Was anyone watching Good Morning America today? Marion Jones was being interviewed by Robin Roberts about her six-month stint in the slammer for lying to a federal jury about her steriod use.
She made two glaring mistakes: one was saying that "when you are a prominent person and athlete, you trust the people around you that they have your best interests at heart."
Marion: that was mistake number one.
The second one, and I think this was very telling is that during the interview, she NEVER apologised to her teammates who also were forced to give up their gold medals. The IOC thinks if one person is tainted, they all are and the message is turn 'em in.
I would like to think she has learned at least a little something during her time in the joint. She says that she wants to go out and speak to people about the mistakes she's made. But in my opinion, she has to get right with herself, even before she starts to think about lecturing others.
The real victim here isn't Marion, but her teammates who had nothing to do with doping getting caught up in her scandal and them paying the price for something they did not do. A lot of people, including athletes, fans, and those of us who deal with the Olympic movement didn't believe the talk at first. I firmly believed that Marion was clean, and as I wrote earlier, it was her dirtbag ex-husband that I heard plenty about. But Marion? Nah. No way. How could we have got it so wrong?
Marion, you should be ashamed of yourself. Many people put their trust and faith in you and it is YOU who let us down.
Do you have the guts to make things right?
After seeing you on GMA, I will say the jury is out.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
IOC to the EBU: Go to hell!
The IOC has turned down the European Broadcasting Union's bid for the rights to upcoming Olympic Games. The IOC has cited wanting to negotiate individual contracts in the countries involved (read: more $$$ and £££) as the reason for the decision. I wonder if this is totally wise.
In my opinion, you get continuity when you have a master contract covering most of Europe. There may be a few countries here and there that don't sign on and want their own deals. I just can't see the sense of this. It's going to drive up costs (obviously) and for some poorer or smaller nations, the cost to broadcast may be prohibitive.
At the last IOC session in Guatemala City, Jacques Rogge cited concern about certain countries not being able to receive Olympic programming or getting inconsistent transmissions of certain events. But by starting to put a chokehold on the European broadcast rights is only the beginning. We're already seeing in Oceania terrestial broadcasters who previously held the rights being shut out by local cable, most notably Foxtel for 2010 Winter and 2012 Summer (along with Nine Network), shutting out long-time broadcaster 7 Network.
It's time to give it back to the people who have done it the best and done it the longest-and not some upstarts who think they can do it better and sell the IOC and the viewing public a bunch of damaged goods, all in the name of someone lining their pockets when it comes time to negotiate the contract.
The real losers will be the viewing public, and with no viewers, there is no ratings and in the end, no bux.
Familiarise yourself where the on/off switch is. You will need it if you live in Europe-and I suspect elsewhere too.
In my opinion, you get continuity when you have a master contract covering most of Europe. There may be a few countries here and there that don't sign on and want their own deals. I just can't see the sense of this. It's going to drive up costs (obviously) and for some poorer or smaller nations, the cost to broadcast may be prohibitive.
At the last IOC session in Guatemala City, Jacques Rogge cited concern about certain countries not being able to receive Olympic programming or getting inconsistent transmissions of certain events. But by starting to put a chokehold on the European broadcast rights is only the beginning. We're already seeing in Oceania terrestial broadcasters who previously held the rights being shut out by local cable, most notably Foxtel for 2010 Winter and 2012 Summer (along with Nine Network), shutting out long-time broadcaster 7 Network.
It's time to give it back to the people who have done it the best and done it the longest-and not some upstarts who think they can do it better and sell the IOC and the viewing public a bunch of damaged goods, all in the name of someone lining their pockets when it comes time to negotiate the contract.
The real losers will be the viewing public, and with no viewers, there is no ratings and in the end, no bux.
Familiarise yourself where the on/off switch is. You will need it if you live in Europe-and I suspect elsewhere too.
