Someone Feed Him Some Politics

Someone Feed Him Some Politics Already
In a display of… something, NBC continues to draw record viewers for the Olympics in Salt Lake City. Drudge has the numbers in a storyless header at the top of his page.

As a big fan of the Games, I find this distressing. NBC’s coverage is saccharine, over-blown, and — to borrow from Holden Caufield — it’s phony. Maybe we should be happy that in the uncertain time of war, Americans can come together from across a continent, even if just in front of their televisions.

And yet — if only ABC still broadcast the Olympics. Say what you will about him as a person, but Roone Alderidge knew how to make sports work on TV, without all the rags-to-rags-but-look-what-a-competitor! background stories that NBC feels it needs to spoon-feed us. Look, we know already that athletes have to wake up very early and work very hard for a very, very long time to make it to the Games. We know that cancer or MD or whatever disease is in the athlete-of-the-moment’s family is just awful. Really, there’s no need to give us much more than the briefest of bios — qnd then show us some damn sports! And two more things — somebody send Tom Brokaw a speech therapist and, please, someone punch Katie Couric right in the mouth.

Forget the sizzle, damnit. Serve us the damn steak already.