What did LetsRun do to piss off Christian Coleman?

sanchobaile wrote:

It's fine if he doesn't want to talk about Noah Lyles. It's proper for LRC to report that he said he doesn't want to talk about Noah Lyles. It's childish for Coleman to be rude to Jon Gault for reporting that. Grow up, dude. Or like, feel how you feel, express it if you must, but be a professional and answer what were completely benign and intelligent questions.

Gault wasn’t simply reporting it. He was trying to reignite the controversy without getting actual quotes. It’s pretty clear Gault was being a troll here. Trolls should be ignored

Wtf are these takes here.

You're an athlete in a sport. People care about the competition between individuals. This isn't a robot sprinting contest.

Gault SHOULD be asking about why one of the top US sprinters doesn't want to talk about his rival. CC doesn't have to answer but good on LRC for reporting on the personalities.

At least JG bothered to cover the meet in person this time. He missed half of NCAAs so he could get some Texas BBQ.

Positive Contribution wrote:

At least JG bothered to cover the meet in person this time. He missed half of NCAAs so he could get some Texas BBQ.

He literally missed the men’s pole vault, an event 95% of us could give a flying fvck about. Exaggerate much?

wejo wrote:

Somewhat related -years ago Alberto Salazar's lawyer asked for info on over 100 posters on the forums. We did not report about it at the time but I think we should have because something like that changes the relationship between us and one of the top people in the sport.

Jeez.

sanchobaile wrote:

yeah that was fckin rude. show some class, man. it's your job to talk to the media.

it's not like LRC even writes about sprints very often... I'm assuming it's related to this?

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2019/05/is-the-next-great-sprint-rivalry-here-noah-lyles-beats-christian-coleman-at-100m-coleman-and-girlfriend-fire-shots-at-lyles-on-twitter/

not sure what bone he has to pick with it, though..

also, LRC should call this out more than writing that Coleman "wasn't in the mood to talk." If this was a politician's response to a reporter, the story would say so-and-so refused to answer questions, plain and simple.

Huh? It's not his "job to talk to the media". His job is to run fast. That's it.

Seriously mate? wrote:

Positive Contribution wrote:

At least JG bothered to cover the meet in person this time. He missed half of NCAAs so he could get some Texas BBQ.

He literally missed the men’s pole vault, an event 95% of us could give a flying fvck about. Exaggerate much?

95%? Exaggerate much?

The evening prior the guy asked you not to ask about his competitors. How did Gault respond? He immediately asked about Gatlin with his very first question.

That’s absolutely trolling (which I actually don’t blame you for doing) but at the same time, that’s classic letsrun/tmz (the two are synonymous at this point) behavior.

tmZzz wrote:

The evening prior the guy asked you not to ask about his competitors. How did Gault respond? He immediately asked about Gatlin with his very first question.

That’s absolutely trolling (which I actually don’t blame you for doing) but at the same time, that’s classic letsrun/tmz (the two are synonymous at this point) behavior.

Simply not true. He asked me not to ask about Lyles specifically. Gatlin's 9.87 came as a surprise to me. I was interested to know what the #1 100m runner in the world thought about it. It's not trolling, it's a genuine question.

Oh, and by the way, I asked him about Gatlin the day before and he didn't seem to have any problem with it.

Jonathan Gault wrote:

tmZzz wrote:

The evening prior the guy asked you not to ask about his competitors. How did Gault respond? He immediately asked about Gatlin with his very first question.

That’s absolutely trolling (which I actually don’t blame you for doing) but at the same time, that’s classic letsrun/tmz (the two are synonymous at this point) behavior.

Simply not true. He asked me not to ask about Lyles specifically. Gatlin's 9.87 came as a surprise to me. I was interested to know what the #1 100m runner in the world thought about it. It's not trolling, it's a genuine question.

Oh, and by the way, I asked him about Gatlin the day before and he didn't seem to have any problem with it.

Wait, just so I understand: the day before, he asked you not to ask about Lyles? Then at Pre, you asked him about Lyles? He was polite enough to answer you, saying again that he didnt want to talk about it? Then you reported that he asked you not to ask about Lyles? Lyles wasnt even at Pre, so wasnt really relevant to your story.

As a reader, I'd rather you quit trying to force controversy and just report the sport straight. When they talk smack, by all means report it, but when they dont, just let it go, dont try to poke at them to get a fun reaction for your article. You're winnowing down who you can interview, and your articles are pointless without interviews and actual stories. I can look up results on my own, and that's all you'll be able to report on if you keep going the way you are.

This is the same issue two weeks in a row, with two different athletes. Maybe you're the common denominator?

