World Cup Announcer黄健翔’s mini-scandal

[wushijiao]

Did anyone watch the Italy v Australia game on CCTV? If so, you might have noticed the announcer, 黄健翔, got a bit excitied at the end of the game. He muttered the word 滚蛋 in reference to the Australian team (but I didn’t sound like it was said with malicious intent). Anyway, he had to issue a public apology this morning.

Any comments on the controversy?

If you didn’t see the game, you can hear what he said (minus the bad words), and read a bit of the controversy on the blogosphere.

http://xiaoguang.blog.sohu.com/5330452.html

Personally, I’ve noticed that the commentary on the games has generally been fairly unemotional and spotty. Sometimes a whole minute will go by without the announcer saying anything. I think it’s a bit sad that Huang has to apologize for what I thought was announcing that reflected the tension and sudden turn of events in that game, although he probably should have kept his mouth clean because I suppose there might have been kids watching at 1 am.

Opinions?

[zhwj]

There's a video of the end of the game on

, if wushijiao's link doesn't work.

A few thoughts:

1) Some people feel that, as an announcer, he should call the game as neutrally as possible, regardless of where his own feelings lie.

2) His comments came at two points. (a) after the winning shot. This is forgivable. (B) After Grosso went down in the box. Extolling someone as a hero for getting tripped (or worse, for taking a dive) is far more questionable.

3) His comments after the game, explaining his love for Italy (acceptable), and his hatred for Australia, that he never wants to see them succeed (less acceptable) made things worse, I think.

And that's even without questioning his motives....

[rose~]

Wow, after watching the youtube clip I am glad I have been watching it on the other channel (not sure what it's called but it has "体育" in the corner). Although the way the two commentators cry "AIYAAAA!" in unison is beginning to grate on me

Generally I have found coverage much better than it was in 2002, I remember all kinds of crazy comments on the physical appearance of the teams.

[wisp chou]

maybe it was the hottest news yesterday~

italian fans in china thought the announcement yesterday was the most excellent one in the history of soccer announcement in china.many people cried after that match,mainly because of the announcement with passion.but fans dislike italy believe huang's action was ridiculous and crazy,especially he said"long live italy",which they thought was unacceptable.

in my opinion,the announcement was excellent,though obviously huang should not say"滚蛋" which was impolite to australian fans.

[haiyan]

His reasoning for hating Australia was also absurd. New Zealand beating China in the eighties is not a great explanation.

[wushijiao]

I saw this on the nightly news- a new flash to go with his commentary.

http://www.flash8.net/Flash/24910.shtml

[bhchao]

The announcer may not have carried himself well and probably should have been more objective in his announcement.

But if you compare this to the players' conduct in the Portugal-Netherlands game, the behavior from the announcer seems innocent in comparison. Because he didn't do it with malicious intent .

And not to mention that the World Cup is a once in four years event that arouse passions the world over.

Yes he overcarried himself, but I don't see a need to apologize. I call it freedom of expression.

[johnd]

I heard that the commentator had a big bet on Italy beating Australia 1-0, maybe the kind of bet that he can retire on. Which is what he might be doing now.

[roddy]

How did the commentators react to the brawling after the match last night? I switched off and went to bed immediately Germany saved the crucial penalty, and thus missed the most interesting part of the tournament so far.

[zhwj]

The commentators completely ignored the brawl - instead, they went through and recapped some highlights and talked about what the win meant, then said "goodbye, Argentina" and cut to commercial. I kept hoping they'd explain what it was about, but I don't remember them even mentioning the post-game red-card.

[gougou]

post-game red-card

There was a post-game red card and I find out about it on chinese-forums? Ah, what Chinese sports journalism and a weekend without internet do to you!