{"id":282658,"date":"2026-02-09T20:29:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T20:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/282658\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T20:29:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T20:29:48","slug":"italian-reporters-to-protest-over-bosss-gaffe-filled-olympic-commentary-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/282658\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian reporters to protest over boss\u2019s gaffe-filled Olympic commentary | Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sports journalists at the Italian state broadcaster are staging protests in response to blunders made by the sports director throughout his commentary on the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Paolo Petrecca, who was appointed to the role at Rai Sport in 2025, first welcomed viewers to Rome\u2019s Stadio Olimpico instead of Milan\u2019s San Siro, where Friday\u2019s ceremony was held, before mistaking the Italian actor Matilda De Angelis for Mariah Carey and Kirsty Coventry, president of the International Olympic Committee, for Laura Mattarella, daughter of the Italian president.<\/p>\n

The gaffes were quickly mocked by viewers on social media and seized upon by members of the Italian opposition due to Petrecca\u2019s reportedly close allegiance to Giorgia Meloni\u2019s far-right government. De Angelis joked:<\/a> \u201cMariah Carey and I are apparently the same person.\u201d<\/p>\n

CDR, the internal union representing Rai journalists, said on Monday the broadcaster\u2019s sports journalists would stage protests, including withholding their bylines from their coverage of the Games and striking for three days when the event is over, in response to the sports director\u2019s \u201cdisastrous coverage\u201d of the opening ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor three days we\u2019ve all been embarrassed,\u201d the CDR said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cAnd through no fault of our own. It\u2019s time to make our voices heard because we\u2019re facing the worst performance ever from Rai Sport during one of the most anticipated events of all time, the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CDR said the flawed commentary was damaging to Rai, its licence fee payers and to journalists who work for the public service. The statement added: \u201cThis is not a political issue, as some would have us believe, but a question of respect and dignity for public service.\u201d<\/p>\n

The journalists\u2019 union, Usigrai, called the commentary \u201cinadequate\u201d.<\/p>\n

Opposition politicians claimed the incident was the latest example of alleged rightwing bias at Rai. Sandro Ruotolo from the Democratic party said it represented a further sign of \u201cpolitical occupation and amateurism\u201d at what he called \u201cTeleMeloni\u201d.<\/p>\n

In an unprecedented action in 2024<\/a>, news anchors on Rai\u2019s three main TV channels read a statement from Usigrai condemning Meloni\u2019s administration for \u201cturning Rai into a government megaphone\u201d.<\/p>\n

Before coming to power in October 2022, Meloni often accused Rai of leftwing bias.<\/p>\n

Rai Sports has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sports journalists at the Italian state broadcaster are staging protests in response to blunders made by the sports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-282658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}