V 14 N. 34 NBC Fails Big Time on First Night of Olympic Trials Coverage

 I sent this paragraph out to a few friends and contacts this morning regarding the coverage of the Olympic trials on NBC.

"Did any of you watch O trials on  NBC?  I don't get Peacock, Two hour coverage  yesterday was unbelievably bad.  They wasted ten minutes on second heat of the women's hundred with two restarts.  Women's 5000 heats and men's 10,000 final no splits given, in race analysis terrible.  Camera angles made it difficult to pick up the startline to do your own timing.    The women's second 5000 heat  incredibly slow but they covered the whole thing and then did not show any men's 400 prelims or 1500 prelims or  women's 800 prelims.  Or did I sleep through that part?  It wasn't on til 9Pm on the west coast.  They had 2 hours to edit the program and still made a mess.    And to top it all.  Lewis Johnson had to collect the three 10,000 qualifiers to sign a replica Eiffel Tower after their race.  The signing area was so low to the ground they had to get on their knees to sign.  Rather humiliating.  What are they going to do with it afterwards, give it to Prince Harry?   If they are trying to make track and field a marketable sport, they are failing miserably.    Then to understand the taste of the American public, I suggest you watch daytime tv to see the almost complete idiocy that is being perped on us.   P.T. Barnum had it right.  "No one ever lost money underestimating the bad taste of the American public."   I don't think we oldtimers will have any influence on the output but I'll still force myself to watch with the sound off.    That said I may still go down for events next Friday and Saturday."  

 Comment came back from Richard Mach.

 The Suits up high in the NBC tower, the Clowns sporting those oversized round red noses, are busy homogenizing our sport, throwing all of it in their giant blender and setting it to pulverize.   They apply those lowest common denominator values found in their coverage of the team sport of football and stuff our sport into the same container.  This makes for occasionally laughable outcomes, but more frequently irritating and annoying ones.  The devastating cult of personality that has swept the country is only further amplified in its broadcasted coverage.  Nothing less than winning is acceptable.   Breaking into the celebrity category by winning is paramount.  How often have you seen a superstar in a heat exclusively covered as if all the rest of the competitors were nothing but window dressing.   The democratic nature of the sport has been supplanted by a winner take all mentality.  In the combined Peacock/NBC coverage the planners for the telecast were elementally clueless in not taping the 1st 400m heat with a certain HS diminutive speedster from Potomac’s Bullis, Quincey Wilson, who set a new national high school record of 44.66 and he is but a16 yr old sophomore.  Ahead of time, that quorum of geniuses up in the tower decide on a set of human interest stories that too often have exactly the same subset of awe isn’t-that-somethin points which when you think about denies the uniqueness of human beings, but they manage to fit their chosen stars-to-be into that container no matter what.  And they get caught out doing so by the track illuminati.  And they are all over the patriotic thematic.   And not wrapping yourself in the flag can have some rather dire consequences with these hypocrites.  Witness the man who has now set 5 or is it six consecutive PV WRs, Mondo Duplantis.

Mondo had the audacity at around 19 to compete for Sweden, where his mother was an Olympian.  Already a player and quite possibly destined to become the GOAT, he left LSU after 1 yr and turned pro. For a time NBC refused to cover him despite his marks and then only reluctantly and occasionally until the only way they could continue that claptrap was to refuse covering the winner in big time contests whom was named Mondo. And I could go on but the drivel bobble headed Sanya , How Do You Feel Lewis and reluctant yes man, Ato, dish out as anything but superficial has me wanting to take a cold shower after watching yet another of their telecasts and we have nine more to go.  Meanwhile, the BBC has the stellar encyclopedia of track and field in Steve Cram who tells you 7 important things for every 1/2 of one NBC’s ‘triple threat’ manages to eeck out. On a good day. 

 Comment from Bill Schnier:

 I watched Peacock, then NBC so I am better pleased.  When cable TV came into our lives it was intended to provide wider coverage and maybe it has with the combination of Peacock and NBC.  T&F is so massive to cover, probably the most troubling sport of all.  The average person is very happy but the "track nerds" are pulling their hair out.  I do wonder why NBC has two sprinters covering the running events which seems quite narrow for a wide-scoped sport.  But George, I hope you go to the events Fri. & Sat. to see for yourself.  The OT are always worth seeing in person.

From Bruce Kritzler:

George,

I had it on Peacock, so saw all the prelims, except maybe a m400. I was hoping for 100’ temps for w5000 final, so Valby can break the three Olympians, but not going to happen. She should be able to make 10k team though.

Wait till Sha'Carri writes her name in 6" letters on the Tower!

Bruce

NBC has a week to clean up their act, but I doubt that will happen.  George