On the cover of this morning's New York Times, a picture of the entire US Postal Service team during the team time trial. Can't wait for the day when full-page ads by Lincoln, Hummer, etc. are replaced by Cannondale, Trek, Lightspeed...
Mon Dieu -- New York Times Cover!
Thu, 07/10/2003 - 7:03am
Thu, 07/10/2003 - 9:18am
#1
At Long Last Love
I don't know if it's LA himself, the 100th year of the TDF or just the general advance of cycling's popularity, but WOW, front page of the NY Times! After only 4 stages!!
I go to my lbs on week-ends and it's packed - bikes constantly being looked at, trialed, purchased. Everyone talking Giro, TDF, LA, Tyler, Super Mario, etc. Wait for the next generation of cyclists!!
Thu, 07/10/2003 - 1:12pm
#2
Car ads on OLN
"John Z wrote: ""Can't wait for the day when full-page ads by Lincoln, Hummer, etc. are replaced by Cannondale, Trek, Lightspeed...""
I'd be happy if some of the car ads during OLN's coverage of the TdF were replaced with bike ads, or with any other ads for that matter. Last year it was Lincoln Navigator, this year it's ""Subaru--Driven by what's inside."" Same commercial ad nauseam.
"
Fri, 07/11/2003 - 12:29pm
#3
I'd be happy too
Yes, I'd be happy too if the car ads on OLN's TdF coverage were replaced by bike, or bike-related ads. But, at least we do have a Cannondale ad and one for a saddle, which is an improvement on last year.
Despite my wishes, I have to concede that if the car ads pay for OLN to bring us this coverage, then so be it. If you recall, Lincoln sponsored a commercial-free last half hour of each day's coverage, and we don't have that this year. Lincoln may produce some of the ugliest gas guzzlers in the world (I think the Navigator is a useless piece of junk, especially in a big city) but they did, in effect, subsidise the cost of my watching the tour last year.
Fri, 07/11/2003 - 7:29pm
#4
More Sponsors means less reptition...
What bugged me about the Navigator commercials last year was that there were so few sponsors, so they were on EVERY commercial break. That is not the case this year because there are more sponsors, so it is not as monotonous. Also, Subaru has more vocal in addition to the music in the commercial, and not just a snazzy jazz track, so I tune out the commercial much easier than last year.
Thu, 07/10/2003 - 9:28am
#5
The Times is better on the coverage than the commentary -- George Vescey gets Velcro confused with Lycra, and thinks that Victor Hugo Pena took the yellow jersey as a birthday present from his USPS teammates, rather than because he was ahead on GC.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/10/sports/sportsspecial/10vecsey.html
Thu, 07/10/2003 - 7:56pm
#6
SPECTACULAR PIECE OF NY TIMES CRASS INCOMPETENCE
I got around to seeing the front page picture this evening.
How an earth could any competent picture editor worth their salt manage to choose a picture of the US Postal team in full flight in the team time trial that had cropped out Lance Armstrong? A big clue, there were only eight riders in the picture and LA's helmet is different than anyone else's. And if the picture editor didn't know, he or she should have asked someone who did. In my native London, it would be a dismissable offence on a British national newspaper, even on a rag owned by Murdoch.
It just goes to show the NY Times is still not worth the paper it's printed on, and I'm horrified to hear that the big TV and radio networks rely on it to set the news agenda all too often. The editorial management changes obviously haven't worked.
Fri, 07/11/2003 - 5:57pm
#7
On Poole's berating the NYT's photo editor and the NYT.
Anthony, I believe you've written you're a journalist so you know picture editors size and crop photos to fit width and depth. Yeah, I suppose (s)he could have cut from the back instead of the head in order to have Lane in the picture...but does no part of you welcome the Times' getting away from its coverage, as is everyone else's here in the U.S., all-Lance, all-the-time?
Me? I personally welcome the respite.
Richard
Sun, 07/13/2003 - 1:51pm
#8
Yes, I am grategul for the coverage
Richard,
I am grateful for the NY Times putting the picture on the front page, and yes, I know that pictures get cropped to fit. However, I still think there would have been a much wider selection of pictures available to to the picture editor from both AP and Reuters, which would have suited better, not to mention all of the French newspapers and freelance photographers and photgraphers from the cycling magazines. I would be surprised if there were not at least a couple of dozen pictures to choose from.
One of the faults of the NY Times, and US broadsheets generally, is that they print main photographs on the front page too small which, in fairness, is not the picture editor's fault. But if you're going to bother to put a colour photograph on the front page of a newspaper, you may as well do it justice.
I still say that the picture editor should have made it his or her business to ensure that Lance Armstrong was on the picture that was finally chosen and that it was a piece of crass incompetence not to have dones so. So, on the one hand, I applaud the coverage being on the front page, but it is a poor showing on the choice and crop of the picture.
Sun, 07/13/2003 - 5:43pm
#9
Two good words about the Time's Tour coverage.
Anthony, your first post in this thread disparaged the NY Times in general, and, given your post some weeks ago that those who opposed our invasion of Iraq, sought, as you said, to hijack the 5-Boro bike ride, I suspect some of your dyspepsia over the Times is based on an agenda having nothing to do with its coverage of the Tour de France or its use of photos but, instead, its supposed liberal tilt.
For a pure racing perspective on the race, of course you are best referred to a web site or magazine specializing in bike racing. But for a general readership, all one need say in appreciation and admiration of the Times' coverage of the Tour is two words: Sam Abt.
Richard
Sun, 07/13/2003 - 8:59pm
#10
And yet...
...despite Sam's experience and longevity, today he fell for the USPS party line (aka Bruyneel's little poker game) hook, line, and sinker. Tsk, tsk.
Mon, 07/14/2003 - 7:31am
#11
Nothing against the NY Times being liberal
Richard, I am glad the NY Times saw fit to put the Tour de France on the front page to bring it to a wider audience. But my comments about the picture editor still stand.
Sorry for getting entirely off subject. I have nothing against the NY Times being liberal, or its reputation for being liberal. My beef against the NY Times is that a proprietorial family is the largest individual shareholder. Unfortunately, the same is also true of most of the newspapers in this county and in Britain. The NY Times talks about 'all the news that's fit to print' yet the NY Times refused to carry the story of Jesse Jackson's love child. What was that about? I just simply don't trust the NY Times.
In short, I do not trust newspapers, TV news and radio news that are owned by proprietors. I have more faith in the BBC, NPR and The Guardian and The Observer. And, thankfully, with the BBC (except for BBC America) there is no commercial sponsorship or advertising, so they really are not beholden to anyone, and are able to expose the possibility/probability that the British government misled parliament and the public over its reasons for backing Bush against Iraq.
