NBC: We Have No Clue Who Tim Berners-Lee Is, But Without Our Commentary, You Wouldn't Understand The Olympics
from the brought-to-you-in-full-color-tape-delay! dept
Oh, NBC. You've locked down the Olympics and made someFirst of all, seriously? Tape delay to the West Coast? You lock down coverage in order to take advantage of prime time and try to pass it off as some sort of "value added" service. Pay no mind to all the twittering and live blogging willing to fill in the gaps, while you do some sort of production magic behind the scenes. Live events don't need windows and real life shouldn't need **spoiler** warnings.
Even worse is the fact that the opening ceremonies weren't even streamed live on the internet, where time and distance aren't factors. And you know it, too, because your official Twitter accounts were posting updates live, giving Americans the dusty old feeling that they're listening to a local broadcaster read off the ticker feed from a title match. So close, but so far.
But us poor internet denizens. If we weren't so damn stupid, we could be trusted with a live feed. NBC's official statement:
"They [the opening ceremonies] are complex entertainment spectacles that do not translate well online because they require context, which our award-winning production team will provide for the large primetime audiences that gather together to watch them."Translation: our advertisers have paid us a literal shit-tonne of money to have a large primetime audience delivered to them, so fold your hands in your lap and stare blankly at your television until the broadcast begins.
I'm no social media maven but I'm pretty sure the internet does just fine adding "context" and is perfectly capable of "watching stuff" as it happens. For example, they seem perfectly find adding context to the fact that your hosts suck, as aptly pointed out via this collection of tweets asking Matt Lauer to shut up.
And what the hell is this about "expertise?" Did you even hear your own anchors?
As the London Olympic games honored World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee, NBC hosts Meredith Viera and Matt Lauer admitted — almost bragged — that they didn’t know who he was.[There's video here of the ignorance if you're so inclined. Obviously, NBC would rather you not relive this moment over and over so it's tucked away in someone's Tumblr and not embeddable.]
It’s a shame, because it took attention away from a pretty cool tribute to the history of tech and the way it has transformed modern life and communications. Text messages, status updates, photo sharing and smartphones all played a part.
Indeed, every seat had an LED panel to create a stadium-wide megadisplay.
“One more thing I don’t understand,” Viera added.
Evidently someone handed them a memo, because Viera was able to correctly identify Berners-Lee several minutes later, as he typed out a message (on a NeXT cube) that was shown on that oh-so-confusing LED screen.
The inventor of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee, without whom a lot of this stuff you're botching wouldn't even be possible, makes an appearance and your talking heads act almost triumphant they've never heard of him. What the hell? Was Aaron Sorkin writing the cue cards?
There's "seizing the moment" and then there's "closing your eyes and sticking one arm out," hoping the moment trips over you on its way to the goal line. You're the placekickers of "complex entertainment spectacles."
On the bright side, I would imagine there's nowhere to go but up from the Opening Ceremonies. But I'm sure you've still got a few gaffes up your sleeve, especially if you stick with your "adding context with ignorant commentary" plan.
[Oh, never mind. It's happened already.]
Wow. It's a shame that NBC has the financial ability to outbid anyone who could actually handle an Olympics broadcast competently.+1 @jonathanwald the medal for most Olympic whining goes to everyone complaining about what happens every 4 yrs, tape delay @brianstelter
— Vivian Schiller (@VivianSchiller) July 29, 2012
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: matt lauer, meredith viera, olympics, tim berners-lee
Companies: nbc universal
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Lack of live streaming
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Lack of live streaming
It's just NBC failing yet again.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Lack of live streaming
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Lack of live streaming
But now that I think about it, could it be that your ISP is purposely messing with foreign streams?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Lack of live streaming
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Lack of live streaming
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Lack of live streaming
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Lack of live streaming
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Lack of live streaming
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Lack of live streaming
http://lifehacker.com/367558/fix-desynchronized-video-and-audio-with-vlc
It can also receive live streams and do it on the fly.
Man, I am sorry America broadcasters are so behind in tech, I will pray to the spaghetti monster god to see if he deliver you guys from this pain.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Lack of live streaming
It's not just the broadcasters. You might be amazed how behind the times the US is in all aspects of telecommunications. Most Americans don't know it as they haven't experienced the internet/telephones/cable/etc anywhere else, but for a modern country, the tech we actually use tends to suck pretty hard.
