25 replies to this topic

[917k]

To all fellow canucks who watch there F1 on TSN,I implore you to flood TSN with e-mails complaining about f**king Vic Rauter.

After watching a FANTASTIC GP,I was infuriated by Rauters total negative rant.[not a SINGLE positive expressed about the race.]

His complaints were typical;team orders,Villeneuve's performance and his standard harangue,Traction control[something he knows nothing about.]

He is a shameless CART booster and seems to have had a life-long hatred of F1.

What is most galling,though,is that after slagging the race he feeds us the promo to watch Monaco,in 2 weeks time.Why should I?You have just finished telling us what a bunch of rubbish F1 is.

Sorry to rant here,but that knob,Rauter,took much of the enjoyment of the race away.

Please e-mail TSN.Even non-canucks are welcome[www.tsn.ca]

[molive]

Vic should stick to curling...

count me in! even though I'm not watching TSN anymore I had to put up with him for 4 freaking years.

[Williams]

Hmm, I played back the tape after seeing this thread, and it seems Vic was simply playing devils advocate, expressing an opinion that I am sure many of us share: that with all the stalled cars on the start, the LC should perhaps be totally junked. John Watson replied that that would be fine, but then they would need to go all the way back 20 years and remove ALL electronics, and that modern cars have it so why shouldn't F1 ? Vic then agreed with John's position (which indicates Vic's original "devil's advocate's" position), saying that this is what the car manufacturer's involved with F1 was also saying. There was no "rant" from Rauter on that topic.

On Villeneuve, Vic simply agreed with a statement of Gerry Donaldson, who is close to Villeneuve, and has no axe to grind with JV. GD was the one to bring up JV, simply saying that JV had a terrible race and Vic agreed with that ("he did indeed"), before going to commercial. After the commercial asked GD about how frustrated JV must be getting. GD said JV has to pull up his socks, and has to improve. Vic then noted a back problem with JV, and then asked, aside from that, whether JV has lost his nerve at all. GD said no, but JV has lost some of his polish, and is frustrated and overdriving, and needs to get that polish back. Watson then said that JV is suffering from no discipline and leadership ("needs a spanking", as he put it), has the talent, but has just lost focus, and said that he does not think JV wants to languish in a midfield team.

Vic simply asked the questions, and his F1 correspondents, both fair and knowlegeable men making fair and reasonable comments, called it as they saw it. I don't see any problem with the way Vic Rauter handled any of this.

Vic Rauter is not as knowledgeable about the sport as many of us here, but can speak intelligently enough about it to lead his correspondents in an appropriate discussion, asking the questions the fans are wondering about. That's his job. The interesting thing about guys like Rauter is that they have to cover a number of sports, and I recall seeing Rauter involved in coverage of another sport, (tennis or curling, I think), and it was kind of weird to see him slip easily so into the role of covering that sport too. Vic is not an F1 specialist like Murray Walker, but I have to say that the coverage that Canadians get from TSN doesn't give us a lot to complain about. Read some of the posts of our Austrailian members sometime.

[bear]

You are being kinda hard on Vic,I haven't watched many pre race shows the last two years but "shameless CART booster" is a bit of a stretch.

mark

[BlackGhost]

TSN uses Murray Walker and Martin Brundle and that's good enough with me, I'll put up with Vic to enjoy Murray any day!

[917k]

unbelieveable!!!!!!!!!!!!

Defending Vic Rauter!!!!!!!!!!!

I have had to put up with this ''journalist'' for over 8 years,Have you?

Please,someone,HELP!!!!!!!!!

I cannot let it rest that some of us think that Rauter is doing his job effectively.

Some outside opinions,please!!!!!!!!

[mtl'78]

I don't like his smug style at all, especially since 99% of us here know and understand WAAAAYYYY more than he does. But as far as TSN comentator/reporters go, he wouldn't be at the top of my "fire him" list. That would go to that creepy guy who hosts the REEEEAAAAALLLY lame talkshow... what's the name...

[Beezie]

Oh, come on, he isn't that bad. It could be so much worse. Have him fired and TSN might just hire an out of work actor to make dumbass comments. (Hey, I see ABC did that to one of the series they carry... ) Or they could always get the creepy lame talk show host guy.;)

Speak french? If Vic really bugs you, there's always RDS for pre race and wrap up.

Or, depending on availability, Speedvision.

I won't accuse Vic Rauter of being Canada's essential motorsports expert , but "a life-long hatred of F1" seems a bit much.

[pa]

Vic Rauter is your standard old-school generalist loud-mouth shnook sports announcer who has two speeds - "loud" and "off". Most of the time, his brain doesn't work when he speaks. I've forgotten more about F1 than he will ever know. He should be horsewhipped in public then placed in the stocks so that small children can poke him with sharp sticks and mock him.

