Bringing The World Together? Yeah, Right
Thank goodness I missed the bulk of the coverage of the Olympics Closing Ceremonies, since the bit that I caught had me gagging. NBC talks a big game of how wonderful it was to see the world brought together, as one, best friends, yadda yadda. Yet from my standpoint, the network did its best to make this about the US versus everyone else. When Usain Bolt won the 100m and 200m easily, they cast dispersion on him for dancing around in celebration and for not congratulating other athletes. Yet when the US mens 4×400m team won gold and celebrated with no congrats forthcoming to others, it was “nice to see them enjoying their victory.†When the little chipmunk that is Shawn Johnson wins, yippee. When it’s the Chinese, they must be underage. When the Korean who not only beat Paul Hamm but for a judging error four years ago, but dared to continue to believe that he beat Hamm, NBC couldn’t resist pointing out how he really didn’t do that well this year, suggesting that this was proof of Hamm’s superiority. When the US came second, third, or forth, it was because they did something wrong, hardly ever because the non-American Others were actually better. And when the Chinese won more gold, it’s because the country had a supposedly underhanded strategy to compete in sports with multiple medals and/or because the state put huge pressure on the athletes, not because those individual athletes loved what they did. Sure, there were moments when NBC celebrated foreigners, but this was too often only when an American had no legitimate shot at the gold, and too often expressed with the amazement that someone from such a supposedly backward country (because, hey, everyone but the US is backward, right?) could pull off such a coup. The norm was yet more national chauvinism.
I don’t doubt that many Olympians felt the spirit of international brotherhood, sisterhood, cuddles for everybody, and all that jazz, but NBC’s reporting frequently did its best to make this yet another venue for a story about America fighting off the rest of the world. For all the exoticized images of the Great Wall, NBC was doing their best to build one of their own around the US.
Hey Jon, have you seen any reports from other countries as far as how the commentators covered the Olympics? I have often wondered if most countries have commentators who “pull” for the local team. It was always the difference, for me, of watching regionally produced college basketball games in the Kentucky area, and watching one on the national stage, with more agnostic commentators who weren’t subtly or overtly pulling for a team…
On another front, while I managed to almost completely avoid the Olympics, I got stuck watching them one evening, long enough to see Michael Phelps’ “ultimate triumph.” I was amazed by the “insightful” commentary added. As one U.S. swimmer said something to another, a commentator said, “She’s a chatty Cathy…” Informative, eh?
Sam,
From what I have seen of other countries’ coverage, they both do and don’t suffer from the same problem. Yes, they root for their own, and so they can be just as nauseating. But just as I noted that NBC was often at its best when there was no American in serious contention for the gold medal, few other countries are as competitive in as many sports as are the U.S, so their broadcasters are allowed the time to tell stories about athletes from other countries, and to root for those athletes. In other words, few other countries can use the narrative hook of “will we win?” so they actually have to get inventive and find other hooks, many of which are more in keeping with the supposed spirit of the games than the spectacle of seeing other countries’ citizens smashed to a pulp by one’s own country’s citizens.
Up here in Michigan, we get the Canadian coverage on CBC which has allowed me to do some comparative viewing. From what I saw/heard, the Canadian announcers covered more events in which Canadians were competing, leading to coverage of more esoteric sports. They also pulled for their athletes in a slightly downtrodden, “good show, even though we finished 7th” way. The coverage was more fun, jokier, and less maudlin than American coverage.
I can’t get too mad at NBC b/c they offered announcer-less online coverage of many events, although as much as I love to complain about biased announcers, I prefer them to having no announcers at all. If ever there was an event crying out for alternate announcing soundtracks available streaming online, this would’ve been it.
agreed, Elliot — alternate tracks would be kind of cool. or, for that matter, it would be cool to set your own filters for what info you want to receive: nationalist, sob stories, dark horses, etc.