Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ulysses.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ucbvax!ulysses!gsp
From: gsp@ulysses.UUCP (Gary Perlman)
Newsgroups: net.rec
Subject: ABC Olympic Coverage
Message-ID: <940@ulysses.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 2-Aug-84 14:08:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: ulysses.940
Posted: Thu Aug  2 14:08:37 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 3-Aug-84 02:40:21 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 26

rabbit!jj makes a good point about the ABC coverage of the Olympics.
I would like to take the point further.  American TV, ABC sports is
just an example, is very provincial.  The news coverage focuses on
the USA as the center of the universe, unlike other countries I
have lived in.  Americans, being of provincial outlook, usually say,
"But we ARE the center of the universe!"  Still, in other countries,
I could read about places like Pakistan in the international news section,
not as a filler below baseball box scores.

ABC has always had the worst Olympic coverage of any network, and every
time, they award themselves for it.  This year is a new low.  The time
spent showing sports is down to less than 1/4; half of air time is filled
with ads, and another quarter is filled with profiles of atheletes.  I
am really not interested whether Julianne McNamara feels she has missed
her childhood.  I would rather see the Chinese gymnasts.

My favorite Olympic coverage was by the CBC for the Olympics in Montreal.
Twenty hours a day, much of it without comment, of a huge range of sports.
And I did not have to hear some guy on ABC saying six times a night,
"Remember you can only score in volleyball when it's your serve."

Still, this is the best coverage of the Olympics ever by ABC.
It is biased toward the Americans, but they are by are the best team,
of those attending the Olympics.  They may be the best American team
ever, and their competition with the boycot countries would have
been interesting.