 Highlights and Lowlights
- NBC runs strong down the back stretch, but pulls up lame at the end, ending their 17 days of occasionally great, but more often than not frustrating coverage of the Games of the XXVII Olympiad...
- First, the answer to the obvious question: "Why were the three hours of the closing ceremonies not counted as fluff?" A valid question, but easily answered if you read the stated goal of The Rockwood 2000 Olympic Watch. I will agree with anyone who says the closing ceremonies themselves are fluff, held mainly so retiring IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch could thank the host country for lining his pockets with grift, however the goal of the Olympic Watch was never to critique the Olympics themselves (let's start with synchronized swimming...), but instead the coverage of the games by NBC. And to be fair, NBC covered the event provided by the Olympic committee (even if the event itself was fluff), so under our rules that counts as "event" time.
- However, this is not to say that NBC didn't manage, once again, to stick some fluff in there. At the very beginning of the closing ceremonies, they had a two-minute historical segment on John Ian Wing, whose letter to the organizers of the Melbourne games encouraged them to let the athletes mingle at the end instead of segregating them into countries. I was truly amazed that NBC even found a way to inject the closing ceremonies, a feature already jam-packed with fluff, with a schmaltzy intro.
- The first two hours of Sunday night's coverage were almost all the men's marathon. And for once, we almost got to see nearly an entire event without interruption. Almost.
- First we had to spend four minutes recapping how Sydney 2000 was the "Olympics of the Woman." And by "Olympics of the Woman" we mean, of course, the "Olympics of Cathy Freeman and Marion Jones Highlights." Oh sure, there were a couple of others thrown in there for good measure, but NBC understandably played those down, because they barely showed any of their events. By contrast, over the course of the games, I've counted 26 full minutes spent on Marion Jones fluff (that is, not including events) and another 12 minutes on Cathy Freeman. So if you wonder what happened to coverage of taekwondo, or table tennis, or badminton, or whatever, think of those 38 minutes of close-up, blurry, slow-motion shots of just two of the thousands of athletes here at the games. Thanks NBC!
- And what Olympic defacing would be complete without a segment of "GM presents Olympic Moments," with Jimmy Roberts? Today, making up for their lack of preparation three days ago, Jimmy brought us the life story of upset-winning U.S. Greco-Roman wrestler Rulon Gardner. As I said Wednesday, this was probably the best story of the games. Leave it to Jimmy Roberts to slap a big coat of goo all over it. Using the same minute-and-a-half of footage from Gardner's hometown that NBC had used before, and re-edited with some shots of a happy Gardner clearly in Sydney, Jimmy proceded to demean the Olympic champion by insinuating that he was "naive," that his home in Wyoming was "nowhere," and by using a reference to the Clampetts of the Beverly Hilbillies. Amazing. Gardner works hard all of his life to actually become an Olympic champion -- literally, the best in the world -- because he believes he can do it. Jimmy Roberts gives us a piece of fluff journalism and incorrectly believes he's being insightful. Which of these two is naive? GM, today I spent another 270 seconds deciding only whether it was worth it to reward your drivel with a purchase of any of your cars. The answer is no.
- We got to spend another four minutes of marathon time learning all about the life of South African runner, Josia Thugwane. Here's all you need to know. He lost.
- Another three-and-a-half minutes went to a recapping of the fabulous events in the Olympic Stadium. Guess what? Many of them happened in slow-motion!
- After two hours, the events/ads/fluff ratio was 1:10 for events, 0:34 for ads, and 0:16 for fluff. Not too bad. And for the next three hours of closing ceremony coverage, it was looking like NBC would spend only 2 minutes on fluff. I was just starting to add up the totals when, with only 20 minutes remaining, tonight's "Citius, Altius, Fortius by AT&T" segment popped up out of nowhere to give us seven minutes of event highlights. Admittedly, they were showing events, but the whole segment was overproduced and overdramatic. Fluff!
- The closing ceremonies in general were interesting, but I did notice something unusual. The ceremonies featured such Australian musical acts as INXS, Midnight Oil, Kylie Minogue, and Men at Work, as well as other famous Aussies like Greg Norman, Elle McPherson, Paul Hogan, and, strangest of all, Bananas in Pajamas. Here's my cynical observation: With the exception of Bananas in Pajamas, were any of these Aussies successful in the '90s? Okay, okay, that was mean.
- I think now I'm finally going to get some sleep. I'll be back for one more day tomorrow to try and put a lid on all of this Olympic garbage. Come back then!
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