Zoe Williams Spiteful Piece in Guardian

combat_claire said:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/lon...ips-olympic-silver-eventing#start-of-comments

If there was a gold medal for spiteful vitriol then Ms Williams would win the gold medal. If she had criticised Louis Smith in the same way then she would have been slaughtered. Seems like equestrianism is an easy target for poor journalism.
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It was disgraceful and rude, stupid woman clearly dosent know anything about horses and equestrianism and I was very annoyed reading it on the way home from a wonderful weekend at Greenwich.
 
I read this and sent a letter to them, we should all do this so they know a dum bint like her shouldn't even be commenting on horse events. It's like asking me to review snooker. ( not Olympic that's my point.)
 
If she posted her article on this forum, I'm sure she would have been labelled as a troll!

I really don't like her article...
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Broke_But_Happy said:
Is it just me or does WFP look just a little smug about having his arms around 4 blondes? ;)
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Wouldn't you, lol.

As much as I admire Zara for her riding ability, I actually really like her but it always amazes me how the press seem to concentrate on her when it thinks of eventing.
She is part of a team of hard working, dedicated athletes who should all in my opinion be respected and recognised for their efforts and dedication.

At the end of the day they all did themselves proud, I for one salute them and I will not allow some small time idiot journalist to detract from their achievements.
Well done team GB and all the support team and coaches.

As for the BBC guy who pressed Tina Cook to respond yet again over the passing of her father, he should have shown some respect. He is a prat and very inconsiderate, I only hope his colleagues gave him some stick for making a cheap shot at someone who was already obviously a bit upset.
 
I feel like a lone voice sometimes, speaking out for all those amazing event riders in the world of mainstream media, or even in the normal real world. People don't 'get it', which is such a shame. The risks those really quite small women take are so much more scary than in any other sport. But hopefully, having those iconic images of Greenwich, along with Zara and her zazzy royal cousins will add some USP to the sport.
 
She is writing what she thinks her readers want. I have been following reports in the Guardian & I have posted on some of the comments boards. I have to say I missed this one (thankfully for the sake of my blood pressure) presumably because it was in the Lifestyle Section which I rarely look at. Nearly all the comments by readers have been incredibly ignorant & down right nasty.

Lots of people have suggested it isn't a sport & it is boring; well I find 80% of the sports in the Olympics boring but it doesn't make me write spiteful comments.

The irony is that, like the author of the article, a great proportion of their readership are upper middle class, I doubt if many real working class people go near the paper.

Unfortunately equestrian sport in this country (even horse racing) has developed a low image with the media. A lot of it is sniping by inverted snobs & a lot just based on total ignorance. A lot of people get anything with horses mixed up with fox hunting. At one time Show Jumping was a national obsession, eventing maybe less so; what went wrong? Is it to do with misinformed anti-hunting people? I was hoping a good showing in the Olympics by the equestrian teams would raise the profile of the sport in this country.. It seems, sadly the reverse might be true.

The article is disgusting I hope that the riders complain to the paper.
 
What awful articles with such a bitter tone.

What we do have to remember is, these articles are already forgotten, whereas what our eventers achieved this week will go down in history with respect and awe. (Hopefully alongside our Dressage riders and maybe even the Show Jumpers...!)

Poxy, lazily written pieces of drivel are forgotten, history is not.
 
Honeylight said:
She is writing what she thinks her readers want.

Unfortunately equestrian sport in this country (even horse racing) has developed a low image with the media. A lot of it is sniping by inverted snobs & a lot just based on total ignorance. A lot of people get anything with horses mixed up with fox hunting. At one time Show Jumping was a national obsession, eventing maybe less so; what went wrong? Is it to do with misinformed anti-hunting people? I was hoping a good showing in the Olympics by the equestrian teams would raise the profile of the sport in this country.. It seems, sadly the reverse might be true.
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Hadn't really thought of it in this way, how sad.
The tabloids lets face it are far more concerned with celebrity gossip and football, if the press in general are moving in this direction it's a real shame.

