Some of us folks watched some inspiring athletic performances during the recent Tokyo Olympic Games. There were many inspiring competitions. It appears that many people apparently opted out and had better things to do than to virtually attend the Olympic broadcast event.
Most of the flagrant woke performances resulted in conflicted press coverage and reduced Olympic viewer ship according to the call of the tape. I, for one, consciously changed the channel; rooted for others in absentia; and/or preferred to watch TV reruns than put up with some of the non-athletic performance art.
Call US bored. Not with the competitions or the competitors mind you, but with the media coverage itself.
Olympic Media Competition
I am certain that NBC/Comcast will declare their latest Olympic broadcast event a financial victory. To do anything else could tank their own stock price. The network’s technical performance was excellent but uninspiring when we consider the competitive quality of the subject matter.
We all might vainly hope that the future broadcast rights for all Olympics will be split up among multiple media firms. The smaller and the more of those the better in my opinion.
A bit of healthy broadcast rights competition would certainly help us audience folk. Every NBC broadcast color piece I saw was trite, repetitive, and thoroughly predictable. Ok. We can guess that a lot of the pre-canned color pieces went up in smoke early this time around. Oh, bother.
The Media Makes a Great Event Mediocre
These days it appears to be a common media malfeasance to fail to recognize that the media’s own ego-centric presence and performance art is part of their broadcast viewership problem.
Can you say, “Clueless?”
“Tell me, Oh great sweaty one, how does is feel to come in only third when you were projected to win the gold?”
Yeah. Some of it was that bad.
Sorry Friends and Family - You Were Panned
The integrated family video phone calls stitched into many post-competition interviews could only go so far at conjuring human connections at an Olympics without audiences.
I found that the interviewers who insisted on becoming the center of those interactions were truly obnoxious and tactless.
“Tell your Mom and Dad (who I know you cannot really see or hear) exactly how you feel right now.”
Can you say, “Overwhelmed, exhausted, and satisfied?” Dooh.
“Love you, Mom.”
Why time after time do media personalities think it is vital for athletes to ritually perform this arcane act of media supplication and explain their feelings at inappropriate times?
Of course, the interviewers are much happier with those individuals who have been through the press ritual many times before.
Far too many journalists appear to be way too happy to emotively grope the newbies with the unstated goal of becoming part of an Olympic moment.
Was It Just Me?
Did you notice that there were never any interviews broadcast by winning participants from a number of countries including China. Seems a bit weird to broadcast an entire Olympics and not manage to interview any athletes from the country with the second most metals. One supposes translators are unavailable.
Then maybe you noticed NBC also managed to studiously seem to even avoid interviews with English-speaking participants as well. Maybe the network cannot stand to be second to the party or they simply choose not to wait in line?
So much for support for the stated goals of the modern Olympic movement by the holder of the US broadcast rights.
Perhaps the athletes worldwide have learned it is best to avoid the US press.
The Swoosh Spalt
Did anyone else notice that even the big marketing TV ads shown throughout the Olympics were flavored with a distinct sameness and vain self-serving political correctness at the expense of any rational focus or real advertising purpose?
For too many ads we had to ask,
“What was that ad about?”
I soon came to appreciate the local station ad break segments for the local new car dealerships and furniture stores with a true sense of additive relief. Eheh.
There was one humorous Chevy tailgate ad exception. The man says to his cat,
“Walter. Go fetch some firewood.”
The cat that behaves like a dog is funny.