A lot of talk has been surrounding the Vancouver games as the worst ever. Are they really? Here's a link to my defense of the olympic games. http://topicalforest.blogspot.com/2010/02/canadas-shame-game.html But what you opinion on the state of the games?
Absolutely not. It may have been marred by Kumartashvilli's death, but for me the rest of the games has been fantastic. Some setbacks, yes, but the worst ever? No chance.
The games have taken a lot of heat from British and American media, but that could because of London, which are expected to be poor olympic games considering the rain in England.
Our media would be just as happy if London 2012 failed too. You see, what you don't understand, or what the world looking in from the outside doesn't understand, is that the media here is critical of everything. Whether it is within this country's interests or not, they will find a way to bring anything down. The formula is simple: Bad News= Good News Good News= No News If there is a positive story to report, they will either ignore it and go in search of a negative story, or put a negative spin on the positive story. The biggest mistake anybody looking in from the outside could make is assuming that 'because the media says it, the British people must be saying it'. It is such a sloppy, lazy generalisation. What comes from our newspapers, our news organisations, is becoming more and more a distant relative of fair journalism with each passing day. That said, who says London 2012 is expected to be poor? Or is this more of that 'let's blame the old colonial enemy' bullcrap again? The funny thing is, despite our media being collosal distributers of bullshit, I do think there has been a severe overreaction by everyone overseas. I know our press has a notoriety which works against it, but it's not as if everybody else has been wholly positive about Vancouver 2010, is it? you can't tell me that the newspapers in every other country have been writing rave reviews all round, given the unfortunate mishaps that there have been. The media has always been quick to jump on things, as it generates interest and hence makes more money- it has always worked that way, no matter what country you are in. Or is this really about that? Perhaps your own media is playing a clever game: defect attention away from the real problems by using Agent X (In this case the British press) as a scapegoat, instead choosing to report that other people are saying your games are bad. The Canadian media still makes it's dollars, as people are still lapping up the bad news, but only it makes itself look good because it wasn't them that said it Anyhow, the above was not a criticism of the games, on the contrary I have thoroughly enjoyed them, the mishaps are a little unfortunate but I don't blame Canada for them. I just thought I would add a counter argument, as I find it hard to comprehend exactly why it has become a big issue to Canada what our media has said, or rather why you even care? If you don't like what is said, simply ignore it. Nobody over here listens to our press anyway.
They got off to a bad start with the death and several skiing events getting postponed because of poor weather. But things have settled down and they're going along quite well now. The worst of all time? Ridiculous! I've been enjoying the hell out of them. I'll miss them when they're over.
You create a very valid point. I must say that i figured the news in Britian was sort of like that in Canada in which the news is (usually) reflective of the peoples opinion. Its kind of funny because whenever you hear about people blasting organizations, people or events it seems to always come out of the British media .
It doesn't suprise me. They talk shit about everything! I wish we did have media like in Canada (from what you say), because I am ashamed of ours. If only for the fact that I have lost count of the number of World Cups they have tried to ruin for our national football team Even the BBC, which was at one point supposedly the most respected news organisation in the world, is guilty more and more each day of sensationalism, constant negative spin, and plain making up of stories. It will be a good day when current powers that be in British media fall by the wayside and get replaced by fair honest journalism... ...A guy can dream