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Feb. 12, 2004- Phil Hersh Clarifies Why He Won't Profile US Distance Runners Phil Hersh, who covers Olympic sports for the Chicago Tribune, caused an uproar on this site last week when he said, "I have vowed not to write a word about other U.S. distance runners until they at least make top-5 in a major international event." Hersh wrote to us clarifying his remarks, as what was printed was just a sound bite, so we are publishing his full remarks below along with our response. Phil Hersh's remarks: LetsRun.com Response: First, let us address Phil's tone. It seems like he goes out of his way to point out the shortcomings of American runners. Notice his tone when he starts off by saying, "this is typical": "This is typical: I profiled Deena Drossin last summer and before the 2002 Chicago Marathon. Then she ran well off the pace in Paris at the worlds 10k, where she was competitive for about three laps, and finished 6th in Chicago with a good but unremarkable 2:26:53." Starting with "this is typical" to us shows a negative bias. From the bitter tone, you'd think from reading what he wrote that Deena isn't one of the best distance runners in the world or worthy of another profile. Well let us state emphatically first and foremost a fact - Deena Drossin (now Deena Kastor) is one of the top distance runners in the world. Hersh, however, in some ways comes across as upset that Deena didn't perform well immediately after he wrote a profile of her. That doesn't change the fact that she's clearly deserving of the profile. It's not an athlete's job to make a journalist look good by performing well after getting some publicity. So let us repeat, Deena Drossin (now Deena Kastor) is one of the top distance runners in the world and thus deserving of a profile in major newspapers across the country. However, Hersh's tone and mixing and matching of some dates/facts in the sentence quoted above (leaving out many of Deena's major accomplishments) portrays her in a more negative light. When he profiled her prior to the 2002 Chicago Marathon, she was already a World Silver Medallist at the World Cross Country Championships (thus worthy of a profile we assume according to his criteria) and a world record holder at 5k on the roads. Thus, she was certainly deserving of a profile. Sure, she then that year ran 2:26:53 at Chicago which was a subpar performance for her, but he conveniently left out the fact that the next spring, she went on to repeat as World Silver Medallist at the World XCs and set the American Record in the Marathon at the Flora London Marathon for 3rd place (top 5), the premier marathon in the world outside of the World Champs and the Olympics. Thus it's only natural that one concludes that Hersh is upset that she then didn't perform really well immediately after he profiled her last summer, as she did great things before the profile. Little did we know it is the job of journalists only to profile people who are certain to get medals right after they are profiled. Track and field aficionados know that Deena has not shown herself to be a top 5 performer in the world on the track. Her strengths are the roads and cross country. Similarly, Catherine Ndereba's strengths lie on the roads- not the track. According to Hersh's logic he should think twice about doing a profile on her (yet says he very well may do one on her) as she would be even behind Deena on the track. Thus we just wanted to point out that Deena has had by far more than ONE world class performance as Hersh seems to indicate. From his comments one could reasonable come to the conclusion that he almost seems to want to belittle the accomplishments of her and all US distance runners (and perhaps not cover them), because he's been burned in the past. Once again we point to the phrase "this is typical". Now contrary to what they want you to believe, all journalists have biases, but as much as possible these biases are not supposed to cloud their judgment in what they cover. We're more than willing to agree with the one major point that Hersh based his whole lack of coverage on - that by and large US distance runners are not top 5 runners in the world. However, just because someone isn't top 5 in the world doesn't mean they aren't deserving of profiles or coverage. Phil Hersh is a great writer, but unfortunately in this case it appears he has a bias and bitterness against US distance runners. Hersh compares apples to oranges when comparing the Marathon Trials times (a championship event with no rabbits where times are slower) to that of last weekend's Tokyo Marathon. Alan Culpepper in his only previous marathon was 6th in the Chicago Marathon, a marathon of greater international stature than Tokyo, and almost undoubtedly would have run faster than 2:11:03 if not in a tactical race. We just want a little more intellectual honesty. Alan Culpepper is the fastest American ever to debut in the marathon. And although we could quibble with Hersh for leaving out some other international performances by US distance runners (Colleen de Reuck world xc bronze medallist, US men world team xc bronze medallist, a couple of 6th place finishes in the Chicago Marathon (does that count as a major international event? it should as it is the 2nd most competitive marathon in the world outside of the world champs), our main point is we didn't know it was in the job description of journalists only to cover athletes who are in the top 5 in the world. It is not beneath a journalist and does not reflect poorly on him or her to cover an athlete who is not #1 (or top 5) in the world. We live in the greatest country on earth with millions of people who run every day, and the Olympic Marathon Trials are an event worthy of coverage by a major newspaper, especially this year with the marathon returning to its birthplace, Athens, in 2004. That in and of itself makes the Trials newsworthy. We note that yesterday's Chicago Tribune via the AP had a fairly lengthy article that covered the US Olympic soccer team's loss to Mexico. Last time we looked, the US soccer team is far from a top 5 team in the world. Yet, the Tribune could only devote 1 square inch to the Marathon Trials Recap? (Yes 1 square inch) That's simply a travesty. And we think Hersh might agree if pressed on this issue that his paper should have had more of a recap and applied a double standard in these 2 cases. Interestingly enough, the Tribune and Hersh did write
a pre-race article on the men's marathon trials where he described
the race and athletes with the following sentence: "Those
athletes will be involved in a much longer and apparently futile exercise".
To call athletes competing to fulfill their lifelong dreams,
to win a national championship, and to represent their country in
the Olympics "futile" is extremely sad (and bitter) (We'll have more on this tomorrow in our Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down awards) And remember, the Boston Red Sox haven't won a World Series since 1918 or Mr. Hersh's own Chicago Cubs since 1908. They still get lots and lots coverage. Americans love lovable losers. (Wait, we forgot the Cubs and Red Sox were top 4 in the World this year)
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