Plushenko won't bother with figure skating Grand Prix season: by Rosie DiManno

[let`s talk]

I wrote an email to the editor of the Toronto Star and asked if they couldn't find someone who at least likes the sport to cover Worlds so that fans would at least get useful information and he replied that Rosie loved skating and begged for the assignment.

So basically Toronot Star ignored your request. Is TS a tabloid or regarded as some not-tabloid media in Canada?

[Olympia]

Am I wrong in thinking that the Toronto Star is the principal newspaper in Canada's largest city?

I amend that. I just looked it up. The Toronto Star is apparently the largest newspaper in all of Canada. Which is a skating country, not like, say, Jamaica or Brazil. So this is whom they pick for their skating reporter? Color me completely confused.

[Ilvskating]

Am I wrong in thinking that the Toronto Star is the principal newspaper in Canada's largest city?

I amend that. I just looked it up. The Toronto Star is apparently the largest newspaper in all of Canada. Which is a skating country, not like, say, Jamaica or Brazil. So this is whom they pick for their skating reporter? Color me completely confused.

Indeed it is very disappointing. I can't remember his name, but the reporter from Hamilton who passed away some time last year was a really good sport reporter. It's a shame that we don't have more decent journalists to cover skating. I would recommend Kurt Browning if you want to read Canadian skating comment. He's relatively impartial. P.J Kwong is OK.

[plushyfan]

Dearest plushenkofan:

On behalf of Canadian figure skating fans everywhere, I apologize to you from the bottom of my heart. I have not read DiManno's or even know what she said, but she is the most offensive woman in Canada and she knows NOTHING, and I do mean NOTHING about the sport of skating. She once wrote that Shae-Lynne Bourne and Victor Kraatz would have a difficult time beating the Chinese teams with their big lifts and throws. This is not a joke. She actually wrote this.

When they sent her to Nice, I wrote an email to the editor of the Toronto Star and asked if they couldn't find someone who at least likes the sport to cover Worlds so that fans would at least get useful information and he replied that Rosie loved skating and begged for the assignment. Let's see, a one-week, all expense paid trip to the French Riviera in the early spring. Yeah, I'd tell the boss I was the world's biggest figure skating fan to get that one too.

Please don't hold ANYTHING that woman wrote against Patrick or anyone else she quotes. She's unbelieveable. She's a hockey reporter so of course shes knows about skating.

Again, my apologies.

Dear Dragonlady!

I was very upset, but I already calmed down, and I know, one journalist isn't the whole country and aren't all skating fans from Canada. Thank you for your apologize, but I think you should not have done. And I feel good about myself, because I read a lot of critical comment about Rosie, and it seems we are fans of different skaters, but we aren't enemies of each other and we aren't haters of other skaters.

Thank you again..

[Dragonlady]

Am I wrong in thinking that the Toronto Star is the principal newspaper in Canada's largest city?

I amend that. I just looked it up. The Toronto Star is apparently the largest newspaper in all of Canada. Which is a skating country, not like, say, Jamaica or Brazil. So this is whom they pick for their skating reporter? Color me completely confused.

You are correct on every score Olympia. She's not just a bad skating reporter, I gave up reading her columns years ago because she would say the rudest things. She interviewed a single mother whose very young daughter had gone missing in their apartment complex on her way to a friends house down the hall. DiManno wrote in her column that the mother behaved oddly for a woman whose child was missing. Well gee Rosie, just how is a young mother living in a working class neighbourhood supposed to behave when the press want to interview her about her missing daughter?

I long ago gave up understanding how someone so rude and offensive has kept her job. I figure she must have dirty pictures on somebody.

[aftertherain]

In conclusion,

"Rosie DiManno spews insults, but can't take 'em"
http://www.xtra.ca/public/National/R...e_em-7823.aspx
(The email exchange linked at the end of the article was kind of funny. PG13.)

And I think she's been with the Toronto Star since 1989. I'm sure there will be many more years to come with many more articles ... which we will all ignore.

[evangeline]

Am I wrong in thinking that the Toronto Star is the principal newspaper in Canada's largest city?

I amend that. I just looked it up. The Toronto Star is apparently the largest newspaper in all of Canada. Which is a skating country, not like, say, Jamaica or Brazil. So this is whom they pick for their skating reporter? Color me completely confused.

The Toronto Star may have a large circulation due to its predominant position in Ontario, but I find the quality of their reporting inferior to Canadian newspapers with smaller circulations such as the Globe and Mail. It's not surprising they keep DiManno around as she's stirred up plenty of publicity and outrage over the years. By the way, DiManno's not actually a skating reporter per se, she's a general assignment columnist who basically writes on a whole range of topics, which often involve sports. Sadly it's actually a (relatively) good thing when DiManno writes about sports because her articles on politics and crime are even more infuriating and offensive...

[pitterpatter]

Indeed it is very disappointing. I can't remember his name, but the reporter from Hamilton who passed away some time last year was a really good sport reporter. It's a shame that we don't have more decent journalists to cover skating. I would recommend Kurt Browning if you want to read Canadian skating comment. He's relatively impartial. P.J Kwong is OK.

Yes Kurt's great, his enthusiasm for the sport really comes through, and he's able to appreciate skaters from other countries without always having to relate them to Canada in some way. Shame he doesn't write more, but then again journalism isn't really his main job. PJ's a bit too biased for my personal preference, but at least she actually follows the sport and does a decent job. Maybe as the CBC skating rep their coverage has to be super pro-Canadian.

[figuristka]

Here is a better article where Patrick talks about Plushenko. http://en.rian.ru/sports/20121206/177959555.html

I don't blame Patrick for the DiManno article. Shame on the Toronto Star for having her write about figure skating and attack certain skater's.Right now Hockey season is postponed and it leaves more room for Figure skating in Canada. I hope better articles are written. She is a joke and should never have been allowed to write about the sport.