Thanks for your well-wishes.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Lack of live streaming
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Lack of live streaming
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Lack of live streaming
If we in Australia can receive it on HD both LIVE and re-broadcast for free, and there is a +10hr time difference there is absolutely no excuse for NBC nor any other American broadcaster not to do the same.
Oh and we are also getting LIVE broadcasts of all Australian (and other major events) 24/7 on free to air TV as well.
Though some wag once from the US did tell me once that NBC stood for "No Bloody Clue" so maybe that's the real reason.
:)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Lack of live streaming
The fluid containing the brain ends up pouring out of the tube and the system shuts down and the signal gets out for free.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Lack of live streaming
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Lack of live streaming
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Lack of live streaming
It is allowed to misread 'locked' in the above sentence.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: VPN to London
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: VPN to London
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network
Or you can use, TOR to do the same thing, you just have find the txt file that configures the selection of the exit points to indicate you only want to connect to the ones that are in the UK.
http://www.guptamayank.com/how-to/change-ip-address-to-any-country-specific-ip-address-tor.
Yay!
You should take advantage of the fact that TOR is having a surplus of bandwidth lately.
https://blog.torproject.org/blog/turning-funding-more-exit-relays
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: VPN to London
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I watched the opening ceremony live online...
Um.. What?? I watched them just fine on the BBC - and I could have found dozens of other streams had I been bothered to look!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I watched the opening ceremony live online...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: I watched the opening ceremony live online...
"...could have found dozens of other streams had I been bothered to look!" ;)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I watched the opening ceremony live online...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
NBC generally sucks at anything they do
Also, NBC's commentators are really bad. That Bob Costas has to go. He ruins the Sunday Night NFL Football show and now they have him on the Olympics.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: NBC generally sucks at anything they do
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: NBC generally sucks at anything they do
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: NBC generally sucks at anything they do
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
NBC? Now Broadcasting Crap.
The Dutch TV was there live during the opening of Olympic Beijing, despite a god knows how many hours delay (and showed a recap of it during prime time the next day, which is how it should be done), including commentary from our sadly not award winning, but infinitely more knowledgeable commentators from the NOS.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
opening ceremonies sucked...
how crappy is your 'spectacular' opening ceremony when it takes non-stop commentary to 'explain' the idiotic and boring his story of the 'isles of wonder' we were subjected to...
what a weird waste of resources...
i mean really, aside from 1% of nerds in the audience who know who tim berners lee is, HOW would anyone know of his significance, and *why* in this context again ? ? ?
(well, i guess if you are going to 'celebrate' your national healthcare system, nerd-pride isn't out of place... but -really- your healthcare system ? i mean, i get that it is something to be proud of, blah blah blah, but...
...really ? weird shit, man...)
oh well, wouldn't watch at all if it wasn't for the wife, and don't like their artifice in showing 'everything important' during primetime...
one of the MAIN things i do like about the olympics, is seeing the 'offbeat' sports we are not exposed to very much; wanted to see more stuff like badminton, etc, EVEN IF -*gasp* apostasy!- there aren't any 'merikans in the sport...
pretty sick of all the stupid 'profiles' and shit...
they take anyone's 'normal' life, and turn it into a heroic quest; give me a break..
art guerrilla
aka ann archy
eof
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: opening ceremonies sucked...
What amused me and made me chuckle quite a few times was the sad irony of the UK exalting the online free world and then we look around and see the UK Govt constantly attacking this same environment with draconian laws and absurd rulings. And you see how COI deals with criticism and copyrights/trademark. It was full of hypocrisy and irony.
And there's the fact that it has become a purely commercial event. And are we really pushing the athletes to the edge of what's physically possible just for commercial interests? Really?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: opening ceremonies sucked...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: opening ceremonies sucked...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: opening ceremonies sucked...
I thought it was great, a very good selection of Britain's cultural and technological history. I'm not British, but I personally didn't need much commentary to get what was going on (granted, my country is pretty close to it, so I guess we do know quite a lot about its history already).
And perhaps most people don't know who Berners-Lee is, *because* people like him never get any exposure at all. We, as the world, owe so much to the digital pioneers, and it's high time they got some credit outside of the 'nerd' circles.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: opening ceremonies sucked...
yes, it is a shame such technological pioneers don't get any exposure beyond nerdom,
but...
at the *olympics* ? ? ?
i don't get the 'connection'...
the whole thing was just too weird, and i LIKE weird...
art guerrilla
aka ann archy
eof
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: opening ceremonies sucked...
And let me clear I detest the olympics and have been mostly embarrassed by the whole mess so far and yet you are actually getting me to defend it... which is a hell of an achievement.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: opening ceremonies sucked...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: opening ceremonies sucked...
