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CNN Saturday Morning News

Reporter's Notebook: The Winter Olympics

Aired February 16, 2002 - 09:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's get to our panelists for the "Reporter's Notebook" segment, shall we?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: We shall.

O'BRIEN: In Park City, we have CNN/Sports Illustrated's John Giannone.

JOHN GIANNONE, CNN/SPORTS ILLUSTRATED CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: Good to see you, sir.

GIANNONE: Good to see you.

O'BRIEN: We have Carol Lin joining us from Salt Lake City, not far from the Salt Lake Temple. You knew that, I bet, right?

CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, but Miles, I knew it was going to catch up with you, the truth, so I figured you could handle it.

O'BRIEN: Ouch.

And finally from -- is that right, Fox? He's with Foxsports.com. Are the bosses watching this? Commentator and attorney Rob Becker in New York. Obviously the folks on our program aren't reading the papers, that we're supposed to be in a -- locked in a bitter rivalry here. Anyway, good to have you with us, Bob Becker.

ROB BECKER, FOXSPORTS.COM: Good to be on, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. We can be friends still, can't we?

MESERVE: I think so.

BECKER: Absolutely.

LIN: I think it's allowed.

O'BRIEN: Couple of other -- let's get to some e-mail, shall we? And this is in reference to my comment earlier about the hockey game just not being the same. It's just like basketball in the Summer Games. You bring in a bunch of hired guns, it's just no fun, in my opinion.

Brett Potter in Toronto says this, "Granted, pro athletes play for their respective countries. I would like Miles O'Brien to point out how well our pro athletes did yesterday."

OK, so what? Results is not what we're talking about, we're talking about the -- you know, the thrill of victory, if you know what I mean, the agony of defeat, all that stuff.

Torie Osborne, however, says, "I totally agree with the idea that the Olympic Games are for amateurs and should not be open for professionals. This takes away the spirit that the games were founded on."

And that's the point where I'd like to start. Carol Lin, what are your thoughts on this? And go ahead, don't hold back.

LIN: Wait, what are my thoughts on what, the hockey and amateurs?

O'BRIEN: Creeping professionalism in the Olympic Games.

LIN: Ohh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. You know, you don't see much of that here at the Winter Games, actually. Although I interviewed skier Eric Schlopy the other day, and he was commenting on how, well, gee, normally when he goes on camera, he makes sure that he's wearing a sweater that has all his sponsorships...

O'BRIEN: Oh, well, yes.

LIN: ... all over the place, and he was wondering whether, you know, he was going to get some flak for not wearing that particular shirt.

O'BRIEN: Geez.

LIN: So, you know, it's on their minds. And a lot of these guys, when they're not on the slopes or not on the ice, they're out there, you know, making media appearances and making sure they're wearing the right jacket with the right name on it.

O'BRIEN: Ouch. All right, anybody else want to add on this issue?

GIANNONE: Yes, I'd like to say something.

O'BRIEN: Go ahead, John.

BECKER: I thought the whole point of the Olympics was to find out who the best athletes in the world are. And if you say the Olympics are just for amateurs, it's like saying, Here's this subset of humanity, and we want to know who the best in this subset is. Well, I don't think anyone has an interest in that.

Also, it's way too late to be talking about amateurism. Basically, you remember the East Germans, they were all considered to be amateurs officially. They were basically professionals. It's just way too late to go out and find an amateur in most sports. And I think it's wonderful the NHL has its players in the hockey competition, because you get to see the best players in the world. And that's what the Olympics is all about, to me.

O'BRIEN: All right.

MESERVE: The gauntlet has been thrown down at your feet, Miles.

O'BRIEN: We really could go on and on.

John, do you want to weigh in?

GIANNONE: Miles, I'll just say this...

O'BRIEN: Tie-breaker goes to you, by the way.

GIANNONE: Yesterday when Jamie Sale and David Pelletier had their press conference, their agent was sitting at the end of the podium. And I'll guarantee you 10, 20 years ago there was never an agent for figure skaters. So that's about how far we've come.

