Fair or foul: LetsRun writes that Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad was "kind of an asshole"

Rojo, why are you putting this on Gault. Prior to his article, you and Wejo actually mentioned that he was a douche and said that someone should put up a write up of his actions.

That wasn't my intention and I have changed the title to say LetsRun instead of Jonathan Gault.

This actuallly reminds me of the Ingebrigtsen vs Wightman thread. I think we expect in society for people to write and speak in platitudes - to beat around the bush. When people are honest, but a little uncomfortable, it's a bit jarring.

Ingebrigtsen wasn't a sore-loser, he just wasn't super gracious. Here, we aren't being aholes ourselves - he deserves the label - but we aren't going out ouf of way to be gracious either.

PS. Actually, it was my intention to ask if what JG wrote was too controversial but I am now writing in platitudes myself. Ultimately, we are responsible for what he wrote and I could have changed it. He does amazing work and I'm 100% fine with it so ultimately the buck stops here as I'm his editor.

what?

Fun fact, I just found out that calling "a spade a spade" is more controversial than I thought:

npr.org

Is It Racist To 'Call A Spade A Spade'?

For almost half a millennium, the phrase "call a spade a spade" has served as a demand to "tell it like it is." It is only in the past century that the expression began to acquire a negative, racial overtone.

Open link

I just find it funny how you managed to bring transgenders into this when literally no-one mentioned the topic nor was it relevant

Rojo, not every issue needs to be evaluated through the lens of political correctness as it relates to gender identity.

on topic, I think the trick many journalists use is to not call someone a grass whole outright, but maybe say something similar to “seen by some fans and fellow competitors as kind of a grass whole” and you could quote someone on the message board or reference a different story where someone called him out on being surly.

or describe his actions as grass whole-ish rather than say he’s a grass whole himself. Or maybe if he identifies as a grass whole, that’s fine…oh, now I’ve gone and done it too. Time to spend less time reading Rojo threads!

Who. Cares. ; who is Jon Gault ? MMB has his medals, his 8:00 SC. Some/Most of the top athletes in every sport or any other successful men aren’t nice guys. Winners are not sweethearts.. the list is long, almost endless.

If you want to report facts you just talk about him pushing/knocking over little girls in mascot suits and let the reader decide. If you want editorial you label it being an assh0le. You don’t always have to tell the reader what the reporter thinks. Being an assh0le is an opinion. While shared with most readers it isn’t really necessary.

Rojo what are you going on about?

seriously, what is Rojo's obsession with spades all of a sudden?

Benabbad also tore his shirt off in celebration the last 100m when he destroyed the Euro 1500m field in an astonishing last 300m.

I think it's fair to conclude that, er, title applies to the runner in question. It doesn't bother me either way if Letsrun chooses to just call him that name, or had it instead just listed the incidents without using the name. The distinctions in approach between opinion vs hard news journalism are irrelevant to me when there is as much evidence that the name applies to the man as there is here.

He really couldn't. He has reached the maximum amount of dimwittedness.

okay, good point

Don't you own this site? That should be your call, not sure why you're crowd-sourcing this one.

If you really don't know, legit pro journos wouldn't be so blunt and heavy-handed, but then that's not really you.

The mascot abuse incidents were bizarre and potentially more revealing of a character flaw(s) since the incidents were repeated. Regarding the fight with Baala, I think there's two sides to every story and context should be important but as they say, sometimes you've got to keep you're cool. Losing you're cool beyond what's necessary in a public (or even private) setting can potentially be a sign of admirable trait deficiency.

I believe someone had posted defending Benabad due to his rough upbringing and past life. I think this has a legitimate reason towards his actions. We are a product of our past environment and to judge a person who's shoes you haven't walked in is not always fair. Hopefully Benabad and others are able to be cognizant of his inappropriate actions and learn and grow from them.