Comments on: Globe and Mail rapped for Olympic cheerleading

By: To run or not to run? | ubyssey.ca

To run or not to run? | ubyssey.ca — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:24:49 +0000

[...] Sports Media critic William Houston’s negative take a2a_linkname="The Ubyssey Online";a2a_linkurl="http://ubyssey.ca"; [...]

By: Skinny Dipper

Skinny Dipper — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 03:37:15 +0000

I just found out that CTV won’t publish my negative comment about “boycotting the Olympics” under my Skinny Dipper alias while it did publish my positive comment in the same article under my alias JWilliams.

http://skinnydips.blogspot.com/2009/11/will-this-broadcast-website-publish-my.html

By: JP

JP — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:16:43 +0000

I’m worried that we won’t have any real objective Olympic journalism in this country. CTVglobemedia has wrapped themselves so tightly in the Olympic flag they’re suffocating, the Canwest papers also have some sort of official sponsorship deal, and the others (broadcast media especially) are faced with so many draconian rights restrictions as to be useless.

By: Josh

Josh — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:28:11 +0000

Why are you saying this to a commenter and not to William Houston? It’s not the *commenters* on this blog driving the issue, dude.

By: John

John — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:02:27 +0000

Hi William – I agree with your assessment on “Cheerleading” by the supposedly impartial media, however I have a quick question; CTV paid for the rights to cover the 2010 Olympics, correct? Therefore, is there not already a potential conflict in their event coverage? I’m sure it didn’t happen, but say CBC and CTV each presented the IOC with comparable offers for exclusive coverage. Could one network imply that the Olympics will get “more positive” coverage in exchange for exclusive rights? Paying for exclusive coverage (by monetary means, or otherwise) seems to place both the “winner” and the “losers” in a situation where they can “reward” or “punish” the IOC with swayed coverage based on which bid wins.

Just curious – I’m obviously not in favour of someone like Gary Mason or Brian Williams carrying the torch in lieu of an athlete or someone equally “patriotic”.

By: Joel

Joel — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:37:24 +0000

Brunt has been (and will continue to be) one of my favorite columnists/ commentators, both in print and on the radio.
That being said I was very disappointed by his participation in the Olympic marketting machine. In the past he has been very critical of the Olympics and all the goings-on around them, whether it’s cost over-runs, bold faced corruption or over-the-top boosterism by media.
His defence of this being “the world we live in now” is chilling in that it implies corporate pressure is responsible for this blurring of the line between reporting and advertising.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:43:55 +0000

And there’s no ‘e’ in Santa Claus… otherwise, it presents a great opinion when my initial response to the issue was ’so what?’

By: William Houston

William Houston — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:59:24 +0000

Thanks. I need an editor.

By: L. archer

L. archer — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:29:56 +0000

shd be drum roll in the quote — not role.Like your stuff

By: Juha Hiitelä

Juha Hiitelä — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:48:07 +0000

As a Finnish sports journalist, and a regular reader of Truth & Rumours, this subject has been very interesting to follow.

For us, olympic torch has always been the image of Paavo Nurmi running with it to Helsinki Olympic Stadium through Marathon Gate in the opening ceremonies of 1952 Summer Games. All athletes who were already standing on the stadium field, started to run and barge to see this legend of nine olympic golds.

When talking about torch relay and is it appropriate for journalist to participate to it, we all should remember that, like Mr. Houston said, it is IOC marketing initiative and also remember when that relay was presented.

The year was 1936, when they first time lighted to torch in Olympia, Greece and went on as a relay to Berlin. It was a propaganda product of home nation of Summer Games of that year. And besides Jesse Owens, those games are remembered as a games of that one small, funny looking Austrian born corporal.