[phaeljones]

Am I wrong in thinking that the Toronto Star is the principal newspaper in Canada's largest city?

I amend that. I just looked it up. The Toronto Star is apparently the largest newspaper in all of Canada. Which is a skating country, not like, say, Jamaica or Brazil. So this is whom they pick for their skating reporter? Color me completely confused.

It has the highest circulation, but it is not influential. There are historical factors as well as polarizing factors why the Star is so established. Very complicated to explain. Not to sound elitist, but it is not read by the more educated portion of the population. They tend to read the Globe or the Post. It is no accident that some public figures refuse to even speak to Toronto Start reporters. The Star is not a paper that anyone goes to for deep insight or unbiased journalism. It is questionable whether anyone takes it seriously anymore. The trend in Toronto over the last four years in politics for instance is that people tend to vote against the politicians it endorses and elect those whom it attacks.

But if DiManno's article should mean anything to the skaters and participants at GPF, it is only that no good can come from talking to her or any reporter from the Star. Neither she nor her paper is not going to do you any favors. No good can come from it.

[Olympia]

Yes Kurt's great, his enthusiasm for the sport really comes through, and he's able to appreciate skaters from other countries without always having to relate them to Canada in some way. Shame he doesn't write more, but then again journalism isn't really his main job. PJ's a bit too biased for my personal preference, but at least she actually follows the sport and does a decent job. Maybe as the CBC skating rep their coverage has to be super pro-Canadian.

I don't generally mind when a reporter from a particular country is a bit biased toward his/her country's skaters if that reporter is also well-informed and able to praise skaters from other countries. After all, the reporter is presumably writing for readers in that country and wants to appeal to them. I just take that into account while reading that reporter's articles. So I enjoy P.J. Kwong's writing when I get to see it.

Thanks for the description of the newspapers, Evangeline and Phaeljones. I've heard of both the Star and the Globe and Mail, but from my knowledge I couldn't have differentiated them. If this DiManno is so appalling at political and social writing also, I guess we skate fans can fall on our swords and keep her distracted with skating. It's the least we can do for the public good.

[whitebamboo]

First, I want to apologize as a newbie, for delurking here just to add my two cents at this point...Even though Ms. DiManno’s article is probably not worth it.

I want to say that as a Plushenko fan, I am not terribly offended by Chan's words "pretty good for someone who's--what?--36, 37 years old". I just don't quite know what to make of it. It's not a matter of whether Plushenko is relatively old or not, as a competitive figure skater. Of course he's "old", in the purely factual sense of numbers, and in the relevant sense that it does affect what his body can do. To myself, it's rather a matter of whether Chan's joke (assuming it is a joke: for all I know, maybe Patrick really did think that Plushenko is 36 or 37 years old) was "at Plushenko's expense". From Ms. DiManno's gleeful "Ba-da-bing" right after it, and in context of her tone in the entire article, perhaps she contributed to the impression that it was--that somehow Plushenko's age was a base for contempt or condescension. I don' t know if that was deliberate (to stir up controversy) or because she in fact interpreted Patrick's words that way.

Maybe it is true that some Plushenko fans were sensitive toward this instance of what Chan said about Plushenko's age, and of course I can't speak for everyone, but I think that possibly this sensitivity was also influenced by what Chan had said about Plushenko's age before. For me, I guess I really don't know. I can imagine with a certain tone and expression, these words can be interpreted as meaning a certain amount of disrespect (especially if one adds in possible cultural differences), but of course, we don't know with what tone he said it at all.

As for DiManno, I know that one should certainly not generalize to the media of an entire country from the words of one person, but this is the largest paper from the largest city in Canada, her name is on it and she's being paid by them. So I think she does reflect, at the very least, on one fairly major part of the "Canadian press". One can't expect others, especially those outside of Canada, to be aware of her history of nastiness toward apparently pretty much everybody, or that her words should be treated only with ridicule. At least if the Star had opened the comment field beneath this article, people could have explained about this, perhaps.

(And thanks for quoting the comment about DiManno’s article I wrote, plushyfan! It’s certainly okay; I feel very flattered. Though now that I’ve learned a little more about DiManno, perhaps I shouldn’t even have bothered...)

[Dragonlady]

It has the highest circulation, but it is not influential. There are historical factors as well as polarizing factors why the Star is so established. Very complicated to explain. Not to sound elitist, but it is not read by the more educated portion of the population. They tend to read the Globe or the Post. It is no accident that some public figures refuse to even speak to Toronto Start reporters. The Star is not a paper that anyone goes to for deep insight or unbiased journalism. It is questionable whether anyone takes it seriously anymore. The trend in Toronto over the last four years in politics for instance is that people tend to vote against the politicians it endorses and elect those whom it attacks.

OK this is not correct. The Star is an award-winning newspaper that is highly respected throughout Canada. The paper you're describing is the Toronto Sun, which is a reactionary rag. As for influential, articles in the Star have lead to changes in nursing home legislation, and government programs. It's voice is very powerful in Canada. The Star has a left of centre point of view, the Globe is right of centre paper, and the National Post is far right. The Sun is just opposed to whoever is in government.

[Mathman]

Thanks for your thoughts, Whitebamboo, and welcome to the forum. Post often, post long!

[Olympia]

OK this is not correct. The Star is an award-winning newspaper that is highly respected throughout Canada. The paper you're describing is the Toronto Sun, which is a reactionary rag. As for influential, articles in the Star have lead to changes in nursing home legislation, and government programs. It's voice is very powerful in Canada. The Star has a left of centre point of view, the Globe is right of centre paper, and the National Post is far right. The Sun is just opposed to whoever is in government.

I see. Thanks!