Sorry CFKA….I know you’re the official ranter of ET but with all due respect, I have to vent. The NBC coverage of the track schedule of the Olympics has been terrible. The swimming coverage was outstanding. It was both live and had great commentary (over-emphasis on Ms. Phelps not withstanding). Same with Gymnastics and beach volleyball. But track has been another story. In almost all cases we’ve had to wait up to 20 hours to see events on TV. In today’s world of instant media gratification that is just simply unacceptable. And that’s when the event was shown at all. I know there are several Olympic events in track and field that received little more than a couple minutes of broadcast. Contrast that to swimming where we saw every single round and every heat of competition. Or gymnastics where we watched every vault, tumble, and quintuple forward-reverse-backward-straddle lutz of the entire pre-pubescent Chinese team. The worst was the 100m. I don’t think this is my track bias speaking when I say that the men’s 100m final is the premiere event of the premiere sport at the Olympics. And those of us in the U.S. had to wait 14 hours to watch it just so NBC could show it during prime time. What’s worse, NBC has been the media equivalent of soup nazi’s by immediately removing any videos put on YouTube or other similar outlets. I understand what they’re trying to do (make money with commercials in primetime) but jeez…it’s not like the people who are so passionate to seek out and watch it happen live on the net wouldn’t tune in later for the full broadcast complete with analysis, multiple replays, and different angles.
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Mike Young
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