I will miss the Olympics. As a family, we loved watching the events in primetime.
I wish the basketball games had been shown in prime time. I only got to watch a bit of a few games from the office but from what I saw, the U.S. team was very committed and focused on bringing back home a gold medal. Congratulations to the team and we appreciate all of their hard work and commitment to play for our country and the NBA.
The closing ceremonies were very nice too. Although I thought the Games and NBC’s coverage had an EPCOT kind of feel to it. Everything was shiny and new but it seemed like a movie set. Lots of empty calories and lots of edited or tape delayed broadcasts. The overall production values were excellent but everyone watching just knew that beneath the surface lay a country with a deep dark secret.
I also thought China accomplished what it wanted. It was the dominant team power in regards to gold medals. It created a 17 day infomercial for China and its people but most Americans saw through a lot of the production and hype and are so glad we live in a more gritty and Democratic society. My bet is that now that the journalists that covered the games return back to U.S. soil, we will see a bunch of retrospectives and read about what they really think of China and the Games.
Ted,
I usually love reading your blog, but your comments in today’s entry sort of bother me. You think life in the US is more gritty than here in Beijing? Sure, you didn’t get the picture of the “real” Beijing on NBC or it was only sort of talked about as a mythologized place, but it exists. Also, these reporters were free to write what they wanted to write about China, positive or negative, while in Beijing, why would they wait until they come home to express “what they really thought.” The Chinese government is far from progressive or Democratic, but it’s not as evil as some would make it out to be. Anyways, I hope you come to Beijing one day soon (please, please bring the Caps with you!!!) and I’ll be more than happy to invite you out for a drink!
You’re already looking forward to the next Summer Games, it seems. I mean, come on, “deep dark secret”? Please–that’s an understatement worthy of a London native.
Kidding aside, let’s not forget the Internet restrictions on foreign journalists, and the ZERO protests approved by the Chinese government. Open Internet access and peaceful protests were promised by the Chinese, but they didn’t happen. In hindsight, does anyone believe they were promising those truthfully?
Beijing 2008 may one day end up on the same ignominious list as Berlin 1936, et al: another example of why the Olympic Games should never be awarded to autocratic nations.
Ted,
Perfectly well-put. In fact, Tom Boswell has a great column in the post this morning that echoes these exact same sentiments. His best comment was that while he was there, it had a “Truman Show” quality to it. Tom even asked himself “where are the real people?”
Dear Ted
I wished that the opening ceremony at Olympic Game should have done much more simple yet heart warming.
Shizumi Manale
“My bet is that now that the journalists that covered the games return back to U.S. soil, we will see a bunch of retrospectives and read about what they really think of China and the Games.”
See that’s the disappointing aspect of the reporting. Back to back conventions start today and we, as a country will be back in the swing of fall, kids going back to school and an extremely heightened election cycle. As a result, their retrospectives will be lost in the shuffle of news cycles. Reporting, especially in today’s 24 hour news cycle requires and sometimes demands in the moment reflection/analysis. For my money there weren’t enough people like Christine Brennan from USA Today with a platform to report that underbelly of ‘infomercial’ and NBC production. It is what I miss about ABC’s Wide World of Sports coverage of Olympic’s past.
Dear Mr. Ted
Now, I worry about Chinese athlete who did not received any medals. What will be with them—.
Because of what you had mentioned about that “—a country with deep dark secret”.
However the opening ceremony was beautiful done but it was to much to me and I lost an original spiritual value of what ” World Olympic Games” should be.
But I would like to congratulate to people in China anyone who worked on this Olympics game.
Shizumi manale
I have to agree with your implicit criticism of the coverage. I can’t help being a bit angry that NBC was a co-conspirator in the fake fireworks at the opening event. It took a lot of the enjoyment out of last night’s closing ceremonies — wondering what was real, and what was “enhanced.” I guess I’m naive to think that NBC, having sent many, many members of its news division to Beijing, would act like a news organization.
CBC is better at showing the olympics than NBC. I was on vacation in Michigan and was able to get CBC from a few of the hotels I stayed at. There was one point where CBC was showing a live USA basketball game (vs. Spain), and NBC was showing men’s beach volleyball preliminaries. That was very surprising. CBC showed more “olympicish” sports like track and field, swimming, etc. etc. They also had the “Canadian Trail” where they went through all their teams and individual olympians who competed that day and summed up their results…I wish there was an American version.
I think CBC had more Live coverage (because it had more morning coverage).
Just some thoughts.
The closing and opening ceremonies were great.
On a different note, I’m really itching for more hockey. I can’t wait for the new season.