Sunday, February 19, 2006

and i keep blinking, like snapping the shutter of a camera, wishing to imprint this moment somewhere in my heart
Long rant on a HUGE peeve of mine: It seems that after losing his chance to medal, Johnny Weir recieved a lot of bad press. It's to be expected, all things considered, but I can't help feeling upset over it. Of course, I've stumbled upon similar situations in the past, but this case in particular bothers me.

First off, I'm not the type of person to get even slightly annoyed when, say, others mistake anime for being solely hentai. In most cases, it's a simple misconception on the part of the author. There's no malice in their words, just bad research, and while others may be annoyed by the incompetence of others, I'm likely to find it humorous more than anything. Even when certain people use anime/video games as a scapegoat for the cause of the problems of today's youth, again, it's more misconception and ignorance than blatant defamation.

When journalists, however, purposefully villainize someone, it pisses me off. And even then, the target is normally either:

A) ...someone who did something so stupid that they, to a certain extent, had it coming, or
B) ...so famous/respected that a bit of bad press would do little to hurt their fanbase.

In the case of Weir, he is neither an A-list celebrity nor is his situation terribly unique. He's an outspoken kid, who was hyped up by the press following his short program. Then, for whatever reason, he screwed up his free skate, which triggered an explosion of misquoting and outrageous accusations on Weir's personality and its affect on his abilities. (And it's not as if most journalists know jackshit about the technicalities of skating, which raises the what-the-fuck-o-meter to even greater heights.) All throughout, Weir seemed to handle himself maturely, unlike the majority of the goddamn journalists who wrote on the issue.

It's not that I pity Weir, since anyone who's opinionated, flamboyant, and even somewhat famous will need to deal with this situation at one point in their lives.

I'm just angered that writers, of all people, would so readily destroy a person's reputation just to garner readers or add "spice" to their writing. I'd expect this from tabloid articles and radical Christian fundamentalists, but reporters from respectable news sources? It's sick, it's pathetic, and it's just plain disappointing.
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