Italian reporters plan to strike after TV anchor mangles celebrity IDs

MILAN – Sports journalists at Rai, Italy’s state broadcaster, say they are going on strike – not to protest against low wages or bad working conditions, but because their boss could not tell the difference between American pop diva Mariah Carey and a much younger Italian actress.

Mr Paolo Petrecca, director of Rai’s sports division, made numerous gaffes while giving a running commentary on the Games’ opening ceremonies in Milan on Feb 6, spurring howls of outrage on Italian media for the past three days.

Adding to the outcry, members of Rai’s union of sports journalists are now protesting against Mr Petrecca’s mistakes by withholding their bylines from Olympic coverage, after announcing on Feb 9 that they will strike for three days immediately after the Games end on Feb 22.

Mr Petrecca has been head of the sports division for 10 months and has worked for the state broadcaster since 2001. He opened the 3 ½ hour broadcast by calling San Siro, a century-old landmark soccer stadium in Milan where one of four ceremonies took place, the “Olympic Stadium”, the official name of the main soccer stadium in Rome.

He described Ms Kirsty Coventry, president of the International Olympic Committee, as the daughter of Mr Sergio Mattarella, Italy’s president.

He mistook Brazil’s delegation for Bulgaria’s and then, once he realised he was looking at Brazilians, remarked that “dance is in their blood”.

When Matilda De Angelis, 30, an Italian actress, took up a symphony baton to conduct people dressed up as famous Italian composers, Mr Petrecca initially said she was Carey, who is 56 and who had flown in for the ceremony from the United States.

Mr Petrecca did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Rai declined to comment.

“For three days now, we have all been embarrassed, without exception and through no fault of our own,” the journalists union said in a statement on Feb 9. “It is time to make our voices heard because we are facing the worst performance ever by Rai Sport during one of the most eagerly awaited events ever, the Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina.”

Mr Alessandro Antinelli, a representative of the Rai Sport journalists union who runs the group’s soccer coverage, said that three days before the opening ceremonies, he approached Mr Petrecca to suggest that he hand over commentating duties to a more experienced sports anchor. “He is not a sports journalist,” he added. NYTIMES