O'BRIEN: All right, there you have it.

MESERVE: Now, Miles, I know you didn't want to dwell on the figure skating, but we do have a phone call...

O'BRIEN: No, we're going to be calling, that's OK.

MESERVE: ... all about that...

O'BRIEN: I've resigned myself.

MESERVE: ... James, James from New York is on the line. Go ahead, please.

CALLER: Well, I just -- you know, I found out about this gold medal switch last night, and I'm wondering if anybody sees this as a quick cover-up before a real inquiry took place. I think it's kind of crazy to just put a golden Band-Aid on this when the Russians think that North American media made this all happen, and the reality was, corruption happened. The French judge slinked away, is suspended, but no one's admitting any fault. And I'm just wondering, you know, how they're really going to clear the name of these two Canadians.

MESERVE: Golden Band-Aid, I love the phrase. Which one of you wants to tackle that one?

O'BRIEN: You know, we should give this guy a contract, that was good, golden Band-Aid.

(CROSSTALK)

BECKER: ... let me just say on this, the Cinquanta, who's the head of the International Skating Union, has made clear that this is an ongoing investigation, so I don't think it's necessarily going to be swept under the rug, and I don't think it can be, because of all the media attention -- you know, these questions are going to continue to be asked, and I think that we will eventually get to the bottom of this. We don't everything now. We need to know who brought the pressure to bear on the French judge, and then we have to do something about that.

LIN: See, Rob, I disagree. I mean, I think this is going to be swept under the rug, because they responded because there was so much public pressure, but not just pressure from the sports media, not just pressure from the figure skating world, pressure from the millions and millions of people who watched that skating competition and felt that the Canadians had won.

And now there's this huge sense of satisfaction, we found yesterday amongst the general public, Ah, OK, the Canadians got the gold, it's over, let's move on with these Olympics. And it becomes kind of a internal behind-closed-doors matter.

BECKER: But don't you think people...

GIANNONE: Carol, I'll say one thing, nobody gives a rat's tail, to be diplomatic about figure skating, at any other time except the Olympic Games. I mean, there has been allegations of wrongdoing and improprieties from judges in the long history of this sport, and unless it happens on an Olympic stage, nobody really cares.

Well, this time it happened on an Olympic stage, and this story will linger far beyond these games. And until the IOC and the ISU comes forth and says exactly who was involved in this conspiracy -- because that's what it is -- this story will not die.

(CROSSTALK)

BECKER: And remember, John, we've got another week left in the Olympics, and I don't think the media's going to let this die at all, and they shouldn't.

O'BRIEN: OK, all right. And John, thanks for cleaning that up for us, we don't want that beast of burden on here on this family program.

All right, Curious Dennis in Miami has this. I wonder if he's really called Curious Dennis. Anyway, "Whatever happened to the silver medal that the Canadians originally received? Did they give it back, or what will become of it? Will it be unawarded when this is all over?" And then there's a related question about essentially -- well, actually I don't have it right in front of me, but does it -- in other words, does the bronze medal winner go to the silver and so on, the fourth place winner go up, and so forth?

GIANNONE: No, what they're going to do is, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier will give back the silver medal, and sometime before the games are over, they will have a ceremony in which they raise the flag, they play the anthem, they give them gold medals. There will not be another pairs team boosted up into third place. So basically, for the record, it will be a tie for the gold medal, and then a bronze medalist.

But I like what David Pelletier said yesterday at his press conference. He said, "I hope they give us the bronze medal too so we have the whole collection."

O'BRIEN: It's a good line.

MESERVE: So can we draw conclusions about judging in other games? Gene is on the phone from New Jersey. Go ahead, Gene.

CALLER: Yes, hi, gentlemen. I've been watching the Olympics since the Jesse Owens days, not watching them in many years and to follow again. The judgment calls are the biggest problem (UNINTELLIGIBLE) certain type of Olympic sports, especially with ice skating.

