The Olympics

[Teen Age Riot]

> Sports TV of course bore the brunt of the attack. But I do not see how
> you can regard the narrowing, single-minded obsessiveness which has
> infected Olympic sport and other pro sports - or rather those who
> perform at this level in the sports - as not relating to the TV
> coverage and that of course relates to money and, oh yes, capitalism.
C'mon, doing ANYTHING at a top level requires single-minded obsessiveness, 
and if you love something, you're willing to make that sacrifice.  There are 
those who'd consider reading-every-minute-you're-not-reading-pynchon-l 
a bit obsessive.  Whether such singular focus is a good thing is 
debatable, but it's certainly not limited to sports.  As far as doing it 
for TV coverage/moolah, I think it's pretty obvious to anyone who's been 
watching NBC for the last two weeks that less than 10% of the competitors at 
the Olympics recieve any sort of airtime, and even less recieve any 
money.  And yet they train and perform every bit as hard(if not harder) 
than the glam atheletes.

> I'm just as much pro suspense, anticipation, and climax as the next
> man and am quite happy to arrive at such via sport. What I was
> objecting to was exactly the sappy melodrama which has come to
> dominate most professional sport and which is particularly evident in
> the Olympics.

Judging by the responses on pynchon-l(and I think in this case our little 
clique of rocket-doting academics DOES acurately reflect the general 
consensus), I'd say that most people realize what NBC(and most other 
network television) gave us was Bad Coverage, and if we had a choice, we 
would have watched the Olympics without it.  Nobody was falling for John 
Tesh's profound statements, or Dick Enberg's "Moments".  It was pretty 
much universally described as having "Sucked Ass".  My point, once more: 
Sports TV Bad, Sports Good.  

The reason behind such bad coverage on networks is less that the public is 
eating this sap up, and more that the networks simply don't know how to 
broadcast sporting events, and apply the same production values that they 
use for soap operas.  A preferrable(though not blameless) alternative 
is ESPN, which IMHO, is just about the sharpest, wittiest channel on 
television right now, particularly Sportscenter with Dan Patrick and 
Keith Olbermann.  They applaud what's right about sports, they lampoon 
what's wrong, and it's always smart and funny.

God bless Deion Sanders,
Al

__________________________________________
al wang
http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~alwang/home.htm
talk request at: alwang at random.resnet.upenn.edu

"What's My Solution?" 
"Noise Pollution!"