These whiners also don’t understand the network-affiliate business relationship. Stations that are owned and operated by NBC could show the games live, if they wished, but three hours earlier would cut into affiliate’s time. What television owner is going to give away airtime and lose out on commercial revenue? Until the games get shown on CSPAN, which isn’t likely to ever happen, I would request that bloggers stop embarrassing themselves because it’s obvious none of them know this business, let alone ever run one.
Understandably, no one likes being taken for a fool, especially those people too dumb to realize no one is taking them for a fool. Some people actually think they are being duped, as if NBC is running a con, because it says “LIVE” in the top corner even when in fact it isn’t on the West Coast. Apparently, NBC gave some viewers too much credit for their intelligence because it’s been no secret that East Coast and West Coast are in different time zones. Apparently, some feel NBC should spend the money to have a person go back into the broadcast video before it is transmitted across the country and remove the graphics, a needless expense suggested by someone deluded into thinking the Olympics are for their enjoyment rather than a money-making endeavor for NBC. Besides, it may not be possible to remove the graphics after they have been added to the video signal.
An Oregon man epitomizes this idiocy and oddly takes some sort of pride in the fact that he is wasting taxpayers’ money by filing a complaint with the FCC. He claims that it is not only false but deceptive, even though it didn’t deceive him. Unless employees of NBC are attempting to run some con game similar to The Sting where they are gambling on the delayed results, I don’t see where the deception lies since everyone has access to the results. NBC doesn’t have a monopoly on the information. Besides, if by some miracle the FCC levied fines, NBC would fight the case and the litigation on behalf of the government would be at the taxpayers’ expense. This same blogger complains about the waste of taxpayer money on his blog, yet contributes to it. Considering it took four years of legal expenses for the Janet Jackson indecency fines to be thrown out, essentially accomplishing nothing except a waste of time and money, I would request he withdraw the request if I wasn’t certain it wasn’t going straight into the circular file after being laughed at by interns.
Article comments
1 - Jordan Richardson
Fucking love it. Nice and angry! Good job.
2 - CHINESE AMERICAN OY
Obviously, you promote cheating and lying. What American should do is let the world suck on themselves and probably they will wipe themselves out. Its always the American who cares..
3 - HAWAII 5-0
The last time I checked, the American are ahead of the medal count..oh yeah..we still have track and field to come. The sun is beautiful here in this part of AMERICA. ..
4 - Jordan Richardson
Riiiight...
5 - El Bicho
Thanks, Jordan. I find myself usually outraged over misplaced outrage.
CA, what from this article leads you to believe I support cheating and lying. I am not saying I don't. Just curious what gave me away. btw, considering the question over the age of your women gymnasts, you might not want to bring up cheating and lying.
H5O, the American team is ahead on medals, not you, so I am not sure what you have to brag about. [Edited]
6 - rokusaburo
Ha Ha! Nice one, El Bicho!
BTW, you whining Yanks can get it live on NBC's Olympics website. It's brilliant, live feed and no annoying commentary.
Even better, if you live near the Canadian border, you can probably pick up CBC, which does a way better job than NBC anyway. The added bonus to that is not having to watch and listen to Bob Costas.
7 - Christopher Rose
I just wanted to let you guys know that "Chinese American Oy" and "Hawaii 5-0" share the same IP address...
8 - Joanne Huspek
Christopher, you don't say? They also share the same use of grammar.
After seeing both the photo of the singer and the lip syncer, I have to say that both were damned cute. Whoever made the call had a tough choice. Maybe it was more than that? Payola?
Oh, and the CBC coverage in this rocks! But then, I turn to them for world news anyway, and the weather is more accurate.
You're right though, we do whine a lot (as a country). I guess that's what makes us Americans.
9 - Incredulous in NY
Ahead of the medal counts but with half the number of golds? I am shocked and embarrassed by the shameless patriotism of Olympics coverage. Anywhere in the world (except NBC, obviously) the gold is the one that weighs more in the medal ranking. Apparently, they have to reinvent this criteria to lift up the American spirit and show our "superiority" over the rest of world.
10 - TC
currently China is ahead of US in medal count by 1.
11 - El Bicho
Thanks, Chris, but I prefer to delude myself into thinking I have more readers and commentors than I do. And even though you removed the number of comments H5O made, I don't see the need in removing my comment about what a dope he was repeating himself.
12 - Ken
Sounds like the person that wrote this article is the narcissistic crybaby.
13 - Chris "UZ" White
What I got out of this article:
"Lots of complaining is going on, and complaining is ALL THE FAULT OF THE AMERIKAZ AAAAAAAAAAA"
14 - El Bicho
Sorry if I struck too close to the bone, Ken.
