Monsieur Muggles wrote:
AlexDSSF wrote:
I prefer Ian Thorpe to Michael Phelps any day. As was said in the Vicar of Dibley about the title character, "Lovely arse". Now, I'm going to watch the Olympics and follow it throughout, but I'm rooting against the Americans. Not because I hate my country, but because I HATE NBC. Their jingoism knows no boundaries. They could interview an American who just failed to make the podium and put up a fucking fluff piece about him or her, but ignore the winner completely, even if he or she speaks better English and has more personality than the American. The overwhelming BIAS of NBC's Olympic coverage is enough for me to root AGAINST the Americans.I kind of agree, but NBC just has AWFUL awful commentators for most of its sports. The only ones reasonably good outside of the smaller sports are the ones who usually do track & field. The swimming commentators, the diving commentators, the basketball commentators, and heck, even the tennis and distance running commentators are pretty one-sided and/or too excitable. NBC just places too much emphasis on the American experience as opposed to the overall experience, which would be alright if there were more than one network broadcasting the games, but there isn't.
Don't forget the shenanigans of the U.S. athletes' local network affiliates, either.
If you want to get on TV here in Baltimore during the Olympics, hang out at Michael Phelps' old swim club, which just happens to be the biggest swim facility in the city which is open to the general public. Watch out for the camerapeeps asking opinions. I missed a crew by about 10 minutes during the recent Trials. "Do you know Michael?" "Will Michael do it?"
In 1996 during the Atlanta Olympics, I laughed my ass off at Spencer Tillman's daily "first hand" (take that how you may) coverage of the American male sprinters for the Houston affiliate. In one particular "interview", Spencer had a track suit on, and was running around the track like a fangurl with Jon Drummond, Dennis Mitchell, and a couple of the other more theatrical guys. I found it amusing also, that Michael Johnson would have nothing to do with him.
Sure, I'd love to be able to watch the events with a minimum of jingoism tossed in as commentary. And I'd love to be able to watch some of the sports our athletes don't excel in, which are usually not covered in any depth. But in the end, the coverage of the Games is probably equal parts entertainment and sport. Given that the network covering an Olympic Games paid zillions of dollars for that right, that's about what I'd expect.
Edirted 'cause I remembered he was following Dennis Mitchell around like a puppy, not Maurice Greene.
