Pat Burns not dead, despite reports
Posted September 17, 2010 6:21 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, Ont. – Friday was a morning of conflicting reports that former NHL coach Pat Burns was dead at 58.
He is alive and at home with his family, but not doing well, according to a former Maple Leaf who spoke to the FAN590 who did not want to be named.
Rumours on the Internet led several sources across the country to report Burns had died of cancer. As a result, Burns contacted those outlets to say his death announcement was premature.
TSN hockey analyst Bob McKenzie said Burns told him ” ‘I come to Quebec to spend some time with my family and they say I’m dead. I’m not dead, far f—– from it. They’ve had me dead since June. Tell (them) I’m alive. Set them straight’.”
The story has brought about the issue of mainstream newsrooms turning to Twitter and Facebook for breaking information, but University of Toronto professor and social media expert Andrew Clement does not blame social media for mainstream media outlets reporting false facts.
“If regular media do their job, generally, of checking facts, of making sure that what you’re saying is actually accurate, such things won’t happen,” he told 680News.
“The characteristics of the new media in terms of their speed and the kinds of audiences they can reach, do play a factor,” he added.
“People will of course come up with all kinds of things, whether genuinely or just out of mischief. That hasn’t changed – it just means the effects of that are spread a little more quickly.”
Clement said that some media outlets may jump on a story due to sensationalism surrounding it, failing to critically analyze or verify the facts.
This scenario is similar to the Gordon Lightfoot death rumour back in February 2010. Several news sources reported the Canadian folk singer was dead. Lightfoot confirmed on-air on 680News that he was actually alive and well.
680 did not report the rumours that Burns had died because they could not be confirmed.
Burns was the coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs from the 1992 season until the 1995 season.
He has been suffering from terminal lung cancer since 2009.
