August 13, 2004
Olympics Rant
by peterbAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Björk is singing, but I can't hear the song if you are talking during it, you idiots. Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up. I hate you.
Is there anyone, anywhere, who has thought that NBC's Olympics coverage for the past 20 years has been anything less than uniformly terrible? Who are these people? Why haven't they been fired yet? What can I do to hasten the process?
These aren't rhetorical questions. Have you ever met anyone who said "Wow! What a great job NBC did covering the Olympics, ignoring most of the non-American athletes and not covering most of the events!"
I didn't think so. Me neither.
Also, NBC decided to only show the Kouroi from the waist up, leading this poster on an internet forum to comment:
Whereas they only see dirty, filthy penises and breasts, most of the rest of the world, including myself, saw culture, history, art, architecture, sculpture and the human form. Not a single shot of the naked statues below the waist, and I had no idea there was a naked snake lady... Well, the FCC can rest happy. They won't have to arrest or fine anyone. Ratings are safe. Advertisment dollars will be spent.
Right on.
Posted by peterb at August 13, 2004 11:21 PM | Bookmark ThisIn 1992 we got the triple cast. It was a thing of Beauty.
It will never happen again.
Posted by psu at August 14, 2004 07:40 AMIt is kinda happening again this year. NBC is showing continuous Olympic coverage on their HDTV channels, with different video (the official HD video stream, available only at certain venues) and commentary.
I don't know whether the technology allows for fast enough turnaround, but the On Demand services provided by digital cable services could probably be used to good effect.
Posted by Stewart Clamen at August 14, 2004 01:51 PMSo my excitement regarding the NBC-HD feed (not that I have an HDTV monitor) is dampened considerably now that I've learned that the broadcast is showing events ~24 hours delayed.
*sigh* Guess there's always 2008.
Posted by Stewart Clamen at August 17, 2004 11:40 PMThis year is worse than ever before. NBC's coverage is TERRIBLE. During primetime you can see swimming, swimming, swimming, or 5 minutes of gymnastics, but only of the U.S. gymnast, and only if they win.
After midnight, you can see the primetime B.S. all over again, just in case you missed what a tool Bob Costas is the first time around. "A dream, a man, a star, shooting, like so many rays of sun... he comes to the olympics, to test his might, to wrangle with his dreams, like the ancient greeks did, heroically, he--" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH. Make him *SHUT UP*!
At 4pm you can see... a Dr. Phil rerun... a crappy Bravo program... second-rate news on MS-NBC... 5 channels, and *no* olympic programming? What crap is this?
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