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From: london@oddjob.UChicago.UUCP (David London)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: American sportscasting : followup.
Message-ID: <368@oddjob.UChicago.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 5-Aug-84 20:36:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: oddjob.368
Posted: Sun Aug  5 20:36:54 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 6-Aug-84 01:25:39 EDT
Organization: U. Chicago: Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lines: 42

I would like to clear up a few things, and reply to some of the further
flames.

First, I did *NOT* say that Soviet judging was unbiased. There have been
many cases when it was. However, there were no Soviet judges on the event
during which Thomas made the remark; the scoring from all judges had been
eminently fair. There was no call for that comment. It was just your
standard example of American paranoia. You know - what that comment really
said was : "We won, and even if the dreaded Soviet judges had been here, we
would have still won! Because we were so good that even the blatantly
favouritist Soviet judges couldn't have stolen this from us."

W.r.t. women's gymnastics, if you recall, the American women did not do well
on the balance beam in the team finals. Cathy Rigby, who was commentating (I
know this isn't a word, but...), was quite disappointed. O.K. But then the
Rumanians messed up on the unevens, and both commentators were just
ecstatic! Ooh, goody, maybe the Americans can pull it out after all.
Pathetic sportscasting. By the way, if you want rumours about the women's
judging, I heard (I am a gymnast) that the reason that Kathy Johnson's beam
score was so slow in coming was that the head judge (an American) wanted her
score increased so that she would make finals, but that the other scores
were in line, so that eventually, she had to give up. I don't know if it is
true, but I wouldn't doubt it. I agree that the Eastern Bloc countries have
shown favouritism in judging, but the Americans try the same things.

W.r.t. comments that the problem is not the American people, but just ABC --
baloney! ABC is a business. They do not broadcast stuff that people don't
want to hear. Americans love to hear that they are the best. Americans love
to hear that they have won an infinite amount of gold medals, especially if
they beat the communists. And the American people just eat it up. If you
don't like the coverage, change it! It is supposed to be a free country.
However, I am sure that the coverage is just what the American people want
to see. Why don't we see any other medal ceremonies than ones in which an
American has won (or co-won) a gold medal? No-no-no. Can't have that. It is
already too much that the U.S. hasn't won. 

To be fair, I have received some mail from Americans who agree with me, but
I am sure there are not enough to change sports coverage, even if they
wanted to try.

					David London
					..!ihnp4!oddjob!london