Olympic Coverage: Lashing out....

[SoccerScout]

Well here we are, another 4 years have passed and again we find ourselves close to having to deal with NBCs SOFT, Mushy , Overly Dramatic-themed, biased coverage.

How many sad stories of personal loss and struggles with a dramatic soundtrack will we have to watch. I would imagine somewhere around 50 will be the number of mush pieces on the atletes that lost Mom or dad or that grew up poor, dodging bullets or that lost a Brother weeks before the olympics.

It amazes me that NBC and American networks in general havent yet realized that the USA is a highly immigrated country. Nowhere else in the world will you find so many freshly arrived foreigners and still the coverage is more than normally US biased. Theres nothing wrong with giving your nation more airtime, but the standards here are far from the average.

To top it all will Katie Curic and Matt Lauer or Bob Costas be running the show? This is something we dont need. Makes me want to MUTE the TV.

OH wait there is worse, the "plausibly Live" coverage. Meaning the "Not so Live" events "kept secret" until their primetime showing. That is just disturbing , always was, always will be.

Thankfully NBC has done a few things right like adding coverage to MSNBC and CNBC. If not for those channels some sports would never get airtime.

Can we officially start the NBC bashing? I wish BS still have posts from 4 years ago to compare notes.

[kenntomasch]

So don't watch.

I don't. My quality of life hasn't been compromised one bit that I can tell.

[da_cfo]

FYI:

There was a purge of mid-level personnel at NBC Olympics after the 2000 mess.

NBC has gotten rid of the sappy overproduced pieces (the nauseating ones produced by Lisa Lax), replacing them with short profiles that are 60 seconds or less.

Note that taped prime time coverage on NBC in 2004 will be restricted to Swimming, Artistic Gymnastics, Diving, and Track and Field.

Also, there will be more LIVE Olympic soccer than you can watch this time around: men's futbol exclusively on Telemundo (the final only will also air in English on NBC-HDTV via tape-delay), and the US women on either MSNBC or CNBC. And I do mean LIVE (i.e. a digital delay of no more than 5 minutes to censor objectionable material), not "plausibly live".

NBC is getting closer to doing the Olympics "right": saving the "cash cows" for prime time and airing the rest of the sports on cable/satellite, spread out over multiple channels, to "micro-target" niche audiences:

"Hispanic" sports on Telemundo: futbol, boxeo, beisbol, women's 400 metre run with Mexican runner Ana Guevara, the walking events.

A boxing block in early fringe (5-8pm) on CNBC/MSNBC.

Basketball, Tennis, and Road Cycling on USA Network.

Women's team sports (soccer, softball, volleyball, water polo) on MSNBC.

High-end suburban (i.e. "white") sports on Bravo: Equestrian, Kayaking, Canoeing, Rowing, Yachting, Fencing, Track Cycling.

The trend is clear: slice and dice to micro-target and exploit for maximum profit.

[TOTC]

And the US women on either MSNBC or CNBC. And I do mean LIVE (i.e. a digital delay of no more than 5 minutes to censor objectionable material).


What are they afraid of? Brandi part 2???

[Brownswan]

So don't watch.

I don't. My quality of life hasn't been compromised one bit that I can tell.

You've noticed that, too?

I also just noticed, while watching the women play at HDC last Sunday, that I've gone well into the summer without hearing the word 'awesome' used to describe pretty much anything a woman does with a ball -- including the womean who does it. She's 'awesome' too.

It's been a relief, not hearing it. In fact, I heard the word more times in two hours last Sunday than I had since the Women's World Cup packed it in last autumn.

"So don't watch," I've got to remember that. Even I should be able to do that. It's not like it's an awesome thing to do.

[CUS]

I'm with Kenn. I refuse to watch.

[kenntomasch]

I don't refuse to. I just don't. I don't think I watched a second from Sydney that wasn't soccer. But I didn't watch a second of the NBA Finals, either. Just doesn't interest me.

If our men's soccer team was there, I'd watch. I'll watch the women if they happen to be on while I'm doing something else, but if they chop up the game and intersperse something else in there, I'm going to lose interest and turn on something else or turn everything off.

TV's just not that big a deal to me. Nor is stuff that is on TV that I don't care about.

[monster]

I'll watch. A lot, but you know what.

The fact that things might be taped or that the announcers might be annoying or that something might not interest me won't really matter. Because, in the end, I have the ability to turn off the TV and read or go outside and play ith my kid or read about it on the Internet if I don't like what NBC is showing.

Freedom of choice and acting like an adult. Look into it.

[Justin O]

Nowhere else in the world will you find so many freshly arrived foreigners and still the coverage is more than normally US biased. Theres nothing wrong with giving your nation more airtime, but the standards here are far from the average.

Not based on my experiences, though obviously it depends on which countries you have experience with. In other countries where I've followed the Olympics, (UK, Russia) the coverage has been even more geared towards their own athletes, and the broadcasters even more overtly national cheerleaders than in the US.

