Sometimes our journalism makes it difficult to tell the sharpshooter from the target.

That observation came to mind as I looked at how The Des Moines Register covers the Olympic adventures of hometown gymnast Shawn Johnson, the delightful 16-year-old with the refreshing ways and astounding talent.

The way we do things in America put Ms. Johnson in the cross-hairs of our culture’s ego and greed – ego in that we want people to love us and those close to us, greed in the desire to make as much money as quickly as possible.

Ms. Johnson has little ego and less greed – just a fine kid, with great parents to match. But consider the pressure put upon her by the Register on the eve of the team finals in woman’s gymnastics.

The declaration in the lead: “Shawn Johnson’s special moment has arrived.”

The demand in the second graph: “Now she has to deliver.”

The decree in the third graph: “America’s sweetheart… must have the routine of her life – four times – tonight” for the U.S. to win the gold medal in women’s team gymnastics.

Those lines were linked, of course, with reference to the millions of dollars awaiting her in endorsements and sponsorships if she came through.
“Has to deliver”? “Must have the routine of her life”? The demands were not conditioned by any suggestion that the 29th Olympiad, after all, is called the Olympic games or that Ms. Johnson would still be welcomed back home even if she did not “deliver.”

Mercifully, at the team finals, Ms. Johnson did well, even though teammates faltered and the Chinese team performed well. And she is still in the running for a gold medal or two in individual competition.

But it would be nice if we could ease up a bit on the process in which the news media help create and consume celebrities to fill newspaper pages and broadcast airtime. At least Ms. Johnson survived the threats implicit in the Register news coverage – for the time being anyway.

To be fair, just as the news media unfairly make people targets from time to time, the media also blare about questionable heroics. – as though two wrongs make a right. The Register account of the U.S. women winning the silver medal notes: “The Americans’ only team gold came in 1996… after Kerri Strug nailed her vault on a sprained ankle in what became an iconic moment.”
Well, not quite. Ms. Strug did in fact score 9.712 on the iconic vault. She was pressured into giving it one more try by Bela Karolyi because he and other coaches either miscalculated the team scoring or didn’t calculate at all. In fact, Ms. Strug’s first vault at 9.137 had been enough to assure the U.S. team the gold.

That’s the way we do things. Sometimes it is difficult to tell the sharpshooter from the target.