Chris, although you had the chance and didn't, feel free to point out Int'l whining about the Olympics and I will call those people out as well if they prove not to know what they are talking about.
15 - Mat Brewster
That was great elb. I love all the people who feel sorry for the girl who sang but wasn't "cute"enough. There is nothing to feel sorry about. She's got the world's biggest population telling her how marvelous she sang and how special she is for having her voice used in the Olympics.
16 - Andy Marsh
This is the problem I have with NBC and it's Olympic coverage.
Crap like equestrian events or marathons and 10k's on NBC proper and good stuff like team handball and badminton on MSNBC or USA. They covered an entire 10K on NBC yesterday afternoon! Couldn't they just cover the start and then come back in 19 laps and cover the finish? Nothing happened in between anyway!
I understand them moving all the boxing to CNBC, I don't think anyone understands how they score those matches anyway! It almost seems criminal at times when I'm trying to watch boxing in the olympics. One guy lands a shot and the other guy gets a point...
And all these dull human interst stories. Like I give a damn about how Kobie and Lebron are enjoying China!
Think about it for a minute, not everyone has cable, so they're stuck with horse jumping or dressage, real exciting "sports". And if you want to see stuff like swimming finals on the east coast you have to stay up till ohhh dark freaking thirty!
And why is riding a horse a sport but riding a dirt bike isn't? I mean if horseback riding is an olympic event shouldn't motocross be one too? It'd surely be more fun to watch!
I don't blame this on the west coast, but I am tired, literally, of having to stay up way past my bedtime to watch stuff because of you whiny west coasters! Not just the olympics, but everything on TV that's supposed to be live.
Yeah, that's right, a whiny east coaster bitching about the whiny west coasters...but I feel better dammit!
17 - Dr Dreadful
And why is riding a horse a sport but riding a dirt bike isn't?
Actually, Andy, as of this Olympiad BMX is now an Olympic sport.
I mean if horseback riding is an olympic event shouldn't motocross be one too?
Oh, you meant motorized dirt biking. There's historically been resistance to the inclusion of motorized sports, because of the feeling that the Olympics should be solely about human endeavor. That's why hugely popular sports like aerobatics, water skiing and motorcycle racing aren't included, although they are officially recognized by the IOC and have the potential to make it into future Games.
I do agree with you that under these criteria, the equestrian events are an anomaly, and have long been mystified as to why they should be Olympic sports.
18 - Dr Dreadful
And on the subject of whining, one well-known instance is the controversy (apparently instigated solely by the irascible Bela Karolyi) over the scoring in women's gymnastics. I had a look around the internet last night and no-one outside the US seems to have noticed anything in the least bit unusual.
Karolyi's suspicions of anti-American bias seem to have been somewhat undermined by the fact that the US took gold and silver in the all-around event, and silver and bronze in the floor exercise.
19 - El Bicho
Thanks, mb.
Andy, all the dull human interest stories are what appear to work for the ladies, so I don't see them going away. All the prime time stuff on NBC wasn't live so us on the West Coast had to stay up just as late. Don't worry when the Winter games are in Vancouver the other side of the world will be just as inconvenienced. As for the other live events, I am guessing because all the cool, powerful guys in charge of TV live out here in California and they don't want to stay up late.
I don't get why horseback riding is an event either, likely another example of bribing the IOC. But imagine my disappoint to turn on water polo and there wasn't one horse was in the pool.
Doc, was there a particular event Karolyi was talking about. I only caught the floor and had to laugh at how the announcers kept trying to say Shawn Johnson had an unfair advantage going first, yet she remained in first until the very last girl from Romania went and stuck all her landings. I thought she deserved the gold, and it's not like ti was a blowout.
20 - Dr Dreadful
Doc, was there a particular event Karolyi was talking about?
There were two specific incidents he seemed upset about. One was the balance beam exercise in last week's team event, in which a graceful routine by Nastia Liukin received lower marks than the following Chinese gymnast whose picturesque adventures on the beam are described in my article here. The second was the individual final yesterday, in which the US team's pocket disaster area Alicia Sacramone executed a vault which Karolyi felt was superior to that of the Chinese gymnast who pipped her to bronze.
21 - Andy Marsh
EB - glad I didn't have a mouth full of coffee when I read your water polo comment...that was funny!
Doc - BMX works too. I guess I can concure with the motorized part of the argument too...that makes sense to me...I'd love to see Water Polo the way El Bicho wants to see it!