are hardly the people to be counted on to deliver trustworthy local news. Aside from the obvious conflict of interest in having a media company vying to purchase the Habs, when that media company locks out all of its actual reporters, I find it hard to believe anything that they have to say. Thankfully, they had nothing to report, while their locked out reporters continued to do their jobs next door at Rue Frontenac.

Maybe neither party is trustworthy, in your mind, and that is fair enough. What struck me as odd, however, was your willingness to quote Dater as a reliable source, when he is the one cited as having quoted Rue Frontenac. When comparing Dater’s report to the original report, I’m sure you’d agree that his assertion that Billington would be offered “the co-GM position”, is the result of his misinterpretation or faulty translation, and that his emphasis of this point has, as thus, taken a strong foothold among the commenters on his site.

I knew Dater years ago, and continue to follow his Avalanche coverage semi-religiously. His unbiased approach to his beat is refreshing in today’s world, so I don’t want to cast him in a bad light at all. I just feel that it is worth noting that every chapter he has written in this Patrick Roy saga has been sourced from Canadian journalists, including those that you seem perfectly willing to dscredit.

Dater’s is a market with zero competition, save for the reporters at InDenverTimes.com, who used to have credentials when they served as “legitimate” reporters at the Rocky Mountain News. Since none of these three publications have the circulation of the Journal, one could describe them all as low rent newspapers.

But then, how accurate would that statement be?