The Summer Olympics are exciting, interesting, entertaining, compelling and enjoyable! So why aren’t I watching them?
Mostly because NBC couldn’t provide decent Olympics coverage if they paid to do it. Which they did.
There’s two major reasons why I’m not watching the games. First, they’re tape-delaying it. This is because Beijing is what we technically refer to “on the other side of our round world“. That means that lots of events there happen when we’re asleep here. Well, ok, so why not show the events live and then also show them tape-delayed? They might be doing this somewhere, but if they are, I haven’t found it.
Second, I’m really tired of all the fucking glurge they throw in. Slate.com has a project going where they are cataloging the glurge. Good job, guys! It needs to be done, and here’s a note to NBC: if I am watching the Olympics, I am watching it for the sports and competition. I am not watching it to hear Bob Costas (Kostas? It’s all Greek to me), going on about all the obstacles someone had to overcome to get to the games.
If NBC would pull their collective heads out of their collective asses, possibly I might go back to watching the Olympics. Possibly. As it is, I did at least try to watch the Opening Ceremonies. They were tape-delayed, of course, and despite that there were still things cut out for commercial breaks. Very nice, guys.
Oh, well. Let’s hope the coverage of the 2010 games in Vancouver is better.
