Bringing this conversation here from U.S. Ladies thread regarding TSL's recent comments about Gracie's performances at Regionals:
I’m pretty sure Dave just makes up facts to support whatever trash he wants to say.
And sorry but as long as fans support trashy David and his gossip it’s relevant to the topic at hand. People are relying on his gossip to influence how they feel about a skater
I'm not in disagreement with your views about DL. But regarding the bolded: I personally do not think it's true across-the-board that fans "rely on DL's gossip to influence how they feel." I think most fans who have followed skating for a long time, already know how they feel, and don't need DL to tell them how to feel. A lot of fans may listen to DL, ignore the crap and the cheap shots, and come away agreeing with one or two salient points that are void of nastiness. The problem is that newer fans, or less knowledgeable fans may end up relying on DL's gossip because he sells that he's in-the-know, via name-dropping, etc. Plus, in the absence of a variety of better fs coverage options, some fans are enticed to tune-in selectively.
TSL and DL have a following not just among some long time fs fans. There are also people in the skating community who actively support and deal with DL and appear on the show, likely for a variety of reasons: TSL is an important platform that so far has not gone away, in part because DL is tenacious, knowledgeable about fs, and he has contacts, followers, and supporters. He was lucky that Jenny collaborated with him and got the TSL platform going in a big way when it first started. They accumulated fans and some big time guests over the years. Though there was a slow, stagnant period after Jenny left the show, DL persevered and with the prestige of the platform and its archives, he gained support from some crucial skating insiders (possibly because they find him and the platform useful tools in publicizing what they are doing; and some people like Bezic and Doug Haw appear to actually like DL).
So, TSL began to pick up again with top level guests, even despite many skaters staying away who are turned off by DL. In addition, I heard on FSU that some U.S. skaters were advised to not give anymore interviews to TSL, or else they individually decided not to in the aftermath of DL's ill-chosen comments about Gracie and her family's woes a few years ago. But Canadian personalities continued to be hugely supportive of DL and TSL, especially Bezic, Haw, Duhamel, et al. And that support, along with the platform's viability, led to recent appearances by U.S. coaches and choreographers, as well as international skaters, including Aljona Savchenko, Benoit Richaud, and James/Cipres. Former top competitive skaters, including Kurt Browning and Katia Gordeeva, have also been interviewed on TSL.
The strengths of the platform itself, the recognition factor, the past guests and best broadcasts, the supporters DL has, and the die-hard fans who have stuck (added to the new fans picked up randomly on Youtube), have kept TSL afloat.
I agree that DL's less than respectable gossip gets spread, and that some fans who have issues with DL are still enticed to selectively watch on occasion (me included). This would be because there's precious little figure skating coverage and fans want to find out what's going on, and thus will try to filter out the dregs and crap to see if there's anything of substance worth listening to. In fact, there was in the Romain Haguenauer interview only because of Haguenauer, mind you! I have yet to listen to the Raf and Katia interviews despite really enjoying both of these skating greats. I listened to the Benoit Richaud and Igor Shpilband interviews because I didn't know much about either of them, and so I learned something new and enlightening. I think DL got the Raf, Shpilband and Richaud interviews partly in the aftermath of Frank Carroll's retirement and people in skating discovering that Jenny & DL had previously interviewed Frank in the early days of the broadcast. So, as I said, the platform and past, top level guests have continued to inject needed viability, buzz energy, and word-of-mouth.
So, while many fs fans in-the-know are fed up with DL, his putdown spiels, and his shtick, he has a core group of die-hards, key contacts in the skating community, the platform itself, renewed support from Jenny, fans who like DL's co-host (despite DL & JB both being way too similar and often grating). In addition, DL doesn't exhibit any discipline regarding format, length, random chatter, offensive chatter, etc. But it appears that most of the die-hards are forgiving, and some seemingly enjoy the snarky nature of DL's personality. Plus, as @essence of soy indicated in the U.S. Ladies thread, it's sometimes hard not to rubberneck in slow-moving traffic, when there's curiousity about the car crash that's snarling and holding up traffic.
Thus, DL has lots of enablers added to his tenaciousness, and to the more straightforward aspects of his fs knowledge.
youtu.be
DL must be projecting when he makes that claim. Anyone who enjoys performing and competing as an athlete at a high level either has a personality that comfortably and automatically attracts attention or else they have to learn how to deal with huge amounts of attention if they want to be successful. So DL should try and stick with the few positive observations he offered this time (but with less of the continued snobbery). Starr has always had a special quality about her. At her best, she's a wonderful performer. She needs to work on improving her SS and pacing herself in fp character pieces. The latter type of programs also require more expressiveness, which can be difficult to achieve when concentrating on completing packed technical content.
