Wiggins eschews hero's welcome

Britain's Bradley Wiggins, wrapped in a national flag, celebrates during his parade at the end of the 120km last stage of the 2012 Tour de France cycling race at the famous Paris-Champs-Elysees Avenue on Sunday. Jeff Pachoud / Agence France-Presse
British cyclist shuns celebrations of his historic Tour de France victory
Bradley Wiggins made a low-key return home on Monday after his historic Tour de France win, even as Britain looked forward to the cyclist leading the country to more success at the London Olympics.
The 32-year-old and his wife Cath were seen leaving their home in Eccleston, a village in the northern county of Lancashire, just one day after he became the first Briton in history to pedal to victory in the race.
Wiggins, wearing sunglasses and a black T-shirt, and with his trademark bushy sideburns on display, drove off in a black Mercedes without speaking to waiting journalists.
But while he chose to stay quiet about his achievement as Britain's first Tour de France winner, his countrymen were quick to hail it.
"In terms of individual sporting achievements, I am struggling to think of a better one," Britain's Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson said.
Robertson also said that British cycling chiefs believe that Britain's success in the 2008 Beijing Olympics encouraged half a million people to take up cycling, and Wiggins' victory could give the sport a similar lift.
Jonathan Edwards, who won gold in the triple jump at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, said it was "one of the best (achievements) of all time by a British sportsman".
Wiggins said after the race that he was now completely focused on the Olympics, in which he will compete in the men's road race and the individual time trial.
"If I'm 100 percent honest, it's gold or nothing in London now, really," Wiggins said. "That's the way I'm treating the next nine days.
"I can't sit here and say I'll be happy with a silver or happy with a bronze."
Wiggins admitted that adding to the three gold medals he has already accumulated at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics would not necessarily top his Tour win, which he described as the "greatest day of my sporting life".
He moved from London to Eccleston, where he lives with his wife and their children Ben and Isabella, to be closer to the Manchester Velodrome where British Cycling is based.
The quiet village is a far cry from the media circus of the past few days.
Images of his victory parade on the Champs Elysees in Paris were splashed across the front pages of Britain's press, who were unanimous in saying the cyclist now firmly belonged in the pantheon of British sporting greats.
Many said Wiggins could now expect to be honored with a knighthood for his achievement while some reports speculated he may also now enter the frame as the man to light the Olympic flame at Friday's opening ceremony.
"Wiggo hailed UK's greatest sportsman," the tabloid The Mirror ran across its front page.
The popular tabloid The Sun said "a new British hero" had been immortalized, comparing Wiggins to cricketer Ian Botham, soccer player Bobby Moore and Olympic rowing legend Steve Redgrave.
The Daily Mail led with "20m and a knighthood next for wonderful Wiggins", echoing calls for the three-time Olympic gold medalist to be honored by the queen.
Meanwhile, The Daily Star called for Wiggins to light the Olympic flame at Friday's ceremony, although he is due to compete in the men's road race the following day.
The Times, which carried a souvenir cover celebrating the "Promenade des Anglais", said Wiggins had "proved to be a great champion of British sport. He has also shown himself to be a fine man".
Wiggins has become something of a cult figure for his plain speaking and also for his adherence to the "Mod" subculture, a British movement from the 1960s focusing on scooters, sharp fashion and music.
Richard Moore, the author of "Sky's the Limit", a book on British cycling, said Wiggins had helped to change the sport's image in the country.
"Oddballs - that was traditionally the classic loner cyclist," he told BBC radio.
"In the UK, cyling was seen as a very exotic, foreign sport. The riders spoke foreign languages. It was rooted in France and Belgium, and (they wore) funny shorts and funny clothes.
"There was a huge Beijing effect after the Beijing Olympics when British cyclists were dominant, and I think this is even bigger and I think this seems to have really captured people's imagination."

Innovative Fox Sports Chairman David Hill leaving Fox Sports

By Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY
David Hill, who pioneered putting NFL game clocks continuously onscreen, is leaving Fox Sports.
The Fox Sports chairman, who led the launch of the News Corp. network sports division in 1993, used the continuous onscreen clock at a time when broadcasters across the board rejected the idea out of fear that viewers would quickly change the channel if they could instantly see a game was a blowout.