Now, the next biggest problem over the years has been gymnastics, and you've had as many controversies in gymnastics as we've had in ice skating. Do you think any (UNINTELLIGIBLE) thing will be resolved so the judgment can be done properly by the next Summer Olympic Games?

MESERVE: Who wants to hop in?

BECKER: Well, Mr. Cinquanta has said that the scheduled meeting on Monday, one of its main purposes is to review how judging is done in the Olympics. And given this is a past event, I think there's a very good chance that a decision will be made that from now on, if a country has a skater in a particular event, then that country cannot have a judge for that event, because it's an inherent conflict of interest. And I think that's a change there that we can expect.

The other thing is, the one sport that I think is really in jeopardy, looking at the sports that this gentleman just mentioned, is ice dancing, because that is almost wholly aesthetic, whereas the pairs competition has a technical component as well, and that's more objective, and people are more at ease with that, as they should be.

O'BRIEN: All right. Well, there's an e-mail that's kind of a follow-up to this from Bill Gable in Amelia, Ohio. He has this, "With the Olympic judging scandal, why not add 30 to 40 percent more judges, and then let all the judges do the judging, and have a computer randomly pick which judges will be active per each athlete? Example, 13 judges, but only nine would be selected by the computer." Not a bad idea, Bill.

Who wants to take that one?

GIANNONE: Yes, I think, you know, that is on the agenda, that is one of the proposals that will be made when the ISU gets together and talks.

You know, there's a lot of things, Miles, that go into selecting a judge that needs to be reviewed. The fact that if you have a skater from your country that qualifies in the top 16 in any world-class event, then you will have a judge on that panel for the Olympics. And that was brought up to Cinquanta the other day. Why allow a judge from a country that has a competitor in the Olympics to be able to judge that competition?

I mean, these judges, it's incredible, you know, in every sport in the United States and really around the world, there's almost a hands-off, or at least an arm's-length approach between the officials and the athletes and the administrators. In this sport, in figure skating, judges are encouraged to lobby for their skaters. I mean, there was a U.S. judge at the recent world championships or last year at the world championships that had a tournament earlier this year that was lobbying for Michelle Kwan with other judges.

And there's something very inherently wrong with that.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's get...

LIN: John, why can't they have -- Hey, can I ask a question?

O'BRIEN: Yes, yes, go.

LIN: Why can't they have professional judges? Why are these judges drawn from the individual sports federations? Why can't the international Olympic community go outside the sports federations and pick an established set of professional judges?

O'BRIEN: Great idea.

GIANNONE: The quick answer to that...

LIN: Is there an answer?

GIANNONE: Yes, well, the quick answer to that is, when Cinquanta was asked about that the other day, he got very defensive, as he did on several occasions, and he basically said, Ninety-nine percent of our judges are beyond reproach. They're honest people, they know the sport inherently. These are the people who know how to judge this sport better than any other people in the world. So why go out and find people who are inferior to them?

The problem is, there also is an underlying layer of pretty deep corruption in the sport.

O'BRIEN: All right, 99 percent might be beyond reproach, but that 1 percent can mean the difference when you have a very close contest, as we saw.

Anyhow, we're going to take a quick break, pay a few bills, then we'll come back and continue on the "Reporter's Notebook." Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MESERVE: Olympics, Olympics, Olympics.

O'BRIEN: Skating, skating, skating, not. Had enough, had enough. We're going to put a bullet in that discussion for now.

(CROSSTALK) O'BRIEN: Well, actually it is skating, but it's a different subject.

Michelle Lasenski has this, "Haven't seen or heard about Michelle Kwan in more than a week. Prior to that, we heard about her every day." Michelle, I think it might have something to do with the aforementioned topic. But nevertheless, John Giannone has a Michelle Kwan sighting for us.

GIANNONE: Indeed I do, yes. She sat about five rows in front of myself and my producer last night at the U.S. men's hockey game against Finland. She came in wearing the USA hat that so many people are trying to buy from around here, and the hat that I heard is on sale for about $150 out on the street. I think it's about $17 in the store.

