NBC's Pathetic Praising of China

Slate analysis: Are the Media Being too Mean to China?
http://www.slate.com/id/2197254/entry/2197257/

 

Update: Costas has spoken to the Chinese premier about buying property and having dual citizenship.

 

I don't doubt that the numbers back up NBC's coverage plans and applaud their coverage on the other channels, but I tune out the beach volleyball unless a US team is losing. I'm hoping the recap that Togo kayaker tonight.

 

So I guess most people disagreed with me... Upon most extensive viewing of the Olympics, I guess I was overly harsh by painting NBC's entire coverage based on that Mary Cirillo's features - her one on the acrobatic culture glossed over a lot of problem as well. NBC has been more balanced in other coverage I have seen. I guess that one feature was just so awful, I was left wondering if the communists has produced it themselves. And I do think it is very relevant to state that China is communist when speaking about China's accomplishments. How many people thousands of people have been displaced for the Olympics - the Wall Street Journal's coverage of this has been fantastic over the last several months/years. Any country that places the good of the state at any costs to individual freedoms or well being is very suspicious.

 

Another yes.

 

NBC's sucking up to China reminds me of ABC's coverage of a U.S.-Cuba boxing match during the 70s. They kept panning the camera on Castro and Howard Cosell blabbered about "El Commandante" during the whole broadcast.

 

Howard thought it was a remake of "Bananas." Or he was trying to cadge a cigar from Fidel.

 

One thing ... we know about the train to Tibet and the Three Gorges Dam because we pay attention to things.

Is Three Gorges a massive environmental disaster waiting to happen? Yes.

Has China quietly "assimilated" some minority groups (including Tibetans) by populating their regions with the majority race? Some have come to that conclusion.

Are both pretty impressive engineering feats? Absolutely.

We are so conditioned to report the negative that, in a feel-good piece during the Olympic broadcast, two major engineering feats as the country tries to show itself off is somewhat interesting. Now, I'd expect the Nightly News to mention the potential environmental problems of Three Gorges (it's the trade-off -- China needs the hydro power that Three Gorges will provide, because of the extreme pollution that comes from a coal-fired -- and not clean coal, either -- power grid, but causes problems to an environmentally-sensitive area because of it).

Is the government trying to make sure everyone puts on their best face? Yes.
Is said government authoritarian? Yes. Is it Communist? Not really, but the Train to Tibet and the Three Gorges Dam are two typical Communist moves -- big engineering feats to meet short-term needs without looking at the long-term consequences.

The Train to Tibet I do find interesting.

I haven't found NBC's coverage to be too bad, though, for them. There has been very little of the athlete/country profiles in the coverage I've watched, and few annoyingly sappy vignettes that were ubiquitous in Sydney & Athens (and Turin). The only thing is, I have an interest in China -- my child was born there, so I actually wouldn't mind a few more glimpses into Beijing, but it's more personal for me than it is for 95% of Americans.

Since Jim McKay last hosted an Olympics, I've become conditioned to get nothing but gymnastics, swimming and beach volleyball in prime time, so I just try to make sure to watch during the day to see something I might actually want to see. NBC has shown more stuff live during these games (with a 12-hour time difference) than it did in Atlanta (when even the gymnastics were tape-delayed when they were going on at the same time).

 

Look at all these empty seats at venues...seems as though the Chinese can't afford the damn tickets. At 50 cents an hour and the fact most of them have been docked pay since they can't work in order to reduce pollution, I guess the politburo can't put two and two together.

 

yeah, won't kill me, either.