The Story of Eklund

So did anyone read this article posted today? Eklund Plagiarises LA Kings Beat Writer

It got me thinking about how little I knew about Eklund and his HockeyBuzz empire. The info below might not be news to some of you that have frequented his site for a long time, but I certainly found it interesting.

It does shed a negative light on "The Anonymous Blogger", but I'm not posting to bash him. I want to share what I found today doing a few simple Google searches. I find his story fascinating! Think about it: how many anonymous individuals have the following that Eklund does? I'm sure there are others out there, but as a hockey (and sports in general) fan I can't think of anyone else in the sports world.

So without further ado.... "The Story of Dwayne Keith Klessel Eklund" through a couple weblinks (in chonological order):

Who Is Eklund, And Why Is He Blogging?

The Eklund Thread *Caution Spoiler Inside*

Sweet Tea, Barbecue, and Bodychecks

*** the most comprehensive story with plenty of other links inside:
Unmasked & Anonymous: Answering Ethical Questions About a Blogger Named Eklund


And lastly, I leave you with my favorite pic of Eklund:
http://www.greyeyeglances.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=10&pos=0

sorry peter puck...i just saw that you posted this couple days ago, i posted same thing basically in another spot...your has more detail..thanks..

WhamBamCam wrote:sorry peter puck...i just saw that you posted this couple days ago, i posted same thing basically in another spot...your has more detail..thanks..

It's funny... we all give Eklund Dung, and me most of all... but he got wind of the McCabe trade days before anyone else... AND he was talking about Lang to Montreal for about a week before it happened. All this in the last couple of weeks.

It might be a case of "keep swinging till you hit"; I don't know. But for all his BS and for all his unbelievably silly rumours, he does get it right sometimes.

Unbelievable. Very strange stuff.

The story of Eklund being a fictional person and being made up by league officials to mess with people, seems like the most likely scenario. It explains how he can get things right, from time-to-time, but also be incredibly ridiculous other times...
And the one key piece of evidence is the writting quality of his various blogs and how it changes dramatically.

Exactly!!
It's changed constantly and quite dramatically, so painfully obvious at times.

And as for league officialls being "in' on it, it makes sense as well. Make him sound absurd so no one puts MUCH stock in him and every once in a while, throw him a bone so people don't COMPLETELY abandon his site or rumors...

All in all, pretty sad and yet comical nonetheless.

The problem with eklund is that he behaves like a journalist but doesn't explicitly say that he is one. It's kind of hard to pin any amount of blame on him given the fact that he does do his work and reports rumors. For instance, he'll be talking with his network of contacts and someone will mention 'Player X to Team Y for Player Z'; but, they'll say, this is 'off-the-record', so he can't really say much more than the rumor itself without attribution.
He then might call around to other contacts that are affiliated with either of the players or teams involved in the rumor and ask about the validity of the information.
He might get nothing, he might get confirmation, or he might get people that expand on the rumor.

The whole problem with eklund is that he has the demeanor of a journalist - in that he 'interviews' contacts to get stories and then uses that information to acquire even more information - unfortunately, he doesn't write up his work as to include attributions since he never names his sources.

So, people just assume that he makes it up, or that he hears something but he makes it more fantastical than it is. And although he does tend to stick to the same stories for extended periods of time (Mats Sundin, Peter Forsberg, etc...), it's only a by-product of what's actually being talked about in hockey circles.

I think people are too harsh on the guy, and sometimes take things for granted. They will often criticize his methods, but not understand or try to comprehend his thought process. So, most of his blog entries end up riddled with messages from other users that aim to discredit him simply by implying that the information he is presenting is not plausible when that poster has no certain manner of confirming it.

In short, he's not as fraudulent as people make him out to be, and it's a by-product of the limbo he's in between being an anonymous internet hockey blogger and an information-collecting 'journalist'.

Eklund is not a person - I am 99.9% certain of that.

cash wrote:Eklund is not a person - I am 99.9% certain of that.

What the hell are you talking about? What is he then? A cybernetic organism sent from the future to terminate the mother of the leader of the human resistance against SkyNet?

PKC wrote:

cash wrote:Eklund is not a person - I am 99.9% certain of that.

What the hell are you talking about? What is he then? A cybernetic organism sent from the future to terminate the mother of the leader of the human resistance against SkyNet?

Whoa, take a deep breath. Serenity now.

It's widely speculated that "Eklund" is a fictional persona, created and orchestrated by a group of people. That would mean that there's no one person who is "Eklund," but rather a group of guys who get information and collectively post it under the one name.

It's a pretty popular theory and it makes some sense. It would explain, for instance, certain discrepancies in writing style and reasoning -- why he writes like a 6-year-old at sometimes and a real journalist at others, why some of his rumours are ridiculous and others are very close to the mark, and so on. It would also explain how "he" seems to have "his" hands in so many cookie jars at once.

LOL... Wow this is alot bigger than I thought it was... I didn't think Eklund was that big.. LOL

the thing with false personas or alternate identities is that they ALL inevitably get outted, so to speak.

Yeah well it looks like Eks credibility is really taking it hard... That whole site really... Supposedly Kevin Lee is just as bad for false rumours and over-eager banishment! LOL :bounce: