Subject: Credibility on the Web From: slainson@rmii.com (Suzanne Lainson) Date: Sat, 5 Oct 1996 20:26:25 -0600

Recently someone told me about an expose of gymnastics published on the
Web. The site contains inteviews with a number of gymnasts talking about
abusive coaches.
The interviewer originally did the interviews from 1991-93 and published
them in a periodical he put own on the his own.

The material consists mostly of direct quotes from the gymnasts and echoes
a book that came out last year by Joan Ryan, a sports writer for the San
Francisco Chronicle.

Although Ryan has been accused of being one-sided in her portrayal of the
sport and therefore I would not use her as THE authority concerning
gymnastics (plus she is an outsider), I would still feel comfortable using
a few quotes from her book in some of my own writing.

But I am undecided about using the quotes from the web-site, primarily
because I don't really have any "traditional" cues as to the credibility of
the author. (He spent six years following the gymnasts around as a
writer/reporter, but said he didn't have much luck selling his work. He
felt frustrated with what WAS being published and started his own magazine,
which I have never seen.)

If the comments were posted by the gymnasts themselves, rather than
interviews with them, then I would feel more comfortable. But I just don't
know if I should use this source as proof of abuse.

Now, if I were sure that the site would still exist 10 years from now, I
could just refer people to it and let them make up their own minds.

Any comments or feedback?

Suzanne

Suzanne Lainson         SportsTrust             Integrated Marketing
slainson@rmii.com       P.O. Box 2071           Sports and Event Marketing
303 473-9884            Boulder, CO 80306       Online Marketing
For a free subscription to "Sports News You Can Use," send me an email.


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