Reactions and criticism of judging by Network commentators - NBC, CBC, BBC, etc

[AngelENTL]

To add, Silvia Fontana went apeshit on Italian RAI for Yuna... yes, not Carolina, but Yuna.

There is a post competition interview with Witt in German in which she goes ballistic as well.

Does anyone have a vid or audio of Silvia going off? Couldn't open the link of Katarina posted by someone earlier; here's a link to a youtube of her diatribe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT07-Jc00jQ

 

[starrynight]

Japan Times must be really hard up for white people writing for them if such hacking passes as journalism.

Please define "hacking." Gallagher has covered figure skating for decades and been well respected in the field. Please enlighten me: What part of his article does pertain to "hacking"?

 

[cjsk8fan]

She absolutely ruined Mao, both with the too-heavy music choices and the decline in her technique under Tatiana.

Mao always had lousy jump technique, Tatiana just never worked to improve it.

 

[Nadya]

Please define "hacking." Gallagher has covered figure skating for decades and been well respected in the field. Please enlighten me: What part of his article does pertain to "hacking"?

Pretty much all of it. Journalism is supposed to be about objective catalogueing of sources on both sides. Not pulling together quotes to support your own point of view. "Kim Denied a Second Gold" is an opinion. It does not belong in reporting. Perhaps in opinion pages, but certainly not in reporting. This would never fly in respectable newspapers.

That Gallagher is respected is a matter of opinion; I've never heard of him till now.

 

[Nadya]

I spoke with a prominent skating journalist in the Main Press Center on Sunday and she summed up the scandal pretty succinctly.

“The fix was in from the start,” she said. “Once they saw that (Julia) Lipnitskaia couldn’t win the gold, they just backed Sotnikova.”

I must say that I breathed a huge sigh of relief prior to the men’s short program the week before when Russia’s Evgeni Plushenko pulled out with an injury.

Why?

Because I was very worried that what we saw happen in the women’s singles, would happen in the men’s. That if Plushenko skated, he would somehow emerge with wildly inflated scores and a deserving champion like Yuzuru Hanyu or Canada’s Patrick Chan would be denied the title.

When I mentioned this concern to another writer following the controversy that saw Kim deprived of a second Olympic gold medal, he didn’t blink with his reply.

“You better believe that Plushenko would have won if he had skated in the singles,” he said. “There is no way he would have lost.”


Good to see an inside source confirm everything we all already knew. Hanyu and Chan are so lucky Plushenko didnt skate, even if Hanyu and Chan had skated perfectly Plushenko probably would have been then given a score over 300 with a bunch of 10s in PCS and +3s in GOE for the gold medal. Every gold except the dance was bought for Mother Russia long before the Games began.

It's not a source, dear, unless there's a name attached to it.

The way men skated, my housecleaner could have won a medal, it wouldn't even take Pluschenko.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

It's not a source, dear, unless there's a name attached to it.

The way men skated, my housecleaner could have won a medal, it wouldn't even take Pluschenko.

Patongfan surrounds him/herself with people who believe, in a ratio of 30-to-1, that there was a scandal.

 

[starrynight]

Pretty much all of it. Journalism is supposed to be about objective catalogueing of sources on both sides. Not pulling together quotes to support your own point of view. "Kim Denied a Second Gold" is an opinion. It does not belong in reporting. Perhaps in opinion pages, but certainly not in reporting. This would never fly in respectable newspapers.

That Gallagher is respected is a matter of opinion; I've never heard of him till now.

It seems like you used the word "hacking" as if it meant an "opinion." You have not explained clearly how they are exchangeable. Gallagher has gained his reputation from the general public and his peers in the field - his reputation is not merely anybody's opinion but his career proves it. As you probably know, whether you knew him is not a good measure to weigh somebody's reputation, unless you are a google search engine.

 

[slutskayafann]

The way men skated, my housecleaner could have won a medal.

True

 

[Nadya]

It seems like you used the word "hacking" as if it meant an "opinion." You have not explained clearly how they are interchangeable. Gallagher has gained his reputation from the general public and his peers in the field - his reputation is not merely anybody's opinion but his career proves it. As you probably know, whether you knew him is not a good measure to weigh somebody's reputation, unless you are a google search engine.

