There’s an interesting contrast between the way two different media outlets handled Venus Williams’ loss to Tatiana Golovin at the Family Circle Cup yesterday. In this version it’s all about how “tired” Venus is, and how she needs to change her schedule—a narrative that plays right into what has become the dual-purpose (Venus and Serena) Williams Party Line: We don’t lose because there are women out there who are better on a given day, or more dedicated; we lose because we didn’t play well today.
But in this version, Venus doesn’t get off so easy. She’s taken to task for blithely predicting a return to No. 1, and there’s a stinging comment on her seeming inability to give opponents credit when they beat her.
The Yahoo! story is cloaked in the dispassionate language of “objectivity” while the Tennis-X story clearly editorializes, albeit without feeling obliged to declare it. Any budding newshounds reading this should contemplate the difference here, because there’s a big debate underway about whether journalists can—or should—be “objective.”
My take: All journalism is opinion. Nobody can be objective (and nobody should want to be—it’s a creepy position to take). The best you can hope for is to be fair.
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A Tale of One Serena **The good news out of Florida is that Serena Williams may be ready in time to take part in Fed Cup. What a pity that the Belgians aren’t sending their A team!