Calling out Hypocrites

When I travel to competitions, conferences and clinics I am in the habit of picking up the local paper. Checking national and local news as well as coverage of the competitions.

Style and content vary region to region and each publication has their own standards. Some are pretty sensationalized. Some stick with just the facts. On line publications are no different. In this digital age there are a lot of options out there.
Both print and digital media has a difficult task of standing out in a crowded market. They have bills to pay and they need advertisements, subscriptions and clicks.

In a rush to report sometimes sloppy reporting happens, overworked editors may miss an error, photos get mislabeled or have poor composition. What I cannot stand is hypocrisy

All week the OC Register has been killing Gymnastics. Making every coach look guilty of the crimes of a few terrible, terrible people.
THEN they take and publish a very awkward photo of an athlete mid skill. A photo that if I had on my cell phone would get me reported to Safe Sport and face possible disciplinary action.
Not only did the photographer chose this photo to submit (from probably a few thousand they took) an editor signed off on it! I refuse to link to the photo but the caption is:

Ragan Smith reaches for the bar during her uneven bars performance at the P&G Gymnastics Championships on Friday night at the Honda Center. Smith, 17, leads the all-around competition after the first day of competition with a score of 57.400.(Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Orange County Register/SCNG)

I feel that at the VERY LEAST they owe an apology to the MINOR and her parents.

I reached out to Don McPhearson to get his opinion.

“Everyone has been led to believe that there is something wrong with gymnastics, the people in it and the people that run it…when in fact what’s wrong is child porn.
Photos like this are taken and chosen by people that know PRECISELY who their intended audience is and what will be done with those photos later.
Considering the photographer had hundreds of ‘action’ photos
to choose from…he chose that. Everyone in gymnastics…and out…should be asking WHY! Moreover, the paper purchased the photo and the editor approved such…asks yourselves WHY?! They are hypocrites and very well might be child pornographers. NO athlete or parent or coach or administrator in gymnastics wants to see that photo…if not then for who?”

I am a PROUD Member of USA Gymnastics. The things that have been done to children in our sport is terrible and I believe that USAG is taking the necessary steps to make the crimes committed by a few close to impossible. I am a believer in FREE PRESS and I do to believe that all news is “fake news”. I do believe that the OC Register did not use it’s best judgement when buying and printing that photo.