The CBC blows it - The Sun gets it right

CBC TV Sports tries to grab a highlight from the Ferbey-Martin match and show us Martin's great last shot in the deciding seventh end. The problem is that, while that was a great shot, it is not THE shot, and the Toronto SUN report on that match gets it right.

Let me quote my live-blog yesterday:

I do not believe it. Martin taps one of his guards, which hits another of his rocks, which boots the Ferbey rock off the button and sits in the four-foot so he counts two. It seems he has begun to figure the ice out. Nedohin draws unbelievably to the button. Woo-hoo! Martin planning a big runback, which the broadcast crew thinks was overlooked. Oopss - works as planned. 4 for Martin! 7-4 Martin. I am in awe. It is a bit like seeing one of those 18-move Paul Morphy combinations for checkmate.

I had no problem believing the second shot. And now let me quote the article in the Sun:

"That first shot he made was brilliant," said Ferbey of his hated Edmonton rival, who represented Canada at the 1992 Olympic Games in Albertville and the 2002 Games in Salt Lake.

"That game was about one shot," said Dave Nedohin, Ferbey's last-rock thrower.

"I thought we played well but one shot, two shots if you want to count the second one -- but there wouldn't have been a second one to make if he doesn't make the first one -- was the difference." said Ferbey. "That shot won the game."

The first shot was a 18-foot angle double take-out with a high degree of difficulty of lots of bloody luck. On his second shot, Martin made a straight-back, double-raise take-out to crack the four-point end.

"That second shot looked sensational. But it was just a nose hit," Nedohin said. "That first shot was way harder."

Ferbey agreed.

One thing I love about sports is the clarity of outcome (which is why I don't much care for ice dance or figure skating in general), which means that there can be enormous mutual respect without much positive personal feeling. And I am assuming the two rinks in this story don't much like one another.

The problem for CBC TV trying to do a 20-second report is that the last shot in the end was dramatic because it was conclusive, while the far more stunning ("I do not believe it") first shot does not fit the TV news narrative, as some of the people I know might say (I normally would not). All the more reason to continue to distrust TV news.

My own view of the CBC problem is that they are doing knee-jerk reporting. This is one thing I love about the Sunday Toronto SUN - it is the local newspaper least dominated by knee-jerk analyses.