Clueless writing about our sport

[gh]

Here's a clueless headline writer:

The sub-headline reads:

>>Nate Richartz wins the high jump for the second time this season<<

The article correctly reports that Richartz won the pole vault, not the high jump.

http://www.und.com/sports/c-track/recaps/033118aae.html

"clueless" headline writers cross all boundaries and have little/nothing to do with back track coverage. It's a job frequently done under intense deadline pressure by somebody whose métier is crafting grabbing copy without actually understanding the underlying copy.

[tandfman]

Understood. I see a lot of clueless headlines and usually just shrug my shoulders. This one struck me as being particularly bad.

[KDFINE]

The front page article now cited from the Australian AP about Steve Solomon reports that Braylon Taplon leads the World Indoor 400 list. I guess they haven't heard the news yet, or better yet need to subscribe T&Fn.

[tandfman]

The front page article on Virginia Tech's weekend included a reference to last weekend's "Baskin Weems Invitational." The name of the meet is the Weems Baskin Invitational, named after the former coach at the University of South Carolina.

http://www.collegiatetimes.com/sports/track-weekend-recap-field-events-shine-for-hokies/article_5054ccba-3681-11e8-a79a-3349cded4f67.html

[tandfman]

Here's a story about Blessing Okagbare's attempt to defend her Commonwealth 100 and 200 titles.

https://www.channelstv.com/2018/04/07/blessing-okagbare-set-to-makes-new-records-at-commonwealth-games/

The problem is that it was announced weeks ago that she had no intention of running any individual event at the CG, just a leg on the relay. And, in fact, she did not run the 100 yesterday and presumably will not run the 200 either.

[gh]

Not our sport, but indictive of how newspaper standards have fallen (forced mainly by economic considerations, one suspects), a local sports TV talk show had a baseball doozy.

The Denver Post had a yearly preview of the Rockies with a special section, and the front page was a picture of the ballpark with a huge headline COORS FIELD.

Except it wasn't Coors; some other major league park I don't remember.

[bambam1729]

Not our sport, but indictive of how newspaper standards have fallen (forced mainly by economic considerations, one suspects), a local sports TV talk show had a baseball doozy.

The Denver Post had a yearly preview of the Rockies with a special section, and the front page was a picture of the ballpark with a huge headline COORS FIELD.

Except it wasn't Coors; some other major league park I don't remember.

Citizens Bank Park, Philly

[bambam1729]

I think this is endemic to many sports when sportswriters are covering something they don't cover very often. I just read a Sports Illustrated story this AM about the Masters written by a women writer I've never heard of before. She obviously knows nothing about golf, and its evident when you read it. At least its evident to me, but I suspect the average golfer may not know.

[bambam1729]

As I said - https://www.sbnation.com/golf/2018/4...ighlights-news - headline is that Patrick Reed won Masters with a -15 round on Sunday.

[Conor Dary]

Not our sport, but indictive of how newspaper standards have fallen (forced mainly by economic considerations, one suspects), a local sports TV talk show had a baseball doozy.

The Denver Post had a yearly preview of the Rockies with a special section, and the front page was a picture of the ballpark with a huge headline COORS FIELD.

Except it wasn't Coors; some other major league park I don't remember.

That's the least of the problems with the Denver Post...

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/04/06/as-vultures-circle-the-denver-post-must-be-saved/

[bambam1729]

To save money a lot of the newspapers are eliminating copy editors. I only edit a medical journal (J Shoulder Elbow Surgery), but copy editors are invaluable. They save me a lot of work. I think a lot of these mistakes are showing up because of the lack of copy editors.

[tandfman]

There's a story now on the front page about Caster Semenya dedicating her Commonwealth Games 800 win to the rural youth of Africa. It includes this interesting bit of misinformation:

>>She led from start to finish before wiping out the 16-year-old Commonwealth record of Seychelles athlete Joanna Houareau. That time of 1:57.35 was set in Manchester, England back in 2002<<

This piqued my curiosity since I had never heard of Joanna Houareau. I did some checking and learned that she was a sprinter who ran the 100 in the 1999 World Championships and the 2000 Olympic Games. She was eliminated in the heats in both--not surprising in view of the fact that her PR was 11.89. I doubt if she ever ran an 800 in her life.

So then I asked myself how anyone might have thought she held the CG 800 record. It turns out that that was what the official start lists said! In fact, 1:57.35 was the meet record, but it was held by triple World Champion Maria Mutola.

OK, so now I understand how that fake news got into print. But writer of the article (which appeared on the website of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee) was obviously clueless about track and field. Anyone with any background in the sport would have been suspicious of that and asked the same questions I did.

I still haven't a clue as to how that nonsense made it to the start lists of the Commonwealth Games and was never noticed or corrected by anyone there.

[tandfman]

How about this for a clueless headline writer:

>>Geoffrey Kirui and Edna Rupp renew Boston Marathon duel<<

https://www.eurosport.com/athletics/geoffrey-kirui-and-edna-rupp-renew-boston-marathon-duel_sto6712185/story.shtml

[Master Po]

Regarding the previously unheard of CWG 800m record holder (noted above), I saw that too, and wrote it off to my own ignorance, thinking, "wow, how did I never hear of that athlete and that performance?" (But I never got around to looking it up.)

[gh]

How about this for a clueless headline writer:

>>Geoffrey Kirui and Edna Rupp renew Boston Marathon duel<<...

that's a time warp quote, looking ahead to the next decade when the IAAF's mixed-sex policy comes into full play :-)