CAPTION

By Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

Hill's other innovations include baseball coverage with constant camera cross-cuts – they make down times between pitches seem more lively – as well as the so-called glowing puck for NHL action. The puck appeared to glow and left an onscreen "comet tail" in its wake. Occasionally, though, the glowing puck would go awry and appear to pop in and out of the stands.Hill's creations also included putting tiny cameras in baseball fields and (sometimes annoying) animated characters on event coverage – such as a gopher cartoon character tht would pop up from the track during coverage of NASCAR races. Hill also brought UFC MMA programming to Fox in mixed martial arts' first big broadcast network deal.
Hill will continue working for News Corp., focusing on programming and digital initiatives in and out of the U.S. In a restructing, Fox Sports co-presidents Randy Freer and Eric Shanks now will report to Fox Networks Group president Peter Rice.
Hill, a native of Australia, in a statement said he's "immensely proud of the work we've done to revolutionize the television business."

Dark Knight Rises 'critic' is banned from Rotten Tomatoes

US blogger Eric D Snider posted negative review on aggregator site despite never having seen Christopher Nolan's new film

• Ben Child
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 17 July 2012 12.25 EDT
  Batman's revenge ... a critic was banned from Rotten Tomatoes for posting a negative review of The Dark Knight Rises – he had not seen the film. Photograph: Ron Phillips
  It must have seemed like a surefire method of attracting new visitors to your website: take the year's most heavily anticipated movie, and post a negative review linked to the popular aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. The only problem for US blogger Eric D Snider of the Snide Remarks site is that he had not seen The Dark Knight Rises, and was therefore in no position to comment on it.
  Rotten Tomatoes yesterday took the rare step of banning Snider from the list of critics whose reviews contribute to its aggregator scores for forthcoming movies. His crime has since been referred to elsewhere in the blogosphere as a form of "countertrolling" because the critic knew full well his verdict would cause consternation among vocal fans of film-maker Christopher Nolan who use the site. Rotten Tomatoes was later forced to temporarily disable comments on all The Dark Knight Rises reviews due to fan ire – though not as a direct result of Snider's verdict.
  Snider's felony was compounded by the fact that he used his Rotten Tomatoes critic's login to suggest his review was being hosted on the website film.com, whereas it was actually linked to his own site.
  "In our opinion, by knowingly posting a link that isn't a review (and he hadn't seen the movie), Snider has abused our trust, and therefore, his reviews will no longer apply to the Tomatometer," wrote Rotten Tomatoes editor-in-chief Matt Atchity in a blogpost explaining the decision to ban the critic. "If a critic abuses our trust by linking to something that's not a review, we will take action up to and including removing them from the Tomatometer. If a critic doesn't take their reputation seriously, then neither will we."
  Snider had initially posted: "The Dark Knight Rises is easily the most disappointing Batman film so far – and I'm including [Joel] Schumacher's Batman and Robin in that statement. Nolan has finally lost his touch."
  When readers clicked the link to view the full review, they were informed: "Just kidding! I haven't seen The Dark Knight Rises yet. It's probably very good! I just wanted to post a negative quote on Rotten Tomatoes and see how many idiots would type angry words at me without actually clicking the link to read the review. 'You ruined this movie's RT score!' is a dumb complaint that is only made by dumb people."
  Snider later removed the offending review, but not before Rotten Tomatoes and other sites had screengrabbed it as evidence. He has since tweeted: "I apologise to those I offended who like to respond angrily to reviews they've only read one sentence of, of movies they haven't seen."
  The critic can, at least, take solace in the fact that his verdict would not – after all – have singlehandedly ruined The Dark Knight Rises' 100% "fresh" rating on the site. So far, three critics out of a total of 35 have now given the final instalment in Nolan's Batman trilogy a negative review: Christy Lemire of the Associated Press, Chris Tookey of the Daily Mail and Marshall Fine of the Hollywood & Fine blog.