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Slamming Bode.
Completely uncalled for.
I just watched the NBC coverage kicking Bode Miller when he was down.
You don't do that. You don't slam an athelete because he's not winning, you don't say in your wrap-up that he didn't try, and suggest he's a hypocrite.
This isn't done.
So NBC's pissed because Bode blew off the post-ski "How do you feel about losing so badly?" interviews.
So NBC's pissed that they built him up as the story, and hung their ratings on him (and Michelle Kwan). They even had Bode Miller vs. the Herminator cartoons -- assuming that Bodie Miller and Herman Maier would be the big story.
NBC had their heads up their collective asses and were stuck in 2002: Bode's been performing badly all year. Also 1) Bode has always been erratic, 2) Bode has always been a loose cannon who skips inspections and doesn't do what the coaches say, 3) Bode has been out of shape after taking a break, and 4) Bode has an alcohol problem.
Only one thing has changed from 2002: Bode isn't winning.
They didn't do their homework, and now they're mad at him, lashing out inappropriately because their ratings have tanked. But NBC's ratings mostly stink because the Olympics are happening in Italy and there are 10 gazillion ways to hear the results of the games before NBC has a chance to broadcast them. There's no reason to watch when you already know your favorite didn't win, or you're just watching the performance where you know they did.
They'll be fine come 2010 when the games are in Vancouver, Canada, and they can broadcast them live. They're screwed for the summer games.
In the meantime, Bode's obviously miserable. Have some dignity and honor and leave him alone.
ETA: I note that Nike, the biggest advertiser for the Olympics, built their ad campaign around Bode and then had to pull all but one of their spots. NBC lost money because of this.
That's Nike's dumb move, and NBC had to pay. There's no call to take it out on Bode. It's not his responsibility to ask "what happens to your ad campaign if I don't win?"
I just watched the NBC coverage kicking Bode Miller when he was down.
You don't do that. You don't slam an athelete because he's not winning, you don't say in your wrap-up that he didn't try, and suggest he's a hypocrite.
This isn't done.
So NBC's pissed because Bode blew off the post-ski "How do you feel about losing so badly?" interviews.
So NBC's pissed that they built him up as the story, and hung their ratings on him (and Michelle Kwan). They even had Bode Miller vs. the Herminator cartoons -- assuming that Bodie Miller and Herman Maier would be the big story.
NBC had their heads up their collective asses and were stuck in 2002: Bode's been performing badly all year. Also 1) Bode has always been erratic, 2) Bode has always been a loose cannon who skips inspections and doesn't do what the coaches say, 3) Bode has been out of shape after taking a break, and 4) Bode has an alcohol problem.
Only one thing has changed from 2002: Bode isn't winning.
They didn't do their homework, and now they're mad at him, lashing out inappropriately because their ratings have tanked. But NBC's ratings mostly stink because the Olympics are happening in Italy and there are 10 gazillion ways to hear the results of the games before NBC has a chance to broadcast them. There's no reason to watch when you already know your favorite didn't win, or you're just watching the performance where you know they did.
They'll be fine come 2010 when the games are in Vancouver, Canada, and they can broadcast them live. They're screwed for the summer games.
In the meantime, Bode's obviously miserable. Have some dignity and honor and leave him alone.
ETA: I note that Nike, the biggest advertiser for the Olympics, built their ad campaign around Bode and then had to pull all but one of their spots. NBC lost money because of this.
That's Nike's dumb move, and NBC had to pay. There's no call to take it out on Bode. It's not his responsibility to ask "what happens to your ad campaign if I don't win?"
no subject
Yes, I've found it impossible to avoid spoilers in these Olympics. My personal "favorite" way I've found out something I didn't want to know? On Thursday, I came home from work and wanted to know what would be on that evening *besides* the Women's Free Skate, partly because I was having a couple other people over to watch with me. So I went to nbcolympics.com, planning to go straight to their "TV listings" page, and there, on their home page, with a large picture at the top and a giant headline, was a picture of the three women's figure skating medalists. Thanks, NBC, for stupidly spoiling the results of the competition that you're trying desperately to get people to watch. (NB: *On* their website, they give you a different url to use if you don't want to see scores -- I think it's just a direct link to their listings page -- but they don't give you this info on TV; you have to already be at the part of the site that has the results to find it!)
I agree that they have seemed overly negative and/or nasty this year, between Dick Button's whiny figure skating commentary to Lindsay Jacobellis "biggest blunder of all time" to interviews with people who've just lost. I didn't watch much of last night's coverage, and I really didn't see any of the interviews and commentary last night, and now I'm glad I didn't.
As for celebrity-based coverage, that may have peaked during the final of the 5000M short-track relay last night, when near the start of the race, NBC spent *several laps* zoomed in on Apolo Ohno skating casually around the rink, waiting for his next turn to actually race. Every so often you saw the racers zoom by in the background, and if you looked carefully you *might* catch enough to figure out who was winning, but mostly you saw Ohno. Talk about him even when it isn't one of his legs, fine, but don't *not* show the race that he's in (with three other Americans and 16 other people) so that you can show him essentially keeping his legs going!
Normally I'm really, really into the Olympics, and normally I really lke the Winter Games just as much as the Summer Games, but this set has just failed to really get me going. I've watched, but not the way I usually do. It's really pretty disappointing.
no subject
There have been so many ways to spoil the Olympics. Yahoo News had a headline "Bode Miller Wipes Out!" in their top news stories -- which appear as links in my email. So I checked my email and got spoiled. A friend of mine was watching NBC's late night coverage of the games having carefully avoided spoilers all day -- and NBC opened with a listing of who won what, which was just stupid.
I was cruising along LJ and someone mentioned the results of the speed skating 5000m race. Augh.
Then NBC's nationalistic coverage oftne gave away the ending. When they showed the U.S. women's hockey game out of the blue? Gosh. Who do you think won? Yawn.
I'd stopped caring at a certain point (also, I don't like Sasha Cohen, I saw her cut off another skater deliberately in practice in 2002 - no apology - so I think she's awful). I made no effort to avoid the spoilers for women's figure skating. And wow, was it easy to find out who lost. Finding out who won was another matter. Which just says it all.
Icarus