From My Mom's Basement: Ken Campbell's Guide to Ruining a Career

The Hockey News is a wonderful magazine. They employ a number of fine writers and reporters, generally walking the line of opinion and fact much the same way all sportswriters do. I am a subscriber, and a new one at that. I have generally only read the magazine for draft news and the Future Watch edition, but I know THN is a widely respected source for hockey news.

That is, until today. 

Make the jump and let's look at what happened, what got us here, and what happens next.

The original article ran June 9th, on THN's website, and to be brutally honest, accused Leipold and Falcone of some serious crimes. Now, a reporter has the duty to report news such as this... so long as it is true, and so long as they have rock hard evidence to support it. We would certainly be talking the other way had THN not run it and it turned out to be true, right?

However, Ken Campbell, someone with bone fide journalistic credentials, ran a story using the all too available "anonymous sources" to run a quote that reads:

Del Biaggio is currently in prison, if memory serves correctly.

Let's be clear on a couple things, OK? Craig Leipold has plenty of money. He made his own fortune, and then married into the Johnson family, better known to the world as SC Johnson. To drop common sense by the wayside and say that Leipold needed a loan to purchase the Minnesota Wild seems disingenuous at best, and could be civilly liable at worst. 

In the world where Eklund can run fake rumors from anonymous sources and make money off of it, it is difficult to believe that libel and slander still exist, but they do. And they are not fun for an organization and reporter to refute or come back from. The one thing journalists value more than anything is their reputation. Fair and accurate. They have to be, other wise, they are Eklund on a grander stage. 

To their credit, THN did issue the retraction and apology:

And to his credit, via Mike Russo, Craig Leipold issued a statement in response to the retraction and apology:

If you will notice, no where in there does Mr. Leipold say that this is the end of the matter. Campbell opened a major can of worms by calling out two multi-billionaires, and you can bet these two gentlemen did not appreciate having their names dragged through the mud, even if the article was pulled. We have not heard the last of this story, folks. 

What it Means

Whether or not Ken Campbell has a career left is for the readers to decide. If people trust his word after this, that is their decision, and the market with bear out. Whether or not he has a job with The Hockey News is up to the editor-in-chief of THN. It is not our place to pass judgement on his career, but with the story still available online (and will be forever), Campbell's mistake certainly proves one thing:

Any clown with a computer can post whatever they want. 

stick tap to Greg Wyshynski for bringing the retraction to my attention, and to Russo for being all over the story yet again. 

Editor's note: the original text identified Mr. Leipold's wife's company as Johnson & Johnson. It is, in fact, SC Johnson. We apologize for that error.