Taffyles

LOL. After the, lack of, coverage of the Sydney Olympics, the TV guide ran the statisitics for airtime spent on commercials, sob stories and the events . I think it was something like only 10% of the Olympic airtime was spent on the actual events. There was so much protest I thought things would improve for this Olympics....silly me

cuckoofrommars

I will say this tho - I watched the 1500 meters which was the last stage of the Decathlon last night. I watched it cuz BBC Online mentioned Dean Macey ran a damn good 1500. Unfortunately NBC didn't show Dean Macey at all. In fact they didn't even show the race being won - they fixed the camera on the US guy who finished 2nd overall - they didn't mention who won, or even think to say anything about it. That was dire - for the first time it really did seem that nobody else mattered, just the US guy.

ladylisa

Oh my God......Cannot believe what I heard on the radio this morning... The broadcasters were complaining that the olympics had too many foreigners and that there should just be a US olympics instead...........

cuckoofrommars

You weren't by chance listening to Michael Savage were you?

ladylisa

No it was Bob & Tom...I listen to them every morning and they tell jokes by the bucketload but this was a serious comment...was a little disapointed in them. But will continue to listen every morning

TRPardoe

On Wednesday last week our local newspaper, The News-Press, had a headline :-


Right next to the headline was a half page photo of Carly Patterson performing on the parallel bars. This was the day before she won Gold for all-around gymnast.

I wrote the Editor with the following, which they had the decency to publish :-

"I am appalled at the headline in the Aug 18 Sports section, "US women gymnasts flop". getting a silver medal in the Olympics is not a flop. This headline was an insult to the team members and belittled their hard work in getting to Athens. Taking your logic, there may as well be no silver or bronze medals at all. It is interesting that the gymnast in the accompanying photo, Carly Patterson, subsequently became the first American woman since Mary Lou Retton to win a gold medal for all-around gymnast. Some flop!"

I have frequently complained to my American wife of the bias exhibited against non-American athletes but the degradation in the media of any American athlete who does not win a gold is quite vile.

Englishmum

Oddly enough, I was walking through the living room and on the TV was Carly Patterson doing the floor exercise (how come it's mostly tumbling these days - they used to have those colourful ribbons a few years ago?). Anyway, after doing a really high tumble and she slipped onto the mat upon landing. As soon as she had completed her performance there was no comment whatsover and it went straight into an advert....and after the advert ended it was straight into beach volleyball (yawn).

On the radio yesterday afternoon Bill O'Reilly proved what a total idiot he is. His theory why the US and Australia (per head of population in Oz) has so many gold medals compared to Russia and Canada is that the US and Oz are go-getting societies which don't rely on welfare handouts so people have to work harder to achieve, even in sports.

I nearly spat my tea out.... Australia is very similar to the UK as regards to having a welfare state and they even have a term known as 'dole bludgers'. It's just the culture of the country that most Aussies are sports mad. O'Reilly really ought to do his research before opening his big mouth

(Does anyone else like that Canadian high-board diver? I think the female commentator has the hots for him, she hasn't said a single negative thing about him compared to the Chinese and Russian guys!).

Yosser

Yep, I saw that too.

They did actually show macey right at the end after the race had finished, all the other runners were rolling around on the track, looking like they were about to die, ol' macey was still standing tall, unlucky to get 4th again though.

Anyone see that canadian 110m hurdles take a fall on the first hurdle and proceeded to take out a russian girl. she must be gutted after all that effort getting there, then being took out by the very first hurdle.

The russians are trying to protest and want the race ran again.

James Box

Yeah, but going by the semi's where that Russian girl did her personal best, she would have been out of the medals anyway. Not a nice way to go out though.

Steff

Just got back from England, and I have to say that the coverage over there was focused on the Brits...most sports they showed had Brits competing, but I thought that was to be expected that they wanted to focus on there own people.

They didn't have too many of the sob stories over there, the only one I saw was the marathon runner lady crying.

AmerLisa

After reading this article I thought about the men's 4x100 relay race last night. I already knew of the outcome, but wanted to watch it. It was a great race, but what I thought was in poor taste was the journalist pumping the American guys who ran the race for what they did wrong. In the end he made a comment, "didn't it bother you that you lost" or something in that vein, and one of them said "of course it does" That had to have been the most insane redundant question I've heard in a while (probably since the day before! )

dgsyd1

I was extremely annoyed that the British winners of the 4x100 were almost totally ignored. I liked the reaction of the host earlier in the day during the cockup over unforms in the Basketball. Some of the wisecracks would have done Des Lynam proud, with contant references to a certain 'wardrobe malfuntion' at the Superbowl.

doctor scrumpy

All the us media can say is how the US team lost the 4 x 100. Fair play to the Yank lad who said that they were beaten by a better team. Both the memsahib & I reckon the coverage has shown worse bias than a party political broadcast.

Celtic_Angel

:scared:

hi this is my first time using this forum and it's great!! a bunch of Britis with the exact same gripes as me!! i feel like i wrote this one myself! I have fond memories of watching the olympics as a kid but since i've been in the states I all but gave up! this year tho i've been watching and alas no improvement ! I also get the feeling that the only people competing are the U.S! And last night has to really take the cake Britain beat the U.S in the mens relay but did we see the proud Brits standing on the podium showing off their medals and listening to our National Anthem!! heck no !! what's up with that? did i pop to the kitchen and miss it? I'm glad the U.S teams are doing well but if i have to hear their Anthem one more time I'll scream!!! :scared:

AmerLisa

My mute button on my remote control is used frequently for things I don't like.