A Plea For Integrity In Cycling Journalism in 2010

[Willy_Voet]

thewordsman...I tried to send you a PM, but they are disabled. Was going to suggest something.

PM me if you like.

 

[Greg Johnson]

Susan will confirm that Lance emails Cyclingnews regularly to correct headlines and stories. Hence the non-printing of any factual stories from Marca.

Good to see your posts haven't become any more factual with time.

Cheers
Greg Johnson

 

[auscyclefan94]

Good to see your posts haven't become any more factual with time.

Cheers
Greg Johnson

You should read some of his comments on Australia being a barron, desert, wasteland.

 

[thehog]

Good to see your posts haven't become any more factual with time.

Cheers
Greg Johnson

So you've never received an email suggesting a story should be modified?

I beg to differ.

 

[bianchigirl]

Try cyclismag, swordsman http://www.cyclismag.com/index.php?op=edito I've seen stuff from there eventually percolate through

 

[CycloErgoSum]

You should read some of his comments on Australia being a barron, desert, wasteland.

Who made that comment about Australia? Apart from the coastal strip around parts of the country they're pretty much right. The TDU doesn't make for a pretty backdrop to a bike race. It's dry as dawg****e. And to accuse someone of drinking Adelaide's tap water is to suggest they'll drink anything.

 

[theswordsman]

Diane Pucin is back writing about cycling again.

Love and hate is woven into the life of this 38-year-old Texan, a seven-time winner of cycling's most grueling race, the Tour de France, a man who gives of himself to cancer patients in ways others can't because he was one, a man who tried to stay retired only to get back on his bike to raise money for charity.

Last year, he overcame a broken collarbone and some snarky comments to ride in the Tour de France, stealing the spotlight from eventual winner and now ex-teammate Alberto Contador.

But for others, Armstrong's fortunes show that good does not always triumph. Red-faced fans at the 2005 Tour de France waved placards at him, accusing him of being a doper. Though he has never tested positive, he was cursed and spit on during a dramatic time trial up the iconic L'Alpe d'Huez.

When Armstrong made a surprise move early in the 21-day race and got within a second of the lead, Contador was seething. "Even if he is a great champion," Contador said later, "I have never had admiration for him and I never will."

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-lance-armstrong-20100516,0,2064958.story

Here's my response, with the correct quote.

I'm afraid you got the Contador quote wrong, just like last year, and are misleading people about when he said it. He wasn't "seething" after Lance went ahead of him, he was back in Spain, at a celebration of his Tour de France win, and someone at a press conference asked him about his relationship with Armstrong. The BBC & Reuters have video of the response, with their own professional simultaneous translation. I transcribed the text below. It's hardly incendiary, and it's the strongest statement I've read from Alberto in ten months of checking Google News in all languages.

"Well, my relationship with Lance is zero. My relationship with him is zero. I think that independently of what his character is, he is still a great champion. He has won seven Tours and played a big part in this one, too. But it's different to speak at a personal level. I have never really admired him that much, or will ever, but of course as a cyclist, he is a great champion."

http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoChannel=1004&videoId=108718

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/8172975.stm

 

[theswordsman]

And it's spreading. Now on Google News from Stamford Advocate, Greenwich Time, Lexington Herald Leader, Bellingham Herald, and who knows where else it will end up?

And it's the new Google Quote

 

[Sasquatch]

Who made that comment about Australia? Apart from the coastal strip around parts of the country they're pretty much right. The TDU doesn't make for a pretty backdrop to a bike race. It's dry as dawg****e. And to accuse someone of drinking Adelaide's tap water is to suggest they'll drink anything.

lol

Adelaide tap water is bad.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Good investigative work there, theswordsman, regarding the LA Times article. Greg Palast would be proud of you.

If you haven't already, I suggest you write to the paper, pointing it out.

 

[Publicus]

The LA Times should be embarrassed.

 

[B.Rasmussen]

Good work as usual theswordsman.

 

[bianchigirl]

I've added a comment re: Mr Armstrong's propensity for snarky comment throughout the race - but any 'serious' journalist who clearly believes in miracles and the case for the canonisation of Lance Armstrong can't be all there.

 

[DL9999]

What about these two then?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rasmussen-blames-everyone-but-himself

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rasmussen-responds-to-stories-in-the-media

It would have been interesing to hear cyclingnews.com's position on this. Is Rasmussen not telling the truth in the second story, or is the first article simply an example of bad journalism?

 

[Dr. Maserati]

What about these two then?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rasmussen-blames-everyone-but-himself

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rasmussen-responds-to-stories-in-the-media

It would have been interesing to hear cyclingnews.com's position on this. Is Rasmussen not telling the truth in the second story, or is the first article simply an example of bad journalism?

We discussed this at the time of Rasmussens comments.
In the second interview obviously Cyclingnews did get in touch with Rasmussen

'My words have gotten translated so many times they have lost all their meaning," Rasmussen told Cyclingnews.

It is proper to offer him the 'right to reply' or correct his original comment. It should be noted that many Danish posters confirmed that the original comment made was correct - and was not 'lost in translation'.

