Kirsten GUM's Predictions

GreatCube wrote:
OLN is doing a fantastic coverage job, but using Kirsten Gum for color
commentary is a stroll into the Twilight Zone. It is like using Terry
Bradshaw to cover professional squash matches. But the decision to use
Gum mirrors a general social trend - to treat news coverage, talk
shows and sporting events like they are NASCAR events, and in doing
so, appeal to the lowest common denominator to achieve the highest
possible rating. OLN has made a great commitment to bike racing
coverage, and done so with aplomp. A little tweaking, starting with "
emergency gum surgery ", would make it even better!

Just don't remove the pirate guy and his fabulous beverage!

Lewdvig wrote in message ...
Why not hire one of the cute young female pros that isn't racing in July.
Better looking IMO and you know they could kick most of our asses.

Because Gum is professional TV presenter and reader and they are not.

James Cagney wrote:
"Callistus Valerius" wrote in message ...

I brought this up earlier in this newsgroup about her lack of credentials
and was scolded by most here in rbr. All I can figure is that they all so
dazzled by her looks, that they would wish there was more Kirsten face time
and less TDF.


The thing is Ms. Gum does zero for me in terms of looks - honestly, i
just don't think she is that hot. Put another way, her looks do not
zero out her obvious lack of any cycling knowledge and broadcast
professionalism. I have worked in the biz and understand the "Host"
usually does not have much experience in the sport and is merely a
manager of the "experts" The problem is her managment skills and basic
lead in questions are so non-professional. She is either dating
someone at the channel or knows someone at the top, because she would
never get this job on pure talent. I am sure she does fine work in
whatever she did before, but you can tell she is nervous and has no
idea what to ask the boys! on the job experience i guess

It's one thing that she doesn't know cycling, but she has no
broadcasting skills it seems. She looks really nervous... stammering
over words and fumbling sentences especially in segues back to the boys
in the booth. But apparently she is having a busy summer doing other
shows as well. I wonder how much she knows about sporting dogs and
mountain climbing (he,he) ...

http://www.facetheelements.com/global_extremes/
http://espn.go.com/outdoors/general/...dog_chron.html

Ed

"GreatCube" wrote in message
om...
OLN is doing a fantastic coverage job, but using Kirsten Gum for color
commentary is a stroll into the Twilight Zone. It is like using Terry
Bradshaw to cover professional squash matches. But the decision to use
Gum mirrors a general social trend - to treat news coverage, talk
shows and sporting events like they are NASCAR events, and in doing
so, appeal to the lowest common denominator to achieve the highest
possible rating. OLN has made a great commitment to bike racing
coverage, and done so with aplomp. A little tweaking, starting with "
emergency gum surgery ", would make it even better!

Ironically, Kirsten came from NASCAR (Fox) before OLN.

She is utterly horrible. She is meant to give the impression that
women know nothing about cycling. I'm a woman and I know a lot about
cycling, and I find her presentation insulting to my entire gender.
While I'm on a rant about OLN's nasty sexism, why don't they *ever*
cover any women's cycling events???

I am embarrassed for OLN, that they chose to go the network news route
-- i.e., the male anchor/female anchor thing. It's so unnecessary.
Bob could give all of his little explanations and presentations
without a lead-in.

I wish Bob was in the broadcast booth with Phil and Paul. I hope they
put him back there for the Vuelta.

Joanne


"GreatCube" wrote in message
. com...
OLN is doing a fantastic coverage job, but using Kirsten Gum for color
commentary is a stroll into the Twilight Zone. It is like using Terry
Bradshaw to cover professional squash matches. But the decision to use
Gum mirrors a general social trend - to treat news coverage, talk
shows and sporting events like they are NASCAR events, and in doing
so, appeal to the lowest common denominator to achieve the highest
possible rating. OLN has made a great commitment to bike racing
coverage, and done so with aplomp. A little tweaking, starting with "
emergency gum surgery ", would make it even better!

Ironically, Kirsten came from NASCAR (Fox) before OLN.

On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 16:25:03 GMT, Joanne Corsano
wrote:

She is utterly horrible. She is meant to give the impression that
women know nothing about cycling. I'm a woman and I know a lot about
cycling, and I find her presentation insulting to my entire gender.
While I'm on a rant about OLN's nasty sexism, why don't they *ever*
cover any women's cycling events???

Don't they cover the women's mountaing biking events? Or is it only the
downhill events? I know I've seen women's downhill covered, but perhaps
this was on ESPN.

I am embarrassed for OLN, that they chose to go the network news route
-- i.e., the male anchor/female anchor thing. It's so unnecessary.
Bob could give all of his little explanations and presentations
without a lead-in.

I don't like it, either. I think the whole 1/2 hour pre-race show is fluff.


I wish Bob was in the broadcast booth with Phil and Paul. I hope they
put him back there for the Vuelta.

Joanne



They'll have them together for the Vuelta. I think OLN is trying to
broaden the appeal of the TdF. It might work with someone who's never seen
bike racing, but for me I'd rather have the Big Three in the booth.

--
Bob M in CT
Remove 'x.' to reply

Joanne Corsano wrote:
She is utterly horrible. She is meant to give the impression that
women know nothing about cycling. I'm a woman and I know a lot about
cycling, and I find her presentation insulting to my entire gender.
While I'm on a rant about OLN's nasty sexism, why don't they *ever*
cover any women's cycling events???

I've seen plenty of women's cycling on OLN, but can't say that it was
exclusively women's events.

I am embarrassed for OLN, that they chose to go the network news route
-- i.e., the male anchor/female anchor thing. It's so unnecessary.
Bob could give all of his little explanations and presentations
without a lead-in.

I wish Bob was in the broadcast booth with Phil and Paul. I hope they
put him back there for the Vuelta.

Bobke would be much less happy about that, at least partly.

--
--
Lynn Wallace http://www.xmission.com/~lawall
"I'm not proud. We really haven't done everything we could to protect
our customers. Our products just aren't engineered for security."
--Microsoft VP in charge of Windows OS Development, Brian Valentine.

Joanne Corsano wrote in message ...
She is utterly horrible. She is meant to give the impression that
women know nothing about cycling. I'm a woman and I know a lot about
cycling, and I find her presentation insulting to my entire gender.
While I'm on a rant about OLN's nasty sexism, why don't they *ever*
cover any women's cycling events???

I watched a bit of the rest day retrospective this evening.

She has a lot wrong with her. She needs to do something with her hair. And
whoever told her that green is her color is color blind. Way too much makeup
tonite--she looked greasy.

If L.L.Bean doesn't have an shirt with an OLN logo in a better color they
should just slap a logo on one of her shirts.

The touching thing is just strange. Lots of women touch people to make
points while talking, but not while they are on TV.

It is a given that she doesn't know much about cycling--although they are
using that way too much, with too many dumb questions--at least tonite. TV
presenters are usually very quick studies--they can pick up a lot of facts
about what they will be talking about and she probably has that abiltiy. But
OLN has decided that she will be the voice of the idiot and they are hitting
it too hard.

Tomorrow she will be back to a couple of minutes cut into the show, which is
much easier to take.