It was a British opening ceremonies and the British were celebrating a British pioneer who is very relevant to current youth culture. You know: young people, the kind that are still in good enough shape to be athletes.
I bet those wipper-snapper athletes appreciate Sir Tim.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: opening ceremonies sucked...
/sarc
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: opening ceremonies sucked...
If you didn't like it your problem, but to state that you think it was stupid and was of no benefit shows the standard parochial nature that most of the world expects from Americans.. Luckily most people on TD aren't like you.
Learn about the rest of the world, understand where your OWN cultural and legal history actually came from and maybe you might appreciate and understand the human condition a bit better.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: opening ceremonies sucked...
Oh, and speaking of debt there's this small period between 1939 and 1942 when the UK and Canada were the major parts of the English speaking world that stood up to a nutbar named Hitler alone. The Aussies up against Japan with the Kiwi's virtually alone.
That said the UK owes a huge apology to the USA for a nutcase named George III, not to mention what was to become the rest of the British Empire.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: opening ceremonies sucked...
I think the apology that the USA owes the world for that other George you had as a president recently cancels it all out. LOL
Oh and not to be picky, but New Zealand and Australia (and other commonwealth countries like India etc) were part of that action against Hitler in 1939 and all with volunteers. We went to war at same time England did, Aust and NZ were only against Japan when Japan declared there alliance with Germany.
On the legal framework, I agree and think most Americans would be surprised where such torts like negligence, trespass (of both property and person), Juries, Court system, etc originated from. Bugger the US Constitution, the Magna Carta is where its all at ;)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: opening ceremonies sucked...
My wife, too, is a huge Olympics (and generally, sports) fan and her experience was similar. She thought the opening ceremonies were just awful. Later, she learned that they were actually very good (except for Sir Paul's performance), but completely ruined by NBC, so it was impossible to tell.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: opening ceremonies sucked...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It was so popular that NBC locked it completely down after that.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Time delay
I beg to differ on that statement. Anyone from the US who has ever played a game on a Counter Strike Source server based in london would understand that even in the telco communities, time delay is a factor.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Time delay
With sporting events, a minute could mean a win or a loss.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Time delay
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Time delay
With gaming every second counts, with video, not so much.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Time delay
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Time delay
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Time delay
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Time delay
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Time delay
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Time delay
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Time delay
I should clarify about CSS. It isn't a three hour delay, but the latency is a ln example of time vs distance, and is buffered. Most TV live feeds have a 15 second buffer to censor nudity. The closer you are to a server (by length of cable) the less delay you get. Television broadcasts have vastly larger amounts of data and are usually sent through satalites hundreds of miles over us in Earth's orbit. If I recall, with wireless signals, the further out you go, the slower things get. Hence the three second or so delay in audio vs video.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Time delay
This, here, is already beyond insane.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Time delay
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Time delay
Then again, when I was a kid there were commercials for shampoo that had full shots of naked people. Yet for some strange reason I did not turn out to be a sex-crazed psychopath. Something must be very wrong with me.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Time delay
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Time delay
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Time delay
Stop making things up.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Time delay -- BUNK
For their own uses or for paid uses the messages, yes pictures are messanges, are sent out on their own VPNs which have enormous capacity. Far more, I suspect, than Counter Strike Force has. So the reality is that the messages/streams leave London and, in the case of where I worked before I retired, ended up in the TELUS Class Two switching centre in Vancouver a couple of microseconds later. It may be even less time for Bell Canada in Toronto. Now, depending on factors like sponsorship, Bell owns CTV which means it's a no brainer there so the next step is the CTV or anyone wanting to put up a live stream and pay the cost is welcome to. Complete with branding and all that good stuff, of course.
In remote parts of BC and Yukon it was being streamed live. Possibly in NWT and Nunavut as well. No TV in many of these places, you know.
What you seem to be telling me is that the Internet is slower in getting a signal from London to Vancouver that the older analogue transmission was either by bouncing audio and video off satellites or on cable under the ocean was. Even taking propagation delay into account.
I'm just not buying that one. Nor should anyone else. What delay there may be propagation delay should a satellite shot or two be needed but beyond that there's none.
Goodness, man, all of this is on fibre optics anyway. There's even a transatlantic fire cable from Land's End in England to Halifax NS just in case satellites fail. Which they are this year due to enormous storms and sunspots on the the Sun this year and coronal mass ejections. Heck, I've watched it happen enough on my satellite tv connection!