But she was indeed there. She stayed for about a period and a half and then left. And she actually has been mingling a little more in the athletes' village and with the fellow American athletes, which is something she didn't do four years ago, when she stayed in a separate hotel in Nagano and was roundly criticized for it.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's go -- I just messed up my margins on this. But basically, we've gotten a lot of e-mail, which I will summarize for you, trashing NBC's coverage. "Why don't you discuss live versus tape? We were promised a lot of live action by NBC, but once again we're getting the packaged games from Salt Lake City." It goes on and on talking about Miracle on Ice and so forth in 1980, and that -- you know, I had forgotten the fact that ABC tape-delayed the Miracle on Ice game, but that's -- there's a little footnote of history.

This is certainly not a new development. Let's start with Rob, and we'll just move right to left on the screen. Rob, go ahead.

BECKER: Well, when you're talking about all the bidding rights for which network is going to pay what amount for the Olympics, you always hear about, Well, if the Olympics are in a time zone in the United States, everything can be live, so they're worth a lot more. And let's take advantage of that.

But NBC, to a large extent, has acted as if these events were taking place in Japan or Austria. What they do is -- I mean, on last Sunday, you had the men's downhill, which some people consider the number one event in the entire Olympics. It was -- it took place on Sunday afternoon, when many people the previous week had been watching football or watching any sport. They could have shown it live then. Instead, they took it, put it on tape, put it on tape, and showed it in the evening in prime time.

And that is just so disgraceful, to take something that is of that level of importance that you could show live to millions of people and just not do it. And I think that they really deserve a lot of abuse for that one.

O'BRIEN: All right, amen, brother. Go ahead, next, next victim. GIANNONE: Who's next, me or Carol?

O'BRIEN: Carol.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: ... I guess it's...

LIN: Oh, it's me.

O'BRIEN: I'm sorry, you guys don't know who's in the middle of the screen, do you?

LIN: No.

O'BRIEN: Carol, you're in the middle of the screen, now go.

LIN: Well, the issues that I have with NBC are less about what they're broadcasting than how this whole rights issue is affecting other journalists trying to cover this event. I mean, by virtue of the fact that NBC has paid, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars to broadcast these games, they're also staking territory in places that are considered public.

Like last night, the Canadian skaters went over to the Russian Sports Federation's house, where they're staying, to make a diplomatic gesture. Well, NBC apparently claimed the rights to that picture, that photo opportunity inside that house. And that's ridiculous. You know, that's not really considered an Olympic event.

So it's inhibiting our ability to cover a news story. And that's what I don't understand about the rights issue.

O'BRIEN: And let's remind our viewers, last week, Carol, you were talking about the fact that we couldn't even capture videotape of the fireworks. They claimed air rights, for gosh sakes.

All right. Let's -- John Giannone, final word on NBC.

GIANNONE: OK, I'll put my peacock hat on and play the Dick Ebersole role. When the press conference came down yesterday announcing the gold medal, NBC did allow other networks, including ours, to air that press conference live.

The problem with live events Monday through Friday is, most of them during the Olympics occur during the day, and the NBC is not on live during the day, CNBC, MSNBC, they are, and, I mean, have we gotten enough of curling already?

But...

BECKER: Curling is great, John.

(CROSSTALK)

BECKER: Curling is really interesting. O'BRIEN: I can't get enough curling. I love that stuff.

GIANNONE: If you're inebriated, it's cool, but if you're not, it's (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

But I just think that Monday through Friday, because most of the events take place from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., it's hard for NBC to air things live.

O'BRIEN: All right. Most people, I guess, don't give a rat's tail about curling.

All right, John Giannone, Carol Lin, Rob Becker, excellent panelists, excellent responses, great questions, folks. Thanks for participating, as always.

MESERVE: And they were not all about ice skating.

O'BRIEN: We appreciate it.

GIANNONE: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: No, no, we -- I had to work at it, but we got some other questions in there, and we do appreciate that.

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