How former NHL stars can cause...

Playing in the NHL provides unquestionably notoriety and a stage. After seasons of success and acclaim, elite NHL players' voices and identities are magnified. Fans, on the other hand, frequently conflate on-ice ability with off-ice social and political understanding.

When famous athletes' platforms are used to express views, sometimes harmful ideas are given undue weight. Even when confronted with facts that contradict these opinions, research indicates that once established, beliefs are difficult to alter, and star support and opinion has a strong influence in molding behaviors.

Teemu Selanne, one such athlete, has become increasingly vocal about politics and societal problems, drawing false parallels between California's population decline and a legislation restricting police canine violence. He also expressed anti-refugee views and, more recently, connected the mass murder in Nashville to being transgender.

"Are you serious? Do you now feel sad for the transgender community? Wow …Trans women just murdered six defenseless people, and you feel terrible for them.... Jesus Christ..." Selanne responded on Twitter to US Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre's claim that the transgender population in America is under assault. Selanne tried to backtrack hours later, but his initial viewpoint reached nearly two million more people than the self-rebutting response.

The growing inability of media consumers to distinguish between views and false or pseudo-information and truth is a major reason why educational systems are rushing to adopt media literacy training in the classroom. According to the National Association for Media Literacy Education, media literacy is the ability to "understand the messages we receive as well as effectively use these tools to design and distribute our own messages." Literacy in the media world necessitates critical thinking skills that strengthen us as we make choices in the classroom, living room, workplace, office, or voting box."

In addition to assaults on journalism in North America, journalists charged with reporting on and evaluating what athletes say openly face backlash.

Fleury frequently posts information saying that the government and media deliberately deceive the public, which he refers to as "the false truth of the commercializations of lies." Fleury, on the other hand, frequently posts views from media sources, lawmakers, and conspiracy theorists with whom he agrees ideologically. According to Allain, this is another cause of the false equivalence between famous sports and correct knowledge and information dissemination.

"When celebrities repeat widely held beliefs, they lend incredible weight to these ideas - even when they are harmful," Allain explained. "Right-wing populists have worked hard to create the illusion of democratic equality by giving all ideas equal weight - even when this is completely false."

According to McKee, persistent efforts to disparage journalists, combined with journalists' fear of retaliation from teams, sources, and organizations, have resulted in athletes' baseless views going unchallenged.

"Even though athletes may receive more media coverage than previous generations, they are frequently not held accountable for their public stances, because further scrutiny may cause journalists to lose privileged access," McKee explained.

"Furthermore, in the minds of some athletes, the sheer number of those who subscribe to hear their thoughts, literally agreeing to 'follow' or 'like' them validates the legitimacy of their opinions." The NHL, and by extension the homosocial environments found in the vast majority of hockey dressing rooms, produce environments in which these ideas, worldviews, and theories frequently go unchecked and accepted, even many years after players' departure for the sake of safeguarding their images and reputations."

Athletes, according to experts, have a say and the right to use their position to demonstrate, advocate, and disseminate information. However, as previously stated, players' star position does not provide unambiguous support for those ideas or views.