Fixed that for you.

Running an opinion piece with no sources as if it is a NEWS ITEM is hacking. Opinion pieces are supposed to be clearly labeled as such.

Might you benefit from a quick review of what is considered news reporting vs. op-ed pieces?

 

[starrynight]

Fixed that for you.

Running an opinion piece with no sources as if it is a NEWS ITEM is hacking. Opinion pieces are supposed to be clearly labeled as such. Might you benefit from a quick review of what is considered news reporting vs. op-ed pieces?

Please read the article closely before condenming it.

 

[Nadya]

Please read the article closely before condenming it.

Please be sure you understand what a source is.

 

[OS]

Fixed that for you.

Running an opinion piece with no sources as if it is a NEWS ITEM is hacking. Opinion pieces are supposed to be clearly labeled as such.

Might you benefit from a quick review of what is considered news reporting vs. op-ed pieces?

You are hilarious. Have you even read Phil's 'opinion' pieces? Opinion and perception matters in this sport. When you have multiple people who covered this sport for decades disagree with the results, that qualifies as news, since themselves qualifies as among the expert sources.

Besides, I have read multiple Chinese report pieces, they even quoted Japanese media press in the green room that thought the result was crazy, and that had this not take place in Russia like in Pyongchang, the gold will be Yuna's. Now... that is news, and not an opinion.

 

[Nadya]

You are hilarious. Have you even read Phil's 'opinion' pieces? Opinion and perception matters in this sport. When you have multiple people who covered this sport for decades disagree with the results, that qualifies as news, since themselves qualifies as among the expert sources.

Besides, I have read multiple Chinese report pieces, they even quoted Japanese media press in the green room that thought the result was crazy, and that had this not take place in Russia like in Pyongchang, the gold will be Yunas. Now... that is news, and not an opinion.

We are not discussing Phil's opinion pieces or multiple Chinese reports you read. We are discussing Jack Gallagher's piece and I stand by my opinion that's it's hacking.

Running an item on "multiple people disagreeing with results" is OK if it's headlined as such and if - pay attention here - these "multiple people" have names attached. Gallagher quotes no one, names no one. You call that journalism?

 

[OS]

We are not discussing Phil's opinion pieces or multiple Chinese reports you read. We are discussing Jack Gallagher's piece and I stand by my opinion that's it's hacking.

Running an item on "multiple people disagreeing with results" is OK if it's headlined as such and if - pay attention here - these "multiple people" have names attached. Gallagher quotes no one, names no one. You call that journalism?

Fine for a 'hack', he seems to do quite well getting paid by Japan Times for years! Getting clicks, getting consensus and people agreeing/disagree with him is not doing too badly.
I personally think he is protecting his sources from these unnecessary controversy, and there's nothing wrong with that.

 

[starrynight]

Please be sure you understand what a source is.

I start having some doubts about your intelligence level.

 

[usethis2]

I concur.. sadly.

 

[Alba]

Opinion and perception matters in this sport.

Everybody's opinion and perception matters in this sport, except the judges opinion and perception. It's quite funny.

 

[Nadya]

Fine for a 'hack', he seems to do quite well getting paid by Japan Times for years! Getting clicks, getting consensus and people agreeing/disagree with him is not doing too badly.
I personally think he is protecting his sources from these unnecessary controversy, and there's nothing wrong with that.

If getting paid well was a journalism criteria, the lineup of Pulitzer Prize winners would look quite different.

He may be protecting his sources. Or inventing them, who knows. Without naming names, there's nowhere to go back for attribution, and there is nothing wrong with people questioning the credibility of unnamed sources.

 

[Nadya]

I start having some doubts about your intelligence level.

Who cares what you doubt? I don't know you; we'll never meet. Your opinion of me will never be a factor in anything that counts to me.

 

[Mrs. P]

FWIW, this column was published as part of his "Ice Time" column series. Gallagher is a figure skating columnist for The Japan Times.

This was not the first, nor the last that Gallagher has expressed his opinion in a column (which is reasonable thing to do). Whether you agree with it or not is another matter and YMMV.