Karl and Mia talk about Cadel Evans Tour de France victory.
someone posted something about this in the tdf thread.
and mia wrote a response to all the vitriol she’s received.
worth reading before making accusations.
haven’t seen the video but from her piece it seems she has a valid interpretation of the term “hero” as one that generally excludes sportspeople. timely perspective imo.
I wonder if she would feel the same if it were a Woman?
Cadel getting on that podium in Paris was the end of a long journey that a lot of us as cycling fans have been on. It was also the start of a mudslide of media crap. Good on Mia for calling ‘bullshit’.
Edit: On reflection, my stetement stands, but Mia’s statements are part of the media bullshit.
A good resonse by Bridie O’Donnell
http://www.bridie.com.au/component/content/article/47-a-letter-to-mia-freedman
or
Who is she to determine who inspires someone? She fails to mention the positive impact he has had by his charity work, the fact that he has promoted cycling and public health, endured years of relentless effort to achieve a goal. How is that not heroic? Sure Australians put sportspeople on a pedestal, but surely if we do that is because it is important to us. God knows I think e has much better character traits for young kids to aspire to than some of the “unthanked real heroes”.
End thread I say.
I don’t think he’s a hero either. But i do think he rides a bicycle very, very fast.
i get the impression he’d be a bit uncomfortable with all this “hero” talk too. but really, who cares? like james says, he does ride a bike very, very fast.
i agree that she’s not.
but neither are you.
and that’s the point i’d have thought.
(fwiw i don’t think i’ve ever considered someone a hero of mine…i gather it would be quite a personal feeling…and the closest i’d have come to that would be family/friends etc…but again…that’s my interpretation).
Oh wow, that whole segment was nasty. They are both fucking idiots.
I’m inclined to agree J, but he’s done something heroic that I’m happy to celebrate.
I think he’s a bit of a hero.
In a week, hell, a month, of hearing bad news, sad news, beautiful artist dying, children being fucking murdered, people accusing others of rape, family running away from responsibilities, people causing eachother pain, people dying of hunger and shit, cold weather, tears, anger, idiots, fucking all that shit, he’s lit up the times with a bit of yellow and some humbleness.
I used to not like the guy.
But this week he’s my hero.
I think this is a cynical, deliberate ‘beat up’ by the producers of the Today Show:
(a) Mia Freedman’s column/blog on Monday (Cadel Evans - is he a hero? Mamamia ) says “I’ve always had a problem with the way Australian sportspeople are revered as heroes and worshipped above every other profession” and that she has made the same comments that she made on the Today Show “many times before”. Mia also said that the Today Show producer had warned her that “Karl [Stefanovic (one of the presenters of the Show)] wants to do the whole thing on Cadel”.
(b) A guy who watched the whole Today Show said that you have to see the video clip in the context of what went before it — which was “blatant hyperbolic jingoism” and totally “over-the-top” behaviour by Karl Stefanovic.
(c) I think the Show’s producers asked Karl to ‘amp up’ the bullshit/rhetoric in order to get Mia Freedman to react in exactly the way she did. I think the producers will be overjoyed by the controversy they’ve created. It’s certainly raised the profile of everyone involved, including Mia Freedman.
cut her some slack. she’s been advancing women’s rights by putting impossibly beautiful and thin women on the cover of cosmopolitan.
Definition of hero:
he·ro
[heer-oh]
- a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.
- a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.
That is exactly what I was saying. I wasn’t saying you must think that he is heroic (fwiw I don’t, I think he is admirable) but that the very idea is subjective and that she should not be dictating what people should think. If she doesn’t think anything of it fine but don’t criticize people who do, it belittles them and their opinion.
Who cares what Mia Freedman thinks?
a lot of people, apparently.
Her hero is some magazine editor chick (she was quoted somewhere saying that)
Cadel is mine.
ENd/
yes australians glorify sportspeople probably more than we should but heros have and will always be an inspiration, cadel is a good advocate for this. don’t forget, just like any other news story, this time next week the average bogan will reply “cadel who??”