In a recent article by Dina Gachman,contributor for forbes.com, entitled "ESPN's 'The Price Of Gold' Takes A Closer Look At Tonya Harding," Gachman informs th
e reader of the Kerrigan-Harding scandal, the effects it had on TV ratings during that Olympics and why bias toward women are the reasons the ratings changed so much from the scandal.
According to Gachman "Kerrigan was attacked and clubbed in the knee and the crime was traced back to a group of men, including Harding's then-husband Jeff Gillooly. Harding denied that she knew about the attack and she eventually won the gold medal in figure skating in the 1994 Olympics, Kerrigan placed second. After Harding returned to the U.S she was found guilty to conspiring to hinder prosecution in the attack on Kerrigan.
Harding (middle) Kerrigan (right)
Recently, the major sports network ESPN made a documentary of the tragedy and attack on Nancy Kerrigan and Harding decided to do an interview for the film entitled "The Price Of Gold" "The interview lasted eight hours, Harding is often emotional in the film, and her jealousy of Kerrigan and bitterness about the accusations aren't hard to detect" said Burstein of ESPN. Harding shows how publicly being jealous of someone can be a bad omen to put on yourself. Harding was already better than Kerrigan,so why would you do something to manipulate the results."because of the Harding-Kerrigan rivalry, that year's Olympic event saw record-breaking rating that still hold today." this shows how women's athletics aren't what make ratings on major television thrive. It takes a tragedy or an interesting story to make someone want to watch women athletics, Showing how bias the world is toward women.
"The film touches on themes of gender bias, class, and the media's tabloidization of what could have easily been a tragedy." says Gachman. that's just it. the media doesn't know what was going on in Hardings' head when all of this was happening in 1994.maybe she didn't know? maybe she did, she is the only one that knows the answer to that question.
work cited
Gachman, Dina. "ESPN's 'The Price Of Gold' Takes A Closer Look At Tonya Harding." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 18 Jan. 2014.