And the fact that the US has more athletes challenging for medals is part of the reason. I'm sure if, for example, there were Albanians challenging for medals in half the events, Albanian TV would pretty much ignore all other countries' athletes.

Not that US "homerism" isn't present. It is and I do find it really irritating. However, the same phenomenon exists in many countries and in some places it's actually worse.

[Jasonma]

Not based on my experiences, though obviously it depends on which countries you have experience with. In other countries where I've followed the Olympics, (UK, Russia) the coverage has been even more geared towards their own athletes, and the broadcasters even more overtly national cheerleaders than in the US.

Canada. CBC coverage of the Olympics is amazing. I've had it for almost every Olympics of my life, living in Western Washington. In fact, the cable company removed CBC from the system shortly before the Olympics and had to immediately put it back after so many people complained that they would miss the coverage. They cover full events, inculding all the athletes, complete coverage of the opening ceremonies with little to no commercial breaks, and LIVE coverage all day.

Of course, I've moved to AZ so I'll be stuck with NBC now...

[Davids26]

Canada. CBC coverage of the Olympics is amazing. I've had it for almost every Olympics of my life, living in Western Washington. In fact, the cable company removed CBC from the system shortly before the Olympics and had to immediately put it back after so many people complained that they would miss the coverage. They cover full events, inculding all the athletes, complete coverage of the opening ceremonies with little to no commercial breaks, and LIVE coverage all day.

Of course, I've moved to AZ so I'll be stuck with NBC now...

Anyone close to the Canadian border knows what an excellent job CBC does with the Olympics. They of course play a somewhat Canadian angle but nothing compared to the NBC-American sappy theme.

If NBC did even half of what CBC does with the Olympics there wouldn't be as many complaints.

[Lithium858]

The American Olympians are being warned this year to not be as patriotic as in years past because of the amount of the anti-American hatred in the world right now. I don't know if that will have any affect on their broadcasting style or not though. Probably not, unfortunately :(

[Jabinho]

The American Olympians are being warned this year to not be as patriotic as in years past because of the amount of the anti-American hatred in the world right now. I don't know if that will have any affect on their broadcasting style or not though. Probably not, unfortunately :(And what could be more American and patriotic than interrupting a soccer match with a commercial for General Motors! :rolleyes:

[Father Ted]

Having grown up watching the Olympics in Ireland, the job that NBC does is horrible. First is the tape delay, then the homerism. I remember watching some race where an American came in third. They barely mentioned who won.

[PZ]

Having grown up watching the Olympics in Ireland, the job that NBC does is horrible. First is the tape delay, then the homerism. I remember watching some race where an American came in third. They barely mentioned who won.
I with you there, I grew up in the UK and the coverage there puts NBC to shame.

However, my wife loves the sob stories and the build up to the 5 minutes of actual competition we get.

[Dr. Wankler]

However, my wife loves the sob stories and the build up to the 5 minutes of actual competition we get.

No offense to Mrs. PZ, as no doubt she's a fine person, but it's because NBC goes after her demographic that I haven't watched the Olympics since 1984 (the results of which allowed me to do a Morgan Spurlock with all my winnings from that one McDonald's promotion, but that's a different story).

The way I figure it: I like sports. Now, I like heart-rending sob-stories, too, but hell, I get plenty of those talking with my neighbors and friends. Those good people can't pole-vault worth a damn, though. So in short, I'd rather hear the stories of people I actually know, and watch the athletic performances of people I don't who are world class at their various sports. NBC's coverage hasn't permitted that to the degree I like, so I just spend my TV time watching baseball and soccer instead of the Oly's. I'm sure that NBC doesn't give a rat's ass, but I don't give a rat's ass about them, so we're even.

[skipshady]

I'm sure that NBC doesn't give a rat's ass, but I don't give a rat's ass about them, so we're even.Basically, yeah. Whatever NBC loses in serious (and that's "serious" as opposed to casual, without any value judgements) sports fans, they gain in non-traditional sports fans (which is to say, women) and NBC likes the ladies more because they're more likely to watch Joey or Law & Order: Special Victims Unit when the fall TV season rolls around.

It may be a different story if men who are 18 to 34 watced more prime time network television instead of playing video games or watching raunchy cable shows.

[Thomas Flannigan]

Some good posts here. To me, it is like watching the Picture of Dorian Gray. The Olympics used to be very exciting, and that included some of the women's events too. Now, it is like one gigantic infomercial that is supposed to appeal to women. They should put it on Lifetime and stop calling it a sports broadcast. It is grotesque.

[monster]

This will not turn into woman bashing, Thomas.

[kenntomasch]

And as long as it continues to grab ratings the way they do it, they will continue to do it that way, regardless of how the barrister from Chicago feels about it.