Game servers, bless them, suffer from capacity issues at times which means the server can't accept all the connections coming into or leaving them. Too many players trying to get on at the same time or not a big enough pipe connected back to the cableco or telco that they're connected to.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I mean come on!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
They are better than ever
Even though it doesn't work for me, I do like that NBC is streaming just about everything live, that is a big step forward. I'm watching some Archery right now on a computer while I work and comment (uninteresting conference call where I'll say 3 or 4 words later). I caught some kayaking earlier, there are probably a few other things that I'll get to glance at later today. I'd never get to see these things otherwise.
So, NBC is taking steps in the right direction, but they really need to understand their audience, we want to watch things live on our big screen TVs, we want to go back and watch stuff we missed later from or DVR or computer. If you want your ads to be seen more times by more people, give them what they want.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: They are better than ever
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Get over it
Yes if NBC streamed it "I" could choose when to watch it, but isn't that a lot like Techdirt not having ads and sponsor? Then I could choose to pay for the content or not. Pure freedom.
Beside, I kind of like having the "best" events shown in prime time. If you really have to know how an event is going live, usually there is a way to do it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
streaming is free
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: streaming is free
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: streaming is free
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Context
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
By they time I see it
We have basic cable, which only has one channel covering the olympics, and which tends to be some event I do not want to watch. Thanks NBC
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It's amazing how much people can whine about incredible free TV from the other side of the world, in stunning HD to boot.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
They complaining after that freeloaders everywhere are taking advantage of them and asking for more censorship laws and exclusivity powers is what gets me after.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Triplecast
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Triplecast
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Triplecast
A maximum of 24 live streams. watch sport till your eyes bleed
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I used to like the Olympics and all the competition, it was fun but lately is so boring and all that crap about protecting the trademarks and Olympic IP just made me ignore it completely.
Fine I will do my thing, NBC can put a lag on it all they want then claim piracy is destroying them, the Olympics can crash and burn and go after everyone for commenting or not being an smegging authorized sponsor to use their smegging symbol, I don't give a flying smeg about it, and I doubt I would care in the near future.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
CTV no better
After last week's kerfuffle, you'd think they could have gotten this right?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: CTV no better but at least live coast to coast to coast
I learned decades ago to turn off the vapid commentary and just watch the little running bar that gave me the information I needed to watch the opening and closing ceremonies in peace. ;-)
Incidentally all of this meaningless chatter is to avoid the ancient sin of broadcasting called "NO DEAD AIR". Which means that even if nothing is going on the hosts must always be able to say something, anything no matter how mindless because the viewers/listeners are too stupid to figure it all out on their own.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: CTV no better but at least live coast to coast to coast
Living close to Mexico, I got the chance to watch the Olympic Opening Ceremonies live, with no tape delay. And the commentators weren't vapid and didn't talk over everything, and there weren't any commercials (except occasionally an "inlay" for some show coming up on the channel I was watching.) And I managed to see the entire presentation, from beginning to end (only 3 hours) which they intended.
When the American one came on, some friends were watching it and I wasn't really paying attention since I already had seen it, but when I saw all the commercials and heard the vapid comments (we don't know who Tim Berners-Lee is, so Google it,) I was happy I watched the one I did and didn't waste time on a longer and obviously inferior product.
I eventually saw the recorded version, and I became quite angry that the "color commentary" was feeding obvious propaganda to the viewer (they had something bad to say about just every country except the US and the US territories.) This is why I believe in free-market capitalism and why I abhor the current crony capitalism...no legal competition existed here for those who wanted to watch the Olympics without the obvious propaganda spin and poor presentation (since if there was competition, NBC would have been forced to do it better than they did, otherwise they would have risked losing customers.)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
ctvolympics.ca carries the World Feeds
My VPN would let me watch NBC; but sounds like I'm not missing much.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Damn Tim!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I take exception to this statement.
place kickers are a very specialized position in football and placekickers know exactly what they are doing and its a very difficult task with little glory and tons of stress. placekickers also know about everything else going on at the rest of the positions and are required to learn the playbook to the same depth as everyone else.
NBC is completely overpaid for knowing nothing and massively screwing up what they do know.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Now we have a vacant head giggling that she has no idea who the dude on camera is, why he is being honored at the olympics, and doesn't give a shit. But I bet you the bobble head could tell you Kim Kardashians measurements without blinking.
