- Reaction score
- 4,624
- Points
- 1,160
Cherry is on CBC, if he said anything remotely close to supporting the war, he'd either be fired or on an even longer tape delay.
More here.A couple of PhD students at the University of Western Ontario have been dedicating their research time to a deep textual analysis -of Coach's Corner.
John Nater and Robert Maciel watched Hockey Night in Canada as part of their graduate work in policical science at the London, Ont., university. After parsing the words of Don Cherry through the entire 2009-2010 season, the pair con-cluded that the "coach" was about as likely to discuss politically charged subjects as he was to talk about the nominal focus of the segments: hockey.
The study looked at whether Coach's Corner, which often focuses on Canada's military, could carve "an understanding of Canadian identity through the lens of hockey analysis."
Nater says the view of Canada often espoused by Cherry in his broadcasts seems to be restrictive in some aspects and essentially offers a onesided view to millions of people each week.
"His view of Canadian identity would appear to be a limited one, focused very much on traditional Canadian immigration from western Europe and the United Kingdom," Nater said Tuesday. "The concern is it does exclude a large segment of the population ... from non-traditional ethnicities.
"He is entitled to represent these views and put out his understanding of (national) identity, but the challenge with his position is they are not challenged. He is presented as a hockey commentator and there's no challenge function to what he says on non-hockey-related issues."
Nater and Maciel spent about 10 months working on the study. Their analysis found that Cherry's support of the Canadian Forces was very prominent and the reach of his views could extend far beyond Canada's massive base of hockey fans.
"On a consistent basis, he is almost as likely to talk about the military (as) he is to talk about hockey itself," Nater said. "It's tough to gauge the impact of how that affects the general public, but Hockey Night in Canada is one of the toprated programs throughout the season. His audience is huge, he has a very large following independent of hockey, so the impact is likely very widespread."
The study, which is still in progress and pending academic review, is titled The Wrath of Grapes: Don Cherry and the Militarization of Hockey. It was presented Tuesday at the Canadian Political Science Association convention at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo ....
milnews.ca said:Reviving necrothread to add "academic" proof Don's a warmonger