Did The Bee degrade women gymnasts?
I am so sorry that you felt it necessary to do that front page article and picture FALL FROM GRACE on Wednesday August 13, 2008. And then with such a big picture and on the FRONT PAGE; come on; are you that hard up for business? With all the wonderful stores about the participants, why you would choose to give us such lousy and degrading information? Don't you think we all saw the slips and blunders happen on TV and our hearts went out to each participant in all events that did not match up to expectations. Don't you think all the competitors that did not do well are filled with their own guilt and remorse? Normally I am used to the paper giving us only negative information and slanted to be more negative as well but this is the WORST YET. If my husband did not absolutely require the Fresno Bee I would cancel on the spot and may still do so if I can convince him, it is not worth reading. Basically it has not been worth reading for a long time.I can understand why the front page that day may have been upsetting to some. It may have appeared that The Bee was going out of its way to celebrate the U.S. women's gymnastics team's defeat by featuring the event with a large photograph and headline.
Olympic Supporter
Marilyn Sniffin
I can assure you that this isn't the case. We don't like bad news any more than you do -- nor does it help sell newspapers, as many readers imagine. For example, take a look at the four other front-page stories we've had so far about Americans competing in Beijing -- all were about winners.
Still, you are right to question the way we displayed this story. It was out of proportion to the importance of the event.
Sometimes an athletic contest is so widely anticipated that even a loss is a front-page story. We would not be doing our job if we didn't prominently report a big setback to a team that readers care strongly about. But this event didn't rise to that level. We should have scaled it back to a more modest front-page story.
Partly this occurred as a result of a miscalculation on our part. The event occurred late in our production cycle, so we planned for the story to occupy the same space on the page regardless of the result in order to minimize the disruption that would result from re-making the page on deadline. This was my decision, and it was a mistake.