Stupid, ignorant or rude commentaries?

Tonichelle · Apr 2, 2017

labgoat said:
Ryan was great. Tara and Johnny can both be very negative. I think they need to respect the skaters hard work a little more and not be so dismissive of a years worth of work. Criticism can be made constructively but not destructively.

I don't mind negativity. I just hate that if they are bored (which Tara ALWAYS seems to be) they start talking about anything and everything but what is happening on the ice. They start talking about food, or shopping... so freaking ridiculous.

noskates · Apr 2, 2017

Two words: Tara Lipinski :noshake:

FlattFan · Apr 3, 2017

Here's an idea. Pick a technical specialist and make him/her audition to be commentator. Between white noise chit chat, I rather hear chit chat from a real expert. They can explain spin features, steps, jumps, rotation issue, technique issue.

TontoK · Apr 3, 2017

karne said:
- Weir's total flip flop at Nationals 2016 when he couldn't decide who he hated more: Max or Adam. This is how it went: *Max skates almost perfectly* Weir: "This should lead." *Max score comes up and puts him in the lead* Weir: "This is disgraceful judging!" *Adam splats on his butt and URs stuff that doesn't get called* *Adam's scores come up showing him in the lead* Weir: "This is so wrong!" I...what?

This was then compounded by afterwards, he and Lipinski grabbed the idiot ball in their argument (trying to claim quads should be scored higher, instead of pointing out the huge number of mistakes Adam had made that weren't punished) allowing Scott Hamilton to poke holes in their argument with ease and the disgraceful result never getting the protest from the fans that it should have. (But hey. It's only Max, right? Who cares?)

Slightly off-topic, but in the LONG history of sketchy judging at US Nationals, this is the most disgraceful example. Max Aaron was robbed so hard his grandchildren will still be paying.

This result has given me free rein to subscribe to every conspiracy theory regarding USFSA that you've ever heard. I someone says USFSA is out to screw a skater, I fully believe it without needing to see the evidence.

The fact that Scott Hamilton defended this outcome pegged him as a USFSA "Company Man." I never again trusted anything he has to say.

TontoK · Apr 3, 2017

luckyguy said:
What did Johnny Weir say about Pogorilaya? His comments were reportedly very harsh.

Actually, I think he was sympathetic.

He did imply that the Russian federation would view this as an embarrassment, and that she'd have a tough time regaining their trust in a highly competitive Russian field with very good rising juniors on the horizon.

Sadly, I think this is fairly accurate commentary.

Nika09 · Apr 3, 2017

Tara gonna get gold in that competition. Already FS with NBC sign making me nervous before watching it...And she is former skater, I mean who could understand athletes/their feelings better than her?

In add:
Just have watched Men's medal ceremony. Plenty incorrect comments from BBC guy. He sounds like didn't get any FS information since Sochi OG. However like his voice and response like "ye-houu" when Yuzuru jumped at podium :laugh:

melmel · Apr 3, 2017

Nelson Montfort keeps calling the cantilever an ina bauer. And the french commentators need to look at the planned content of skaters beforehand because they keep saying the skaters are putting non plannzd jumps/quads in their programs.
It is not particularly rude but gosh it is annoying! Thankfully they have been a bit less gross sexist comments lately (but they got quite some backlash after sochi about it so)

Nathan13 · Apr 3, 2017

Just saying, I think tone is everything when it comes to commentary. If I hear someone who sounds like they are sitting back in an armchair, just ruthlessly criticizing and making every single skater seem like they aren't trying, then I can't stand them. But if a commentator seems truly invested, on the edge of their seat, and at least pulling for the skater to do well, then I am twice as likely to take their criticisms seriously.

jajoana · Apr 3, 2017

angelicaamatina said:
A russian commentator said that Karen doesnt compare to older American skaters such as Michelle Kwan. I thought this was rather ignorant because, well, Michelle is a legend! And Karen was making her senior debut!

Just to clarify a little bit.
They were speaking about that special "North American" way of skating. And praised Osmond and Daleman for that - perfect technique, power, charisma, little details, music accents etc... And they said about Kren - nice, clean but not what you expect from a US champion (especially because USA is famous for great ladies).

I am not a fan of biased commentaries from TAT, but that one wasn't so rude as you can imagine.

Manitou · Apr 3, 2017

Speaking of bs positivity:

College student: 2+2=4
Professor: Wow, I totally agree! I like how you added the 2's together and got 4, very insightful!

Clo · Apr 3, 2017

I just want to add something about the two Italian ladies commentating for Rai Sport... I've seen them considered sort of memetic for that time they lost it when Hanyu won GPF 2015 and it seems everyone remembers them that way... but during the latest Gala they said, regarding the men's podium: "For the first time, it was an all-Asian podium"... "Ah, that's too bad, what can you do, Asian men have have a better body type for jumping"
Which. Wow. TOO BAD? I'm sure from an "Asian" perspective, it's TOO BAD the podium in recent years has been all white or something? And by recent years, I actually mean decades. These two are subtly racist all the time. During Europeans 2017 they bashed Maé-Bérénice Meitié because she's "too muscular" and "has the wrong type of body". But when it was, say, Kerstin Frank's turn, they didn't say anything at all about her body type (she's a little stockier than the average skater, powerful thighs mostly) and instead talked a lot about her difficult times at Euros because her coach was ill and absent... Theirs are just veiled racist comments. Also, but this I guess comes down to personal preference, they said Hanyu's interpretative skills are lacking because he's glacial and very cold in his skating, whereas they praised Uno, saying he's much better in that department.
What? I mean I love Uno, but his expression barely changes during his skates, unless he smirks because he landed a jump.