[Williams]

pa I love your sarcasm

Seriously, I'd like an example or two of something Vic said that really deserves the villification he's getting here. Sheesh he's only onscreen for maybe fifteen or twenty minutes out of each race, and he's just the lead-in for the real race announcers.

The one thing I'll admit is that once when they actually had him and Donaldson do play-by-play for qualifying, they made a royal mess of it. TSN was smart enough to can that idea real quick, and otherwise, the guy has done just fine, for what he's needed for.

[baddog]

Just try listening to jim rosenthal (sounds like his role is the same as this fellows) for a couple of races.. Youll miss your regular anchorman like you wouldnt beleive...

Shaun

[Dimo]

I dunno, this season I'm sticking with SV before and after the race. I go with TSN during the race for the ITV feed. So I'm mostly Rauter-free.

[JayWay]

I see more dumb comments on this board then Vic has made in his whole F1/TSN carrer.

[baddog]

Originally posted by JayWay
I see more dumb comments on this board then Vic has made in his whole F1/TSN carrer.

oh yeah...

Shaun

[JayWay]

What do you have to say?

[baddog]

Originally posted by JayWay
What do you have to say?

that was me agreeing with you. like 'oh yeah there certainly are more dumb comments here'

I know me agreeing with you is strange.. but it can happen. It may happen again one day ;)

Shaun

[baddog]

oh and there should be specific rules against posters who's signatures are longer than their posts ;)

Shaun

[JayWay]

Oh ok.


And the sig stays

[mtl'78]

BTW I watched Imola in the states and got my first and hopefully last taste of Varsha or whomever the main comentator is. I literally felt nauseous. They had like 4 guys in the booth and not one of them said one inteeligent thing. Even if you added together all the best comments they made, it still didn't add up to an idea. I was meaning to start a thread about it when I got back, but forgot... this just reminded me.

Love Vick, you could be FORCED to watch speedvision. I'm not joking. If I had heard just one more "RU-Binz Barrrrrrrrrry-kellow" I might have become violent.

BTW, SPEEDVISION is the reason F1 isn't more popular in the states. It was such a horrible experience, that had it not been for Ralf's first win, I would have turned it off...

[Paste]

I think Vic does pretty well considering he's simply a presenter. Cut the guy some slack. Just think: We could be stuck with Rod Black or some idiot like that. Vic rules in comparison! Sure he makes his share of mistakes, but I think he does well enough. If you don't like him, then just tune into Speedvision for the prerace!

[Rene]

Im sorry, but I have had an utter dislike for Vic from day one...I can't say exactly why he bugs me so much, but he really annoys the heck out of me....I now watch speedvisions pre-race show, and only flip over to TSN when Watson or Donaldson are talking, because I hate Vic so much....many of my friends feel the same way....do I have a good reason to dislike him....no...but he bugs the hell out of me...

[Shepski]

I agree...

SV for pre-race and the only reason I watch the TSN post race thing is to find out when the next CART race is being broadcast.

Vic is annoying but today I thought Donaldson and Watson were pretty annoying too. They seem to have forgotten he gave BAR their first podium last race.

"Spanking" ...that was good for a laugh.

Villenevue is still stuck in a mediocre car with a strong engine. How many years has it been now since he was able to fight at the front... I'm sure it gets frustrating after winning the WDC especially when he see's Williams handley out perform them and Sauber outqualify them too. They have gone backwards so far this year and the Reynard chassis still seems like it has a very long way to go.

BTW... Anyone notice how easy Panis made it for the people to pass him for position in todays race? Almost like he was politely giving up his spot... not very impressive.

[Vicster]

We've had threads complaining about this before, followed by a flurry of emails to TSN and it made no difference.

It really isn't that bad. Us Canucks have it better than a lot of other places. I recall an Aussie talking about their horrendous coverage and Speedvison's is not much better.

My only gripe is that TSN goes right to the start sequence before passing the audio feed to ITV. I don't like to miss Murray's "GO GO GO!"

[bear]

As far as Speedvision goes it ain't much better.I remember Unser verbally beating up Sam Possy on a regular basis watching the CART races.

The BAR is a dog what's the point of fighting a pass,also when Schumacher passed him he had a funny wiggle under braking in the rear which Murray and Martian missed.

mark

[arcwulf7]

Rauter obviously isn't a racing exper, but you'd think he'd know more than he appears to after 8+ years of hosting F1. Looking at the bright side, he's a lot better than the obnoxious Brian Williams on CBC's deplorable F1 coverage of a decade ago. John Watson and Gerald Donaldson are knowledgeable and usually come up with some pretty good stuff from Vic's leading question. I can surf over to Speedvision now if TSN pulls its nixing the Post Race Interviews or streaming commercials, and we still get the ITV broadcast, done live from the track which is a lot more intense than Speedvision's studio version -- so, it all could be worse imho.

[Rahalnut]

He isn't that bad. Not like good ole John Kernan - " if it aint nascar I don't like it"