I think it's a fact that the majority of people involved with equestrian sport participate because of their love of horses and their sport, maybe the media are being overtly cynical, perhaps they don't consider equestrian events as a way of creating revenue we only need to look at the sporting events which get the most coverage generally! I personally think Sky TV has a lot to answer for.

regards

Tony
 
combat_claire said:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/lon...ips-olympic-silver-eventing#start-of-comments

If there was a gold medal for spiteful vitriol then Ms Williams would win the gold medal. If she had criticised Louis Smith in the same way then she would have been slaughtered. Seems like equestrianism is an easy target for poor journalism.
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I would take no notice it's typical guardian fare !!! the semi educated spitefull lefty readership will no doubt chuckle, but then they would !!! nasty people who have done this county and decent folk a lot of damage
over the years ...
 
Both articles are naive, ignorant and terribly spiteful. It's such a shame that our sport gets bad press like this, we win team silver - the best GB result of the day and yet still articles like this happen! What do we have to do to get acceptance?! Win every single medal possible?

Must admit though, the cheering when the Germans knocked a fence was just as spiteful from the crowd. I was there and was quite ashamed at being a part of it, it was quite embarrassing. Very poor sportsmanship.
 
Horrible piece written by a spiteful, hypocritical journalist.

However, I do sometimes think that equestrians don't do themselves any favours when speaking to the media about the percieved elitism - we all know that people from all walks of life ride and have horses, but, for example, I heard Pippa Funnell on 5Live the other day being asked the elitism question. She replied along the lines of yes, it is very expensive, and no, not everyone might be able to join in or have a horse, but there are some inner city riding schools which are helping etc, etc, but what she should be telling them (as I believe the 5 live journalist then mentioned) is that there are 1 million horses in Britain, and it is quite certain that not all of them are owned by the upper class. Sure, it takes a lot of money to produce an event horse, but not many people compete at that level.

Instead, tell the press about the happy hackers, those who keep horses because they enjoy kissing their noses so much (you know what I mean!), the unaffiliated competitors who keep their horses at DIY yards, those who have scrimped and saved for a horse and live off pot noodles to do so, or the kids that work at riding schools all weekend so they can have a ride. Tell them about the passion that drives people to be involved with horses at any cost, rather than letting mean spirited people like that Grauniad journalist think that the only people that care about horses are those that were conceived in order to ride one.

On another point, have been reasonably pleased with the Beeb's coverage of horse sports so far (partic on the radio), but very disappointed that there wasn't even a snifter of the fact we are in gold position, something never achieved before in British dressage, on the telly tonight on any of the review shows.
 
Isn't it wrong though to say Zara first royal Olympian I could be mistaken but I thought princess Anne won a medal.
 
that is almost as bad as the piece on yahoo news that said Mary King used the Bronze Lion Statue in the SJ as "an excuse for not winning Gold" ....er what?! I think you'll find she said it was ehr fault for going too close to it and spooking I.C who was then a bit buzzy... not an excuse, merely an explanation of what she felt she did wrong...

or am I being niaive?
 
Well, they (the DM) are wildly inaccurate and tangential as usual, but at least it doesn't seem to be written by someone with a stomach full of bile!

Will be interesting to see if the Graun let you reply - what did you say in your article Susanna?
 
pootleperkin said:
Well, they (the DM) are wildly inaccurate and tangential as usual, but at least it doesn't seem to be written by someone with a stomach full of bile!

Will be interesting to see if the Graun let you reply - what did you say in your article Susanna?
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It's not really a reply but a related piece I've been researching for ages. Given that they're hugely busy with the Olympics it'll probably take a while to get a response.
 
Why are we still going on about this? It's newspaper articles - they are supposed to cause discussion. And are you honestly not a little bit irritated that every minor royal can swan in and get a seat to anything they like?
 
SusannaF said:
Ahem.

If you think it's just "spiteful lefties" then have a look at the Daily Mail:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...g-Sloanes-crammed-south-London-half-Firm.html


Signed,

A leftie who has written for the Guardian
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I'm not a fan of the daily mail !! but
Um not sure it was offensive or spitefull, or intended to be?? just a gentle poke at us horsey folk..... However off topic
it seems like Zara singlehandedly won the medal !! Mary King and the rest of the team was just making up the numbers...
 
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