 

[richwagmn]

And it's spreading. Now on Google News from Stamford Advocate, Greenwich Time, Lexington Herald Leader, Bellingham Herald, and who knows where else it will end up?

And it's the new Google Quote

Sad to see but understandable given the US media's love of LA.

But... LA's presence is already fading. We know his form is crap and I question whether he has any motivation. I think he really thought in 2009 he'd comeback and win another TDF without much problem. I'd say reality has set in. He knows (and has said as much) that he's not of Contador's or Schleck's caliber. If anything he's in the super domestique category now.

Besides, what does he need another TDF win for? He's got all the money he needs, the US media still adores him (and hates Contador) and he can always fall back on his phony excuse that he was just trying to raise awareness about cancer.

LA's cooked for this season. He'll retire and go back to charity rides and the occasional competition against US domestic riders after this year's TDF.

 

[thehog]

LA's cooked for this season. He'll retire and go back to charity rides and the occasional competition against US domestic riders and this year's TDF.

Next year he'll milk the triathalon market for all its worth. There's still money in this old dog and he's going to get his hands on it.

 

[Jukebox]

And it's spreading. Now on Google News from Stamford Advocate, Greenwich Time, Lexington Herald Leader, Bellingham Herald, and who knows where else it will end up?

And it's the new Google Quote

The Stamford Advocate is my local paper, sucks that they choose to print crap like this. They'll be getting a letter.

 

[richwagmn]

Next year he'll milk the triathalon market for all its worth. There's still money in this old dog and he's going to get his hands on it.

In the name of cancer of course.

 

[theswordsman]

That Diane Pucin article also ended up in the Business Mirror. The misquote is still featured in Google Quotes if you do a Google News search of Contador. I never heard back from the L.A. Times, or the Sports Editor for Hearst Publications, which ran the article in five publications. People don't care.

And for a lot of non-cycling publications, the people who do the rare coverage of the sport seem to do it as an add-on. I saw an article about the Tour of California where the guy said Contador was busy racing in the Giro. You know that guy hasn't seen a minute of the race.

I like Cyclismag because they're willing to give their opinion along with snippets of stories. But yesterday they ran a quote from Chris Horner about how he'd like to be on the Tour de France team, but wasn't sure. At the end, they added that Horner had missed last year's Tour because of injury. In real life, he had been training hard with Lance and Levi before the Tour, and thought that meant he was on the team, but then was left off, like Noval, because of the dual leadership situation. He had trained really hard, apparently for nothing, so he asked permission to try to ride for another team, but Bruyneel shot him down. That's a far cry from missing due to injury, but a lot of readers would see the sentence and file it away as truth. And cycling fans suffer because of that sort of thing.

 

[dolophonic]

I sent an email to Diane.. what a lame. If you want to write story's then go and do that but don't propose to be a journalist and be that far off base. woah.

On a totally different note.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/7714309/Giro-dItalia-2010-Fausto-Coppi-can-inspire-peloton-as-it-passes-through-Castellania.html

This seemed like a really well written piece ..

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

What about the CN puff interview with the Hog today. Lots of putting the boot into Astana and accusations of not being paid. No right of response from Astana to the accusations made? Seems that when it comes to Astana vs Hog, CN's coverage is very one-sided.

 

[python]

the problem here is not cn.

read the article in the cn carefully. cn only reprinted (and btw, properly translated) the interview bruynell gave to Het Nieuwsblad.

he said in an interview with the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad

the critique should be directed in general at the lack of investigative journalism, cn and Het Nieuwsblad included.

with only few key strokes the cycling 'journalists' could easily find what many informed posters here know by heart: there is a long standing busyness dispute between astana (kazakh cycling federation) and the bruneel's managing company (olympus sarl).

bru stole (according to the kazakhs) a lot of thier property ( the bus, communication equipment etc). he also owned almost a million to a certain rider (gusev) based on cas's decision.

so being refused his own pay is only a ...business dispute with bruyneel.

but of course, the cycling media has no time for investigating facts because it takes 10 minutes.

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

With the Landis allegations we need serious journalism and integrity from the media - McQuaid has already gone into the normal playbook accusing Landis of being bitter etc to avoid investigating the accusations. The UCI can not be allowed to simply try to sweep the claims under the carpet and it is up to the media to hold McQuaid to account.

 

[thehog]

With the Landis allegations we need serious journalism and integrity from the media - McQuaid has already gone into the normal playbook accusing Landis of being bitter etc to avoid investigating the accusations. The UCI can not be allowed to simply try to sweep the claims under the carpet and it is up to the media to hold McQuaid to account.

For Pat McQuaid, president of the International Cycling Union, Landis’s accusations do not taint Armstrong’s reputation one bit.

“I think Landis is in a very sad situation and I feel sorry for the guy because I don’t accept anything he says as true,” McQuaid said in a telephone interview on Thursday. “This is a guy who has been condemned in court, who has stood up in court and stated that the he never saw any doping in cycling. He’s written a book saying he won the Tour de France clean. Where does that leave his credibility? He has an agenda and is obviously out to seek revenge.”