Spotted: Reaction to possible law suit against Don Cherry

Our story about possible legal action against Hockey Night in Canada commentator Don Cherry drew hundreds of comments, even more than our original story about his controversial call-out of one-time enforcers who now oppose fighting in the NHL.

Don Cherry, the star of Coach's Corner on Hockey Night In Canada, is under fire for comments made in the Oct. 6 episode. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)Many of the comments, and the ones highest rated on our site, condemned Cherry's segment on Coach's Corner.

• "Frankly it's just time to fire Cherry. He is completely out of touch, and it's getting worse," wrote JoeDunham.
  
  
• "Hockey is changing but Mr. Cherry hasn't...time to go," wrote Rickieroo.
  
  
• "A younger Don Cherry would have recognized that calling someone a puke and a hypocrite was using 'fighting words'. If Don can't prove his claims he deserves to be sued." - shortstopatbest
  
  
• "Do it.... he needs to be held responsible for the things he says and the messages he gives kids who watch hockey today." - nobody33

CBC Community member xnewfie replied to nobody33's comment and was one of many to defend Cherry.

• "With all the negative messages kids get on TV, Don Cherry looks like a saint to me. There's a lot more people on TV that should be kicked off before Don Cherry," said xnewfie.
  
  
• "Said it before and I'll say it again DON CHERRY for Prime Minister. A true Canadian, like we all used to be before political correctness BS. Love you, Don. Keep it up," wrote winchester1961.
  
  
• "Grapes is paid to speak his mind. Your calls for him being fired just shows that too many people won't allow freedom of speech. This is appalling!" said vakley.

Some of the commenters picked up this thread about freedom of speech, pointing out that defamation laws represent a limit on what you can say.

• "Don got up and made a bunch of quotes up from these guys, who didn't say what he said they did (in fact he was challenged more than once to show just where Stu Grimson said any of this stuff). Making stuff up about people is not free speech. It's slander. It's illegal," said Tridus.
  
  
• "Sorry, Don. Your comments might have some (by which I mean very little) merit but expressing your opinion and slandering people are two very different things and you crossed the line buddy. The sooner this guy is gone, the sooner I can stop changing the channel during the first intermission," said Sam Squantch.

On the Facebook page of CBC News, Steven Davis wrote, "I don't watch Cherry, and I think his comments were way out of line. But a lawsuit over them? How have these three guys been tangibly damaged by what he said? They've received a lot of good publicity, and most people I've seen are agreeing with them. So they're going to waste court time with a frivolous lawsuit? To me it sounds like three guys who are now using Cherry's comments to try to get more attention."

Thank you for all your comments.