Celebrate, dammit!

[carynb]

I was standing in line at my local Tim's for my coffee this morning when the morning papers caught my eye. All four of the main papers - two national, two city-based - had variations on the same picture taking up well over half of the above-the-fold front page. This being an olympic year, it's not surprising that it was Olympics-related.

Was it Lori-Ann Muenzer winning Canada's first women's cycling sprint gold? Nope.
Was it Alexandre Despartie winning Canada's first male diving medal, a silver? Nope.

Two had pictures of Perdita Felicien, the favorite in the 100m hurdles, tangled in a hurdle, and two had pictures of her walking off the track in tears. Now, she's a local, so it's not really surprising that the two local papers focused on her performance. Maybe the Globe and the Post had other pictures in other parts of the country, but here they were also focused on the one who lost, rather than on those who won.

When did we become a "doom-and-gloom" country? I feel badly for Muenzer and Despartie, who've made these fabulous achievements, and are being virtually ignored by the print media back home. It just seems wrong that the national papers for their scrapbooks will have their achievements as a footnote rather than as front page excitement.

Comments

[mycrazyhair.livejournal.com]

Y'know, it's funny. That's exactly what I thought.

[whynotsteve.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately the news is pretty much the same as reality tv: showing other people suffering for our entertainment. We were at a bar last night when they were replaying the race and showing her family & friends back home watching it. Is that really necessary? Ugh.

[carynb.livejournal.com]

To be fair, they also showed the folks back home reacting to Muenzer and Despartie's performanaces, so it's not like the CBC was focusing solely on her all night. A balanced portrayal of all three races in the morning papers wouldn't have struck me as so odd - it's just the overwhelming emphasis on the one who lost that took me back a little.

[mycrazyhair.livejournal.com]

Well, at least the KW record had the same size picture on the front page for each of the three events. I didn't read the article, but it was probably fairly balanced.