EN Today – FEI: 1, Mainstream Media: 0

I love a good old-fashioned typo, especially if I’m not the one responsible for it. Erin Gilmore shares an entertaining story from the Olympic equestrian press box.From Erin:

Early Tuesday morning I was sitting in the press center, catching up on things before the stadium jumping started. All the equestrian media has been working their tails off all week, covering the entire eventing competition.

But with the Royal family known to be attending the eventing final, the mainstream media shouldered their way in to “our” media centre as if they owned the place. Take a moment to imagine every stereotype of a British broadcast journalist; a round, gruff man with a stubbly dark beard and a slippery British accent, trailing black cases of heavy equipment and odd looking headphones and microphone hooked up to said cases. Ok, you are correct, that is exactly what the man who blundered his way to my table looked like. Along with several of his colleagues, they set up shop for the day, intent on covering the all important event of the Royal family sitting on their butts in bleacher seats.

This particular representative of the media got in the face of non other than the FEI’s most senior journalist when she made the mistake of politely trying to reclaim the space she’d been working from all week. If I didn’t have respect for Louise Parkes before, I sure do now, because as this blustering man angrily lorded over her with headphones in hand, she pulled herself up to her 5’4″ height and refused to give way. I don’t know what made this particular representative of the mainstream media feel so entitled, and after a few minutes of arguing (him loudly, her firmly) and with very loud complaints he moved one seat down to allow her to have her seat back.

It’s because of that guy that I especially enjoyed the typo on the front of Tuesday’s London Evening Standard, which was open on the lap of every other person sitting on a London subway last night. And while it might not have been that particular guy’s mistake, someone in the mainstream media blundered their way into the press center and paid half attention to the events of the day. It’s nice that Zara is on the front page of the paper, having led the showjumping team to a medal and all.