Rich, I don't know if you read planet gnome, or are just syndicated there, but here goes ;).
As an American currently living in Canada, I have been able to get both the CBC's Olympic coverage, and most of the American Olympic coverage (Hey, its a different country, but they don't produce nearly enough content to cover 4 billion tv stations). I have to say, the country bias is not just an American thing. Every single event that has a Canadian participant is covered in some way. For example, the Men's Team Gymnastics Qualifiers were generally fairly well covered, but absolutely had a Canadian content edge to them. Break to the finals, with no Canadian team involved. You got to see one participant from each of the top 4 teams (US, China, Japan, and Romania) perform each event. Zoom over to the American networks, and you get to see *all* of the performances of those same top 4 teams. The same held true for the Women's competition.
So, caring only about your country's atheletes isn't just an American thing. In general, I find the coverage on the Canadian stations to be superior just in terms of less 'the long hard road' sort of biographical crap, and absolutely less fawning over Michael Phelps. However, for certain events, their coverage turns into crap unless there is a Canadian present.
The reality is that as much as the Olympics is touted as a international event, and about how much it brings together the entire world (Are they running that horrible commercial with Nelson Mandela outside of Canada?), its all crap. The only thing viewers of any country care about is how well their country is performing. So much for that whole global village thing. I am just looking forward to the day when the IOC decides to tell the big networks to fuck themselves, and publishes all the content over the internet. Unfortunately, Nader has more of a chance in November than that ever happening. The Olympics are big business for everyone involved, and it seems to me that everyone is involved somehow.
On the subject of the Olympics, I would like to air my one huge problem with them. Its not even with the Olympics themselves, but the ignorant fools who write/talk/type/whatever about how it is supposed to be an amateur competition and what are all these professionals doing here, blah, blah, fucking blah. First, a little history is relevant here. In 1896 the first modern competition was touted as being for amateurs to prevent anyone who wasn't rich from participating. It was purely an exclusionary tactic designed to keep out the 'lower classes'. And now, as far as I can tell, you are supposed to be competing against the best in the world in that particular sport, not the best that is rich enough to train 24x7 and take no money from doing it. People like to cite 1992 with the 'Dream Team' being sent to Barcelona as the death of the 'amateur' Olympiad. Bullshit. When you live in a country that pays for your training, and all of your living expenses, and gives you cash for winning gold, I'm sorry, but you are a fucking professional. This has been the case in many countries for years, and is only getting more exaggerated. Get off your damn high horse and accept the Olympics for what they have become, not what they never were.
Posted by tberman at August 19, 2004 12:59 AM