In a country where Jersey Shore and Teen Mom "reality" shows are huge hits one has to accept that the system is designed from beginning to end to accommodate the lowest common moron. The quality doesn't matter as long as they get paid, and having the exclusive rights means they can be complete idiots about release content. They have us (the rest of the population who aren't techies) over a barrel, they have to accept NBC spoon feeding them crap because there is no other option. There is no need for them to make it better, they have no competition.
Crap olympics coverage bolstered by laws making sure they don't have to compete. This should be a national shame, we should have pride in our athletes... but not tape delayed and desynced across the country.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I know this will sound like trolling, but I don't mean it that way...
Why should we have pride in our athletes? Whether or not a nation's team does well at the Olympics means nothing in terms of the quality or general "goodness" of the nation itself. It just means they have good athletes, nothing more and nothing less.
I'll confess that this is an aspect of sports in general that I've never really grasped. Why does a town/college/state/whatever attach so much importance on whether their teams perform well? It's meaningless in everything except for how good the team is. It all smells like mindless tribalism to me.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Because we are all fair weather fans, and this is the pinnacle of sports. They are supposed to represent the best of the best the country has to offer to go up against athletes from other countries doped up on drugs that aren't banned yet.
or not...
but you would agree that given the choice between them behaving like Snooki or any olympic athlete the choice is clear which society should prefer.
I don't think the US Team doing well makes the US look better, its gonna take a hell of alot more than some medals to improve the US's standing in the world.
I think the olympics are mostly a complete waste, money paid to photogenic winners to promote some laundry soap or crap cereal, while others who aren't pretty or in the popular sports who medal get crap.
Millions spent trying to woo a committee that is corrupt into allowing you the privileged of paying them a ton of money and favors to let you spend millions to host their event. You get to bow and scrape to their every whim and they reap the benefits of official sponsors paying the committee not the host city.
But I think the kids who have worked very hard to earn their position to compete on the world stage deserve our support. I have pride that some people strive for a goal despite the odds against them. I'm a very confusing person sometimes.
Besides got anything else the "US" has done lately we can take pride in? I'm all ears...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
That seems likely to be true. I don't really follow the Olympic athletes (obviously, I guess).
But my wife is a big sports fan and so I do see a lot of college and professional sports -- and I have to say, the athletes competing at that level can't really claim any high ground in terms of how they behave.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
So and So is so important to our college team, we cover up the night he slept with the girl who was to drunk to say no.
Penn State. 'nuff said on that topic.
The olympics is doing a better job, they have ejected people who behaved poorly. They don't care, the have no tolerance for some things and take action.
People want to look the other way and excuse things that are not ok, and if you compare some of the things they are doing to what is being glorified in stars lives its not that "bad".
The problem is when your program became more important than the right thing, you crossed a line. When your star gets special treatment, you crossed a line.
Winning is more important that character in so many aspects of our lives now, it would be nice to see the pendulum swing back the other way.
Star player busted for DUI getting the same sentence as a regular joe, and the team and league taking real action about it.
Cop who violates someones rights, actually prosecuted and the other cops who saw it testifying. Punishments fitting the crime, not days off or lost vacation days.
Winning and ratings should not be worth more than character.
"1 Million Moms" scream about a new television show that is going to have gay characters, where were they the last time an NFL player got his 5th DUI and drug possession charge?
olympic athletes are supposed to be held to the highest standards, it would be nice if the rest of them could even get half way there.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No. It's a shame that the IOC puts the broadcast rights up for bid when the Olympics should belong to all of us.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No, what's a shame is that it's even possible for anyone (or any company, regardless of competence or incompetence) to get exclusive rights over a worldwide sporting event of such significance. The Olympics used to belong to the world. Lately I couldn't possibly give a damn about the whole 'olympics' thing, and I refuse to watch any part of it, because it has turned into such commercialized crap.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I started looking for the women's preliminaries feed about an hour before it actually started. I hated to use NBC but that nearly screwed up too -- since I only have OTA TV and they wanted me to sign in with a service (I used Verizon since I have VZW) I could only watch with a "provisional pass" for four hours. Should watching a worldwide sporting event REALLY be this obnoxious???
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but #NBCFail has the exclusive US contract for the Olympics broadcast through 2020.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Very few of them are "kids" in any reasonable sense of the word. Otherwise, I agree completely. The athletes need to get together and go somewhere else to competewith each other, and leave the IOC and NBC empty-handed.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
NBC Coverage
This REALLY makes me think of Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown. . .
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
NBC spoils itself
http://www.theagencysd.com/2012/08/olympic-fails-and-fixes/#
[ link to this | view in chronology ]