Olympics
By pure serendipity I turned on the tube at almost exactly eight o'clock to see the start of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. OMFG.
But please, I know this thing was recorded earlier so why oh fucking why couldn't they edit the idiotic commentary? I am embarrassed for them. They are not from my tribe. I haven't yelled at the TV so much since I stopped watching CNN.
Update: I'll stick with my original assessment except to paraphrase one of the announcers at the end, 'has the olympic coverage always been so crappy?' There was a dedication to Jim McKay at the end, who I remember pretty well, so no, it hasn't always been. NBC did the bare minimum here and just didn't 'get' where and when this is. A certifiable historic moment and they blew it.
Update 13 August: It's even worse than I thought. Via Deceiver here is TV Barn:
The invasion of Georgia was broken by the AP mid-Friday afternoon in the U.S. With the 13-hour time difference between Kansas and China, that would mean the reports were received in Beijing around 4 a.m. Saturday — hours after the ceremony was over.So how did Lauer get a mention in? As with everything that emanated from NBC on Friday night, it was all done with voiceovers after the fact. Think "DVD commentary track" and you're not too far off — two guys in a room commenting on pre-edited video ... and cutting to commercial right on cue. Indeed, the opening ceremony that took place in 50 minutes of real time was magically elongated to 1 hours 17 minutes on NBC. (Of course, no such luxury was afforded the Parade of Nations, which was speeded up.)
You'll notice that Costas spent almost as much time discussing doping issues with the Russian team as Lauer did discussing a military battle with "significant casualties." I think the doping talk could have waited. I think NBC could have cut away for a brief update from Brian Williams or Tom Brokaw. This was an OK cover, but given the gap between the parade and the actual broadcast, NBC could have and should have done more.