Ares · Apr 3, 2017

nolangoh said:
Most of the things Tara Lipinski says. I really can't with her

On those few occasions I stumbled across youtube videos with Tara's commentary I was always baffled by the amount of inane chattering & also irritated by extremely nasal tone of her voice. Add Johnny who fuels her and you have hot mess. Both can be needlessly harsh or dismissive for skaters from time to time. I read that Tara also used to spin a tale out of nowhere about her Olympic Gold and other blah, blah focused on her person for no good reason, is it true?

apgold · Apr 3, 2017

Ares said:
On those few occasions I stumbled across youtube videos with Tara's commentary I was always baffled by the amount of inane chattering & also irritated by extremely nasal tone of her voice. Add Johnny who fuels her and you have hot mess. Both can be needlessly harsh or dismissive for skaters from time to time. I read that Tara also used to spin a tale out of nowhere about her Olympic Gold and other blah, blah focused on her person for no good reason, is it true?

To be fair to Tara, it's usually Terry Gannon (the third member of NBC's team) who brings up Tara's OGM. But I don't like when Tara starts with "When I was competing...."

Johnny can be very negative but he's very good at explaining why a jump worked or not or comparing toe jumps to edge jumps.

They were surprisingly kind to Jason at this Worlds versus two years ago. Even though they talked about the lack of a landed quad, everything else about Jason's skating they praised. Maybe to explain why his marks were so high without a quad, but still....

TGee · Apr 3, 2017

FlattFan said:
Here's an idea. Pick a technical specialist and make him/her audition to be commentator. Between white noise chit chat, I rather hear chit chat from a real expert. They can explain spin features, steps, jumps, rotation issue, technique issue.

FlattFan the ISU has done that.

I'm referring to Ted Barton, who was one of the original tech controller/specialists.

When Ted made the case to the ISU to livestream the JP season events, he got tagged to do the coverage for the ISU network. And many of us on GS feel that he is the best English language commentator, absolutely.

Ted's day job is, by the way, Executive Director of Skate Canada's British Columbia / Yukon Section. And he now leads Skate Canada's livestream coverage during nationals for all of the events not covered by the broadcast networks.

MaiKatze · Apr 3, 2017

I think the worst kind of commentary is the one where the bias shines through. Here on a forum we can easily say things like, I don't like this, and this judging is unfair and this skater annoys me, but when I commentate for the public I should just try to be as neutral as possible. I can understand that this might be hard for former figure skaters especially, who might know some of the skaters personally. But British Eurosport does this very well. In Germany, Figure Skating is mostly shown on Eurosport Germany, and the commentators are not neutral. There is one lady who comments when the main commentator is occupied elsewhere. Her name is Petra Bindl and she has a very nice voice, pleasant to listen to. She's always complementary to skaters and focuses on the good instead of the bad. I really like her, she reminds me of the British Eurosport guys, very positive.

uhh · Apr 3, 2017

BBC commentary for Worlds this year: Robin Cousins is knowledgeable, he just doesn't seem to like many of the skaters, and it gets kind of hard to keep enjoying the skating when the commentator is so negative. But the woman who was with him... she knew nothing about the sport at all. At one point, she said Kevin Reynolds was the first man to do a quad, ever. Or "that will get more points, it's right in front of the judges", like they can't see if it's not directly in front of their noses & mixing up the short and the free program, or asking if a skating who had had multiple falls could go into the lead, oor why they had deductions... It was the most basic stuff that she could have improved if she'd spent even 2 days reading ISU handbooks, and so painful to listen to. Unfortunately, that's probably who will be doing Olympic commentary as well.

Warwick360 · Apr 3, 2017

SkaterX said:
The stupid commentator award this year definitely goes to that guy commentating the Asian Winter Games on the Olympic Channel. He had no idea what jump was what calling axels flips and even mistaking a camel spin for a jump. I think he was just reading off of a sheet and if the program deviated from that he could not tell the difference. He also got the skater's ages wrong, always said the tech scores were "rising" and just generally had no clue about anything.

