The More Things Change, The More They Don’t
Wow, I’m like my own little history book.
Looking over past posts and I found this entry. Originally published August 18, 2008.
Four years later and Olympics in London looked a lot like Olympics in Beijing.
Without the communism.
Damn you, NBC.
——————–
I’m just going to say it. The Olympics. MASSIVE disappointment.
Ok, not the games themselves. No. The coverage. NBC should be shot……and their little dog Bob Costas too.
I have twice now…just twice, sat down to watch coverage during “prime time” hours.
Once was Thursday. As soon as it came on, The Good Man said, “Is Bob Costas sick or something? He looks pale.”
No. Not sick. Just over made up, I think.
We tried to watch it but it was hard. The commercials. The interstitials. The “back story”. The over focus on one athlete to the detriment of the others. The cutting away from beach volleyball just when it was finally getting GOOD. Ugh.
We did get to see Phelps and “the touch” that launched another gold medal.
And we saw a Swiss volleyballer throw a hissy fit.
And some track and field ladies who kick butt.
But it was SO hard to watch.
Second try was last night. As soon as I turned it on The Good Man said, “Is Bob Costas sick or something? He looks pale.”
No. Still not sick. Just bad coverage.
Best line comes from Jim Baca on his blog Only in New Mexico:
“We watched the Olympics last night, or should I say the commercials on NBC which were interrupted by competition once in a while.”
I tried to watch. I really did. But ended up switching over to MythBusters instead.
I remember watching the Olympics when I was a kid. It was all about the athletes. About the competition. About this amazing every four year event showcasing the best of the best.
Now it’s Chinese government coverups, overblown corporate sponsorships, and focus on the most “media ready” athletes.
Depressing.
Photo by Heinz Kluetmeier, found on Sports Illustrated, and used here under fair use.
Comments
Lucky
I agree, it was all pretty terrible. Not to mention I knew most the results well before NBC aired anything. I tried to avoid them online, but it was nearly impossible.
And why, why, why all the hours of women’s beach volleyball? I’m sure we all know the answer. . .look, I’m as big a fan of toned women in bikinis as anyone. This does not mean I wanted to watch every single minute of competition in that sport. Which I didn’t, eventually I changed the channel whenever it came on. What about our undefeated women’s basketball team? What about some weightlifting, some fencing, or maybe our world-record holding decathlon guy? Shooting? Rugby? Water polo? Trampolining? Anything but more beach volleyball!
And don’t get me started on the closing ceremony, where I stayed up late to watch only to find that the Who was cut off until after an hour of some new show featuring a monkey. Sigh. I wish there were options and a way to take my business elsewhere.
Karen Fayeth
Lucky – My boss who lives in the UK said that the BBC had about 25 different channels showing different events, “often,” he said “without any commentary”..which sounds pretty nice. “Did you have that in the US too?” he asked.
Uh. No. Not even a little bit.
Anji
I understood that outside the UK there was only one company distributing the coverage of the games, so we got to see what you would have seen. My son told me about the BBC having about 25 channels too.
At one point Rob tried to listen to the olympics online on the BBC on his iphone. It was blocked with a message repeated over and over that we weren’t authorised to listen!!
Karen Fayeth
Anji – Ugh! You’d think they would want to make it easier for people to tune in. I also took issue with the fact that the NBC network in the US only presented back story on US athletes. They gave us very little background on athletes from other countries which I found reprehensible.