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24th Aug, 2008

They Did It Again!

Photo: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Photo: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

In case you haven’t heard, last night the USA basketball team outlasted Spain in one of the most thrilling games I have ever seen. As you may remember back in 1980, ABC refused to broadcast the Olympic hockey team’s victory against Russia live, instead showing ice-dancing preliminaries.

Guess what? Now they are doing it again. Are those Americans who did not stay up until the wee hours of the morning last night going to get to see the ball game? Will they see Kobe Bryant’s incredible four-point play that helped to preserve the win or D Wade’s icewater three not long after? Noooo.  Instead right now they are showing something called rhythmic gymnastics and boxing.  Way to go NBC!

I may be a basketball junkie, so you have to be asking what does this have to do with anything important such as America, politics and a level playing field. Everything. These are the people who are about to bring you the Democratic National Convention. Does their coverage of the Olympics inspire any confidence their coverage of the convention will be any more “real?”  Will we miss out on important parts of the convention or will they put them at times none of us can watch?

More pointedly, must we have to put up with their priorities which allow the rest of us little choice in what we see and hear? One of the most important issues the next administration will decide is whether to grant networks like NBC even more power than they already have. If they can stiff big time pro athletes, what do you think they can do to the rest of us?

If we can’t depend on them to show us what is important can we depend on them for anything else?

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Posted by: liberalamerican

Responses

So NBC didn’t show the basketball finals either, huh? I can feel your pain, mainly because I am a great fan of Real Volleyball (not the very sexist Beach Volleyball). If anything, the volleyball finals should have been televised live, since the USA VB team was not really expected to reach the finals, as opposed to the USA basketball team which should have all been fired if they did not reach the finals. When I heard that the VB final was being played at midnight EDT and the BB final was going to be played at 2:30 AM EDT, I thought, “Great, I can at least view the VB match and the BB fans could see their game.”

Like you, I waited for over an hour through the other stuff being shown, hoping that at least some live play would be shown, and like you, I was greatly disappointed. So sad and pathetic, and to think that these same idiots are in charge of the 2012 Olympics coverage.

By: Al on August 25th, 2008
at 11:06 am

Al,

I was looking for the volleyball also. I am not sure why women dancing with hula hoops should preempt this or why we needed over an hour of coverage of BMX–more than I think they showed of the entire indoor volleyball.

Of course we both know the reason: it’s all driven by demographics. On a Sunday afternoon they figured their target audience was women and, of course, they always play to the 16 year-olds. Maybe at some point I’ll have to do an essay about what a demographic-driven political coverage would resemble.

BTW, interesting that NBC held up broadcasting the premier events exactly like they held up broadcasting primary results.

The sad thing is they are in charge of our POLITICAL coverage.

By: liberalamerican on August 25th, 2008
at 12:18 pm

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