Did bullets or rocks hit Rio media bus? Writer says it doesn't matter, response was the problem
Priority of officials shouldn't be 'what story are we going to tell the media,' says Lee Michaelson
Did the Rio 2016 organizers have any idea what they were in for the other day when basketball writer Lee Michaelson stood up at a daily briefing and with slightly quivering hands and voice started to ask a question?
For a moment, did they think they could brush her off and move on? They wouldn't dare now. Can't imagine anyone here would try to slip a vague or honesty-challenged answer past Michaelson at the moment.
She'd finish them. She IS finishing them.
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Michaelson is in Rio primarily to cover women's basketball. She once owned the oldest women's basketball publication in the world. She sold it in December and is now stringing for an outfit called Hoopfeed. But, that's not why she was clutching the microphone at the daily briefing.
Michaelson just happened to be on that media bus the other night en route from the women's basketball game (of course) at the Diadora venue when two windows were "pierced" with something — or a few somethings.
Everyone hit the floor, and a few journalists were struck by flying glass. The confused bus driver slowed down and then was encouraged by a veteran Reuters journalist to speed up and get to safety.
Issue is response, not bullets or rocks
The next day, the "what the heck was that?" question peppered organizers in various forms. Michaelson had been listening to the Rio 2016 assurances that it was just a "rock," corrected to a "few rocks" and she really couldn't take it anymore.
So, she politely asked for the microphone and began a calm, reasoned, pointed interrogation, which as a shortcut amounts to: Rocks? Really? And just what sort of training do any of the drivers or first responders have?
She went on. Why were the lights kept on inside the bus, exposing the passengers inside? Where exactly were the first-aid kits? Why did neither the police, nor the driver, nor the Rio 2016 organizers make any inquiries as to the health of the injured, or interview them about what happened? Why did no one seem to search the bus right away?
If only the Rio 2016 organizers knew the CV of the woman behind that microphone.
Michaelson is a retired U.S. Air Force captain who served in Okinawa, Japan, and then Korea. After leaving the military she worked as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office handling drug and gun cases, and plenty of ballistic reports.
For a time, pre-9/11, she worked with the Department of Treasury dealing with the alcohol, tobacco and firearms unit.
Oh, and she's a handgun owner.
See where this is going? In her own words: "I feel like I know the sound of gunfire when I hear it," she tells CBC News.
And what exactly did she hear and experience on that bus? Two sharp sounds in rapid succession. How rapid? Have a listen:
Pressed again today on the matter of rocks versus bullets, and again by Michaelson, the Rio 2016 organizers promised to release the full forensics report. Spokesman Mario Andrada insisted it would satisfy all that it really was rocks.
"If this report comes out, though I am still sceptical, I will send it back to some of my friends in the U.S. who are still with the FBI and have them take a look. If they tell me I am wrong, then I am wrong," Michaelson says.
At the end of the day, she says, the point is not what went through those windows, it's all about the response. Or, in her view, it's all about the chaotic mismanagement of the response. What if it had been a car accident or an attack she suggests, surely Games organizers can do better than hand out Kleenex as first aid?
"If anything should happen here, first aid should be available — priority of the first responders should be to the injured, and not what story are we going to tell the media and let's get the bus out of the way so it can't be photographed."
Michaelson has eye on basketball
This isn't exactly what Michaelson wants to be talking about. She did after all come to the Olympics to cover basketball.
Once the Games are over, what specifically does she want to write?
Funny you asked, she said.
"I have an article that I would really like to get back to writing after all this because the women's national basketball team in Canada has come far. Your coach was saying the other day it is progress over 10 years, but really the rate of development over the past 10 years is remarkable. They are a team that could medal here…. I think we are going to be seeing a lot of them over the next few years."
Frankly, if Lee Michaelson says so, you might want to pay attention. The rest of Rio is.
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