Brian Gumbel. Olympic sized cartoon character.

I recently read Rick Reilly's piece from the late '80s about Brian Gumbel and how he was a terrible person to his mother and what was left of his family and had been ever since his dear father had departed this earth and how he had a hardon for golf and Shwarzenegger movies and how he was such a tryhard he didn't get along with virtually anyone. I doubt that Reilly goes in to too much detail about Gumbel as a lonely sod but I do think that there is at least some evidence of portraying him as an archetype. The story is probably presented fairly, and I do not believe it describes anything about Gumbel that is too sensitive and does not withhold very much. To portray someone in a possibly negative light the fair move. The essential purpose of the story seems to be to convey the life story of Bryant Gumbel and it that it succeeds. It is honest, straightforward, human, and I doubt that many people were swayed in their liking of the morning anchor by The Mourning Anchor, but I do at least think that it is a thought out, comprehensive, and all-inclusive look in to his life.

Do I think it is a great piece of journalism?

Fat chance.