Copying a part of the article can be effective when done well. However it should be put in quotes or italicized.
I was lambasted in the past...
Lambasted is a bit strong of a word, don't cha think?
I recall someone pointing out to you that it's frowned upon but you weren't ripped for it. But there's a difference between editorializing and using your own wording. State the facts in the FPP, save your opinion for the comments, and everything will be all hunky-dory. Oh yeah, and watch out with the USA-centric posts, I've been nailed on that one as well.
By the way, so sad for the USA team, congrats to Japan.
Ironically, this may be the ammo that softball can use to try and get back in the Olympics (although I think it's hard to make the case that one loss = parity, even in such a high-stakes game).
Thanks everyone for their useful comments about posting, but this thread was about an incredible performance by an athlete that may have been one of the finest in Olympic team sport history. It seems only l l b and BoKnows got it. I am sure to sound defensive at this point, but the truth of the matter is that the sector of this posting wasn't "posting methods", it was Olympics.
PS. Please bring back the simple link, bold and italics selections during comments. I asked earlier to have an explanation of the HTML tags, but it was ignored.