danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

I’ve been catching as much Olympic coverage as I can while here in South Carolina (right now, for instance, I am watching men’s swimming in the hotel lobby), and am a little confused by the way these games are televised by NBC.  There is a relentless focus on swimming, to the point that they will show every qualifying race, while entire sports get no primetime coverage at all.  Then, what does get prime television time, is shown only in the context of what would almost seem to be a predetermined script.  Last night, for example, the men’s gymnastics team event was on, and, of course, NBC concentrated on the Americans.  But, even when France was in first place, we weren’t shown any of the French gymnasts’ routines.  Instead, NBC focused exclusively on the USA vs. China story.  Maybe it’s true that that was the biggest rivalry, but it doesn’t reflect the spirit of the Olympic games, to me, to have such a limited scope.

Meanwhile, I have no idea what I have been missing on the other NBC-owned networks, since the hotel doesn’t receive any HD channels.  For all I know I have missed many of my favorite events.

Filed under: Current Events, Sports, Television on August 12th, 2008