As one who has participated in the Olympic thread and differed with Stephen Brophy over his initial post, I now have a better understanding of the nature of his objections and more or less concur with the following position. Thanks for clarifying, Stephen. Alison McKee ------------------------------TEXT-OF-YOUR-MAIL-------------------------------- > As the person who started this little tempest with a too-generally > worded message, I want to say that much of what has been posted in the > past few days about the ways images of athletes have been constructed > by TV coverage has been quite interesting, and totally appropriate to > the purposes of this list. What I was reacting to was a spate of > Tonya Harding jokes and some speculations about the character of > another athlete that really had nothing to do with media studies, and > would have been much more appropriate on alt-gossip. As more people > get on the internet and join these discussions, we are in danger of > being inundated in inappropriate messages if we don't set some minimal > standards and try to abide by them. > Stephen Brophy