It’s batting third, and you know what that means…time to check out your Olympic TV checklist!
1. Perversion as diversity? Check.
That was solved on opening day with a pre-approved, rehearsed freak show featuring an obese drag queen performing a nasty mockery of Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.”
If it was designed to outrage not just Christians but respectful viewers of all faiths, including the non-religious, it worked. But why was it included in the opening ceremony, or what used to be televised opening ceremony, of an international athletics championship? What was its purpose?
In a bizarre show seen by millions, gay men and women were represented by radical lunatics.
Plus, the obese male transvestites who mock Christianity should know their place by now: on the field at the Dodgers’ Pride Night celebrations (with Rob Manfred’s callous approval) and reading to 6-year-olds in the library.
2. Is NBC shamelessly exploiting Olympic rights to endlessly sell NBCUniversal inventory? Yes.
From day one, I once again threw myself into the transparent knot promoting NBCUniversal’s film adaptation of “Wicked.” Follow the golden brick road. Few escaped the painful tie-ins in this film’s debut. I’m surprised NBC didn’t paint the athletes’ faces witch green.
3. Unreasonable negligence before quality control? Check.
With still time to go, what topped the charts was the IOC’s broadcast of the South Korean team at the opening ceremony, identifying them as the team from North Korea, South Korea’s vehement authoritarian communist enemy.
In the US, this would have been like seeing Abraham Lincoln as Jefferson Davis, or even worse, seeing Pedro Martinez as Don Zimmer, but the IOC, which wanted to show the gold, only had a few years to prepare.
4. Fill the “coverage” with silly NBC promos and run-of-the-mill interviews with non-Olympic attendees? Fine.
NBC purposefully turned the Olympics into “Access Hollywood” with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop.
While many viewers continue to wonder how Snoop Dogg, a repeat offender notorious for his vulgar, misogynistic raps, was able to get through French customs, NBC has given his sparse audience plenty of room to work on his awkward presence and semi-incoherent parts.
When tasked with interviewing retired Olympic gold medalist swimmer Michael Phelps, Snoop was found hanging on to the edge of the pool from inside, presumably unable to do a dog paddle, and his rotten thinking was made completely and absurdly clear.
It was such a forced waste of time that it created unintentional comedy. The joke was clearly the work of a desperate NBC.
Then there was “Today Show” co-host Craig Melvin’s lame interview with LeBron James, in which Melvin kept a straight face when James declared he was clearly someone he wasn’t: “I’m a team man,” he said.
Five. NBC News winning the Olympic high diving championship? Correct. Day and night, every day.
Apparently there is nothing newsworthy around here, and the local Channel 4 news is leading the way with reports from Paris chanting “Long Live America!” As the Vichy French police explained when rounding up citizens for deportation to Nazi Germany, “We were just following orders.”
NBC’s national news, anchored (or rather, hosted) by shameless shill Lester Holt, also leads the way with its “USA! USA!” report from Paris.
There’s a lot of buzz around the world, but we’ll leave that to the other networks. “Tonight’s USA team lineup here at NBC.” I wonder if Holt wants to get paid?
It wasn’t any different when Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams hosted the news from the Olympic venue on NBC, and were even shown standing in the snow during the Winter Olympics.
6. Are there any pre- or post-broadcast commercial revenues from a live event? Yes.
Swimming events also use split-screen technology, which reduces the screen size and displays advertising alongside it, partly to encourage viewers to watch the Olympics.
7. Bad news and worse news from Olympic venues ignored? Check.
Russian far-left activist arrested as prime suspect in Paris train sabotage? Muslims shout “Heil Hitler” and give Nazi salutes to Israeli soccer team? Two arrested for plotting terror attack during Olympics?
Forget it. Now, Mike Tirico is back with Snoop Dogg for another mumble session.
8. Should we force anchors out of TV if they make politically incorrect jokes? Yes.
Veteran Eurosport swimming commentator Bob Ballard was removed from the show after joking that “ladies hang out and put on makeup, don’t they?” in response to Australia’s gold medal-winning freestyle relay team’s slow progress to the podium.
He apologized, adding that he had long supported women’s sports on air, as if that mattered to those who had suffered an irreconcilable and ignorant insult.
But that day, many of the U.S. female tennis players left the Olympic accommodations complaining that there were only two bathrooms for 10 women and “only two mirrors for putting on makeup.”
9. Social media name-calling wars between vulgar US Olympians in the NFL, NBA, and now the WNBA? Check.
Yankees are OK with fans missing games
Good news: Yankees president Randy Levine appears to be feeling better and no longer needs to see a gastroenterologist to treat his crippling indigestion.
When the start of the 2022 season was delayed because a collective bargaining agreement couldn’t be reached, Levine made the rounds on local radio stations, proclaiming his heartfelt bond with baseball fans.
“It’s disgusting every time we hear that a game has been cancelled, but we’ll rise to the occasion if necessary and try to cater to our fans in the best way we can.”
Since then, Yankees television coverage has increasingly been hidden or lost from fans, with 24 games this season either placed or scheduled to be placed behind pay-per-view streaming services wherever money is made, with Levine’s heavy cooperation.
The commonly held belief that cutting cable and streaming is the future of live sports may be true, but I still don’t believe the public will buy baseball games the way they buy early-release movies or TV shows.
But if that turns out to be true in the future, the future of sports should come to sports, not the other way around. We are not a guinea pig to burn money. If managed properly (unlikely), sports is in no immediate danger of losing interest or value among streaming services.
But Levin must be feeling a lot better.
Rapinoe retires, USWNT on best course of action
In my limited focus, the best story on the U.S. side of the Olympics was the behavior of the women’s soccer team, as if there was a concerted effort to rid the team of Megan Rapinoe and other self-centered, obnoxious cheats.
During the 4-1 win over Germany, the women behaved in a way that they could proudly proclaim: “our women,” not only by displaying slick passing and nimble clearing tactics, but also by not shoving it in the faces of the opponents or the crowd.
Katie Ledecky is also an exceptional swimmer and person, and that’s no surprise when you consider her family; her uncle, Jon Ledecky, is co-owner of the Islanders and is a humble, generous person who will put a smile on your face any time you meet him.
