@StitchMonkey I don't think it's a question of tackiness, I think it's a question of backing up statements that you make in public. Especially when the statements suggest some unprofessional behaviour on the part of the people you are criticizing.
That's another difference - the people that Courtney Hicks was DMing were fans that had criticized her online, not judges or coaches or choreographers. But Jonathan is criticizing people who are involved in the sport as professionals, and what he is saying about their alleged behaviour could have negative consequences for them in their role as professionals. So for that reason alone he should provide some evidence.
Well, Courtney Hicks is a professional in the sport in the same way, no? The fans weren't the ones receiving the criticism, she was, and the private dms were the "back up" to prove she was allegedly bigoted, right? It seems pretty similar to me. I got an uncomfortable feeling then, as did several others here, and I don't really see how it's all that different in this case, apart from TSL being easy to pick on because of the "they dish it out so they can take it" mentality. TSL did a crappy thing by making this public and it would have been made worse by further crossing the line and making private messages public. I'm sure they would have caught hell for it. Furthermore, if the criticism is that they're whining unnecessarily, surely the most reasonable way to mitigate that would be to quickly erase the heat-of-the-moment tweet in the rational light of day, rather than dragging the whole damn thing out by providing the receipts? What's done is done and demanding substantiation for the claim is just feeding the cycle of gossip. Whether there are professional ramifications for any of the parties involved is not our concern on FSU, unless our concern *is* just the gossipy aspect, in which case it's all a pile of hypocrisy.
Whatever, I get that Dave and co. are catty gossips and I'm not trying to defend their attitude, but I never got the notion that it's ok to shit on people who are portrayed as villains or bullies, all the while acting high and mighty about it. If everyone's going to criticize TSL for being bitchy and hateful, why is it ok to snigger about TSL in much the same way? I don't know, I find the whole thing depressing. TSL is tacky and offensive, but FSU's reaction to them often reads the same way, right down to mean-spirited comments about Dave's appearance and mental state.
I'm too bitter and jaded to realistically espouse a Kumbaya-like fantasy wherein we're all nice and empathetic, but what's the point in a 400-reply long hate fest? One poster mentioned reaching out to Courtney Hicks and having a very nice conversation, a productive reaction that wasn't just shading her for her political views. I get that that might not be possible with TSL, but like it or not, they're major disseminators of figure skating media and if you don't like the narrative, don't perpetuate it, or offer up alternatives if you're really passionate.
The
Morozombie blogspot is the only alternative I've found that's funny and entertaining without being mean in an Aunt Joyce way. Ice network is often too twee and PR heavy for me, as are most other sources of skating news. Are there any others around? I'd love to hear a discussion of that so I don't waste any more of my life play devil's advocate for TSL of all things.
I'd love to see the hate message receipts tho. And this circle jerk of mutual congratulations is just so egoistic and shows how far they have their heads up their asses. Meh.
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