August 22, 2008

Gratuitous Llama Tee Vee Observation

Am I, in fact, the only sentient person left in America who has not yet seen a single minute of Olympic coverage?

Call it media bias of a different sort, I suppose: If the tee vee served up simply straight coverage of the various events, I might consider dropping in for a bit here and there. But the thought of all the hype and fluff that I would have to sit through at the hands of the network and its sponsors in order just to see a few minutes of actual competitions is so repellent that I am steering clear.

Posted by Robert at August 22, 2008 08:39 AM | TrackBack
Comments

One of the joys of living but 45 miles south of the Canadian border is the fact that CBC (in both English & French) are part of my basic cable TV plan. While the single best part of this is Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday evening during the season (I love Don Cherry), close behind is the quality of CBC's Olympics coverage. From showing events that would never make US TV (anything with a gun involved, anything where the US is unlikely to win), the greatly-reduced corporate shilling and fawning paeans to the athetes simply make CBC's coverage watchable while NBC's is just plain abysmal.

Posted by: Captain Ned at August 22, 2008 09:21 AM

No, you're not the only one. I haven't watched a bit of it.

Posted by: GroovyVic at August 22, 2008 09:49 AM

I dunno, I kind of enjoyed watching women's beach volleyball.

Posted by: rbj at August 22, 2008 11:02 AM

No Olympics-watching here in Chez Adams either.

Posted by: Jordana at August 22, 2008 12:50 PM

I don't know. I've watched way more of it than I expected since I've been laid up with my 24/7 morning sickness and I've been pleasantly surprised at what I have seen. They showed the entire women's marathon last weekend - interspersed with other events, but it was basically the whole run and it was compelling to watch. They have also shown quite a lot of both beach and regular volleyball and water polo. I caught the tail end of the archery competitions.

Yeah, there's the usual prime time hype and the time difference means I missed a lot of the really interesting stuff live, but I think the coverage has been better than in past years.

Posted by: jen at August 22, 2008 03:23 PM

Nary a minute I'm not ashamed to report, here in New York, NY.

Posted by: The Bovina Bloviator at August 23, 2008 01:45 PM

Watched it, enjoyed it, ain't gonna apologize for it, have nothing against htose who didn't.

Favorite moment so far? Believe it or not, Men's water polo, where the Serbians, who intentionally let Italy beat them in the prelims in order to get seeded Vs. the underdog US team in the Semis, got their asses handed to them 10-5.

Posted by: Boy Named Sous at August 24, 2008 12:26 AM

Not. One. Minute. Can't stand the commentary. If it was like C-SPAN, yeah, I'd go for it. Never understood the whole commentary thing. It is what it is, and I don't need some idiot explaining it to me while I'm trying to watch it.

It's like going to a concert - any kind of concert - and having someone sit next to you explaining why what you're listening to is significant, meaningful and what it's all about!

Posted by: Chef Mojo at August 24, 2008 12:00 PM