On Saturday, at the press conference, before I could ask my first question, Coleman asked me not to ask him about Noah Lyles. Off-camera -- still before our interview started -- I asked him why he didn't want to talk about Lyles. He didn't give me an answer. Then I did the interview. I did not ask him about Lyles at the press conference or at the meet itself.

I think Lyles vs Coleman could be one of the best rivalries in the sport. Lyles said that Coleman doesn't like him. I -- and I imagine, many of our readers -- would have been interested to hear Coleman's response. Coleman didn't talk smack about Lyles at Pre, and I never said he did. But the fact that Coleman doesn't even want to talk about Lyles is worth noting, and I owe it to our readers to explain why I didn't ask a question many of them would have wanted to hear.

Whatever anyone may say about his form, he's run multiple 9.8s now this year and broke the 60m record. He is very, very good. If Lyles can fix his start, he may be in the 9.7s and so you could say that he has a higher ceiling, or you could say that Coleman just has to fix his last 30m.

Boohoo to anyone in the media who feels hurt by any athlete's negative reaction to reporting. Gault's recent reporting about the Lyles/Coleman fun and games included a little bit of TMZ-type crap, so WHAT DO OBJECTIVE MINDS EXPECT? They can act naive and innocent at Christian Coleman's reaction - and express anger and hurt, or they can laugh off the reaction and dismiss it. They can also go ballistic and hold a grudge.

Coleman doesn't owe the media squat, especially LetsRun! They're leeches sometimes and their words are, first and foremost, written to put food on their tables. Too many in the media, however, don't care enough about the consequences of their words. And for too many of them, future writing about Christian Coleman, consciously or subconciously, will reflect a bias based on the man's reaction to Gault's questions.

CC, more power to you for being your own man. It's not fun to suffer further flak as a result of you snubbing of Gault, but I get the feeling that you'll do just fine!

Then don’t be surprised when people stop talking to you because you troll them.

It wasn’t what you said but how you wrote it

What happens is this:

(At a pre-race briefing, the night before a race, in a big city):

Al Sal (to the crowd of his runners):

"Rest, sleep well, get up earlier than usual due to a time difference (if they are out East or in another country), fuel up, get on the bus at 0430 and kick ass. Oh, and don't get on the boards."

Everyone nods their heads in agreement:

(They all go to their rooms)

The phones come out and they click on their favorites. The first option in Chrome is a tab that takes you to the World Famous Message Boards.

;)

sanchobaile wrote:

It's fine if he doesn't want to talk about Noah Lyles. It's proper for LRC to report that he said he doesn't want to talk about Noah Lyles. It's childish for Coleman to be rude to Jon Gault for reporting that. Grow up, dude. Or like, feel how you feel, express it if you must, but be a professional and answer what were completely benign and intelligent questions.

Totally.

Coleman is lucky that Lyles is an Adidas athlete and Pre is a Nike meet so he didn't have to worry about facing him.

Can't wait til Lyles beats him in both events at USAs

I was dumb. Was a journalist for 8 years, making no more than 30k a year. I fell for the lies my KSU profs told me. They pull in 100k or more a year, but knowingly convince kids to take a low-paying job with a naive belief they'd change the world.

I lost 8 years of earning potential relative to my classmates because I chose journalism. When I get married and have kids I'll make sure they don't choose journalism.

Unless they have a spouse who makes good $. That's the dirty secret--journos with comfy lives often have rich spouses.

Journalism was a joke wrote:

I was dumb. Was a journalist for 8 years, making no more than 30k a year. I fell for the lies my KSU profs told me. They pull in 100k or more a year, but knowingly convince kids to take a low-paying job with a naive belief they'd change the world.

I lost 8 years of earning potential relative to my classmates because I chose journalism. When I get married and have kids I'll make sure they don't choose journalism.

Unless they have a spouse who makes good $. That's the dirty secret--journos with comfy lives often have rich spouses.

See Thomas Friedman and his billionaire spouse.

Thanks for the explanation. But it sounds like he felt he was having a candid conversation if it was "before our interview started." You shouldnt have reported it.

Reread what I wrote. I said that if an athlete is talking smack, you should report it, but if he isnt, you should leave it alone. My point was that Coleman wasnt taking smack, so you should have left it alone.

The way you reported it definitely doesnt make it sound like it was intended as an explanation to the readers, it sounded like you were trying to make it appear there was drama, which it sounds like exactly what he was trying to avoid.

Maybe he had a conversation privately with Lyles and there is some sort of truce and he just wants to move on. Maybe that isnt the case, but he is aware there is a perception they dont like each other, so he just doesnt want to talk about something negative.

Either way, you reported something that, from only your side of the story, ethically (as opposed to legally) you shouldnt have, because he clearly thought the interview hadn't started yet.