I think those were the least of his problem. It was the constant droning throughout that made me push the mute button when I had to see those videos. :bang:

I hope he never gets the commentary job again.

mrrice · Apr 3, 2017

I was less than happy about the way Uncle Dick, Scott, and Sandra treated Elena Liashenko during her 2006 Olympic SP. I had a soft for Elena after seeing live twice, in 1999, again during 2001. Her longevity should have garnered her a bit more respect from the US commentators. IMO, of course. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9Jyl6dXaiM

OS · Apr 3, 2017

uhh said:
BBC commentary for Worlds this year: Robin Cousins is knowledgeable, he just doesn't seem to like many of the skaters, and it gets kind of hard to keep enjoying the skating when the commentator is so negative. But the woman who was with him... she knew nothing about the sport at all. At one point, she said Kevin Reynolds was the first man to do a quad, ever. Or "that will get more points, it's right in front of the judges", like they can't see if it's not directly in front of their noses & mixing up the short and the free program, or asking if a skating who had had multiple falls could go into the lead, oor why they had deductions... It was the most basic stuff that she could have improved if she'd spent even 2 days reading ISU handbooks, and so painful to listen to. Unfortunately, that's probably who will be doing Olympic commentary as well.

HAHAH... sorry i have to defend the Beebs commentary a bit here. The style of the BBC as with most things are generaly muted, polite, stiff upper lip, tough but fair style. None of those Scott Hamilton screaming enthusiasm or Tara/Johnny belittling. They are all about 'keeping it real' and rarely goes overboard except the rare instances it deserves.

Robin does have his favourites, and they are generally the ones with the best SS (He really like Han Yan and MGM for example at their debut, regards highly to the likes of Yuna Kim, Jeremy Abott, those who obviously care about realise good musicality and having a good choreographic program) and frankly I am inclined to agree with most of his views. PCS seems outrageously inflated these days when the standard isn't that much better. Or the mark that separate them is often puzzling. I mean is the best of Kaetyln or Karen really that far apart from Evegenia in PCS and GOEs if you are to judge purely according to the guidelines? Perhaps his lack of enthusiasm actually reflect the standard of program and weird scoring trend well. This is the not same sport pre-sochi There is no programs from the ladies I want to rewatch other than Karen's SP and Kaetyn's SP. I don't care about any of the FS this year at the WC.

I respect when he see score he disagree with he will express them, like when Carolina's score showed up, he actually stated it was a bit too many points. This new woman however, yeah - completely waste of airtime, but she is a newbie. They probably have her around to be the laymen to his expertise to dumb down for the the general home audiences who knows nothing about figure skating. Finally, I doubt that many commentater bother to read the ISU handbooks, i mean, have you read them yourself? One paragraph, Zzzzzz already. Robin usually does the Olympic commentary, with Sue Barker who is not present at this year's WC.

uhh · Apr 3, 2017

OS said:
HAHAH... sorry i have to defend the Beebs commentary a bit here. The style of the BBC as with most things are generaly muted, polite, stiff upper lip, tough but fair style. None of those Scott Hamilton screaming enthusiasm or Tara/Johnny belittling. They are all about 'keeping it real' and rarely goes overboard except the rare instances it deserves.

Robin does have his favourites, and they are generally the ones with the best SS (He really like Han Yan and MGM for example at their debut, regards highly to the likes of Yuna Kim, Jeremy Abott, those who obviously care about realise good musicality and having a good choreographic program) and frankly I am inclined to agree with most of his views. PCS seems outrageously inflated these days when the standard isn't that much better. Or the mark that separate them is often puzzling. I mean is the best of Kaetyln or Karen really that far apart from Evegenia in PCS and GOEs if you are to judge purely according to the guidelines? Perhaps his lack of enthusiasm actually reflect the standard of program and weird scoring trend well. This is the not same sport pre-sochi There is no programs from the ladies I want to rewatch other than Karen's SP and Kaetyn's SP. I don't care about any of the FS this year at the WC.

I respect when he see score he disagree with he will express them, like when Carolina's score showed up, he actually stated it was a bit too many points. This new woman however, yeah - completely waste of airtime, but she is a newbie. They probably have her around to be the laymen to his expertise to dumb down for the the general home audiences who knows nothing about figure skating. Finally, I doubt that many commentater bother to read the ISU handbooks, i mean, have you read them yourself? One paragraph, Zzzzzz already. Robin usually does the Olympic commentary, with Sue Barker who is not present at this year's WC.

You listen to any other commentary the BBC does, and the presenters are reasonably knowledgeable. This was on the level of someone doing tennis coverage without knowing what a backhand or forehand was. It's embarrassing and frankly disrespectful. It was not polite or fair, it was lowest common denominator, purile, juvenile nonsense.

And yeah, I have read the ISU handbooks, and I would expect anyone who is being paid to explain technical details on behalf of the national broadcaster to at least make an effort to do the same in order to familiarise themselves with the rules of the sport. Sue Barker is just as bad: particular highlight from Sochi being : "So, why is it called a triple jump? Because they turn three times?". It's shocking & indicative of how the BBC treats the sport as a joke that has nothing more than sparkly costumes and dramatic K&C reactions.

Stupid, ignorant or rude commentaries?

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll

noskates

FlattFan

Match Penalty

TontoK

Hot Tonto

TontoK

Hot Tonto

Nika09

melmel

Nathan13

jajoana

Manitou

Clo

Ares

apgold

TGee

MaiKatze

uhh

Warwick360

mrrice

OS

Sedated by Modonium

uhh

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