We could do with a little more Olympic wankery, I figured!

NBC reporter attemps to interview Dutch gold medalist Sven Kramer after he won the 5000 meters speedskating event, and starts the interview with the question of who he is, and Sven wants to know if she's stupid.

Comments range from "She got what was coming to her" and "awesome stick it to the dumbass american media!" to "What an arrogant prick. I hope he realizes his 15 minutes of fame won't last long." and "what a douchebag. he doesn't even play a real sport."

I guess skating really really quickly isn't a sport, then. ANYWAY, yesterday, Sven Kramer had to skate again, and is pretty much the expected winner of the 10000 meters.

Until he gets disqualified for moving into the wrong lane. Quite a lot of the commenters, though, would still to talk about whether or not he'd been a rude arrogant douchebag and if the reporter was useless or simply doing her job. And some blame his parents: "I have never said anything so rude to another person, nor did I teach my children to speak to other people that way." and one person thinks Sven's coach should be given the medal, even though the coach was the one who told him to go in the wrong lane: "The GOLD medal should have been given to the coach for putting up with such an arrogant, cocky, mouthy and STUPID kramer"

And then there's some American-bashing: "Could the americans in this article, who didnt check their facts, stick to their own nations webpages and rant about their version of the truth?"

Ohnotheydidnt weighs in on the matter as well but it quickly goes into "he's good-looking enough that he could verbally abuse me and i wouldn't care, so long as i got to slap dat ass" territory. Maybe the skintight suits involved in speedskating bring that out in people.

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	kijikun 2010-02-25 12:33 am UTC (link)
	It didn't occur to him that made she was asking because the interview/sound bite would be put into a normal news broadcast that people who haven't been watching would see it? O_o (Reply to this)(Thread)

	ekaterinv 2010-02-25 02:03 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, that's what I thought too. He just went straight to "all these Americans are so stupid" rather than thinking that, ya know, this is how interviews are conducted all the time. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	dragonfangirl 2010-02-25 07:29 am UTC (link)
	If he were famous enough to be interviewed more often, perhaps he would have known that? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

mary_mac
2010-02-25 02:48 pm UTC (link)

But its only the interview technique for the US/Canada. Its not done in Europe. Europeans will think you're stupid if you do that kind thing without an explanation. Especially because talking like that makes you look like a complete wanker.

Also, opening with 'can you say your name and what you just won' implies you have not been paying attention. That's not going to win you friends.

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	chikane 2010-02-25 05:37 pm UTC (link)
	Europeans will think you're stupid Why would we? It's not used often, sure, but most of us have enough common sense to understand that it may simply be a way to start an interview, which makes us react politely. There's little point jumping angrily at people like that... ...unless your ego is a bit oversized, that is. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

mary_mac
2010-02-25 05:54 pm UTC (link)

Most people I know would have asked the same, with varying levels of civility. Admittedly, the good folk of Ulster are very very direct with their opinions of people asking silly questions/giving silly instructions, but still, its hardly a surprising reaction if you've never seen it before.

Honestly, the video came off as a genuine WTF, not angry. He's young, he's definitely excited, his filter is well gone and someone asked him a silly question.

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	ekaterinv 2010-02-26 06:50 am UTC (link)
	Europeans will think we're stupid for doing things in a different way than they do them? Seriously? The "Americans are stupid" attitude makes it a lot harder for we Americans who try to fight jingoism in our own country. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

mary_mac
2010-02-26 08:13 am UTC (link)

Did I say 'Americans are stupid'?

I said that if you are using that technique, without explanation, to a European athlete, they are likely to think you are stupid, because without context, its a stupid thing to say.

It'd sound stupid from any country. And assuming all your interviewees know what you're trying to do? No a good idea in an international context. She did rather walk into it.

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	mary_mac 2010-02-25 08:31 am UTC (link)
	In fairness, that's not the convention in European broadcasting outside of music tv. I suspect broadcasting culture clash. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	usagivindaloo 2010-02-25 09:02 am UTC (link)
	If that were the case, though, couldn't she have said something before starting? "Hey, I'd like to interview you. Do you mind if I start with a bit of an intro about you for people just joining in?" (Reply to this)(Parent)

notme
2010-02-25 02:27 pm UTC (link)

Wait, do the news anchors/reporters not do stuff like that on US TV? Do people introduce themselves in interviews?

I'm so confused now! Also I'm picturing something like "I'm [random person] and I just won a gold metal in [random sport]! *thumbs up*" :D

(In Norway, a thing like that would probably go something like: news/sportsanchor: "blablabla won blablabla" and then cut to blablabla talking about winning)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	ekaterinv 2010-02-26 06:52 am UTC (link)
	With people who aren't already famous, yes. It's a way to get sound bytes. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	zing_och 2010-02-25 09:14 pm UTC (link)
	It wouldn't have occured to me. I've never seen it done. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	tachikoma01 2010-03-05 04:46 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, my first thought was also 'She probably asked him because most people watching the news don't have the names/faces/countries of every athlete memorized.' (Reply to this)(Parent)

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