NPR's All Things Considered aired a segment on Friday about The Championships in which host Melissa Block spoke with Bud Collins who was at Wimbledon.
There were a few gaffs though in the coverage starting with the brief written explanation on the segment which reads: "Venus Williams beat No. 1-ranked Justine Henin to advance to the women's finals." Not that Venus Williams, winner of the trophy this year, didn't play well but she didn't beat Justine Henin. Poor Marion Bartoli, who had a fantastic tournament didn't get much credit.
Also, Bud Collins, who usually does a good job pronouncing players' names (Block also provided correct pronunciations) called Amelie Mauresmo, Amelia.
But worst of all was when the two started talking about Venus Williams and Bartoli and the final which would pit a 23 seed against an 18 seed. Block asked about Williams's level of play and noted that she was hampered earlier in the week by pretty severe leg cramps. Wow! Is another example of the "all Black people look alike" problem white Americans seem to have? Or a more nuanced version: the Williams sister are interchangeable. Collins, surprisingly, did not correct her.
Interestingly Block ended the segment saying the biggest upset was NBC letting Collins go after 35 years. He was quite gracious in saying that he has enjoyed his time with NBC, that he will be back as a writer and that who knows (as in there might be offers from other television media. Will the BBC snatch him up?)
1 comment:
NPR is having a great week. I wrote them an email the other day about how offensive it was that they did a lengthy feature on female genital mutilation and called it "circumcision."
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