In Defense of Mr Hersh

[ellie]

After reading the recent article about the GPF and the thread about Kwanette's e-mail I was very upset. I didn't understand why Mr Hersh, and other journalists, were always criticizing Michelle, who has so constantly been at, or near the top, when so many other skaters just seem to spend years floundering in mediocrity. I e-mailed Mr Hersh, and he very promptly responded. I'm sorry I can not post his e-mail here for you to read, but he asked me not to, and I agreed. He had some complimentary things to say about Michelle, and even stated that "Salome is one of the 2 or 3 greatest dramatic interpretations I have seen in 20 years of covering skating." I basically got the impression that he thinks highly of Michelle, and is so critical of her only because he feels she is talanted enough to be an even better skater, than the one she already is. I've e-mailed other journalists before, and I've never received a personal response from any of them. I am very grateful that Mr Hersh took the time to reply to me. I hope that this can smooth over at least some of the negative feelings, towards him, that have been generating here.

[kwanette]

me...but that doesn't change what he originally wrote or what he said in his e-mail to me.I am sure that he does think highly of Michelle, why wouldn't he? But his comments about technical growth...I assume he means jumps only...and artistic growth...well..nobody can buy that one are beyond an opinion...they are just way off base. . But rest assured the next time he writes an accurate article about Michelle I will thank him for it. Ican be fair, too.

[taf2]

ellie-what could Mr Hersh possibly have to say to you, a complete stranger, that he wouldn't want it shared with others, and why would you agree? I would need a lot more details before I altered my opinion of his stance with this article. GPF was not Michelle's best performance, but I don't think she deserves such comments that she hasn't grown artistically or technically since 95.

[SJB]

I am very glad to hear that Mr. Hersh likes some aspects of Michelle's skating. However, I still find his "journalism" to be steeped in hyperbole and sweeping exaggeration, and apparently his private prose style, as his message to kwanette demonstrates, suffers from the same flaws. I don't care what opinions Mr. Hersh forms about Michelle's or anyone's skating. But before I can respect or read his articles with pleasure, he's going to have to learn to write better.

[eilaram]

Banging my head against a wall Getting upset over an article In my experience, the results of those two actions have been about the same

[GinnySmith]

Glad to hear Mr. Hersh seems to respect Michelle. Now, I wish his articles would reflect that respect. After all, he could have written the article so that he "respectfully" and "constructively" pointed out shortcomings of Michelle's GPF performances. He could have also given greater significance to the positives of her appearance, such as winning 2/3 of the programs. However, he did neither.

[Googoo]

Ellie-- you mean that Hersh said "please don't post my email at the MK Forum"?? Or did he just ask that you not share it with others??

[Rene]

That sounds really very strange to me.

[skatingfan]

Well, this is my first time of commenting on the Hersh article, email reply etc. I am actually glad that Hersh email back elle and Kwanette instead of writing any additional comment about kwan fans in a new column. I remember last year some Canadian person wrote about MK after nationals when Kwan fans email her, she wrote a new blurp in her paper about , "Kwan fans Please stop emailing me etc."

[skatingfan3]

I agreed with Mr. Hersh on Michelle not improving technically but artistically she has grown every year. Michelle has her 3toe/3toe since 1996, she has no other triple combos (thought she practiced a couple of them). Not to mention her 3toe/3toe is not very consistent in competition. Let's see she landed them in '96 Nationals, '97 Worlds, '99 Nationals and '99 Skate America, that 4 times in 3 or 4 years. Sarah Hughes landed her 3loop/3loop at last year's Nationals and this year she has new combo, 2axel/triple-toe. Irina S. has three 3/3 combo (3sal/3loop, 3toe/3toe and this year's new combo, 3lutz/3loop) and she said she'll work on one more but don't know which one yet. Come on, Michelle, don't get discourage, just keep working on your jump combos.

[SJB]

Mr. Hersh is incorrect when he says that Michelle has not improved technically. What he means is that she has not increased the difficulty of her jumps, which is true, as you say. There's a BIG difference---Michelle has made enormous technical improvements in all aspects of her skating, except in the area of increasing jump difficulty.

[Rene]

ITA SJB.

[ellie]

Re: the request not to post the e-mail: the first e-mail I sent I mentioned his comment about the Salome thing, so he wouldn't be confused, I mentioned that I had read it in another response to an e-mail, (I didn't say where). When he responded he added that his response to e-mails were meant to be personal, and he would appreciate them not being posted on any newsgroups. When I sent another e-mail I agreed not to post any of his responses in any public forum. I just thought that, since he was quite nice to me, that I would share it with you.