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From: lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Olympic sportscastings -- some wire service items
Message-ID: <373@vortex.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 5-Aug-84 07:38:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: vortex.373
Posted: Sun Aug  5 07:38:55 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 6-Aug-84 03:29:45 EDT
Organization: Vortex Technology, Los Angeles
Lines: 259

n093  1826  03 Aug 84
AM-OLY-IOC
(Sub Dateline)
(Sports)
By JANE GROSS
c. 1984 N.Y. Times News Service
    NEW YORK - The president of the International Olympic Committee has
protested what he calls the overemphasis on American athletes in
ABC's television coverage of the Games.
    Peter Ueberroth, the president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing
committee, characterized the protest as a ''stern message'' that ABC,
with its flag-waving emphasis on American athletes, threatened to
diminish the ''international flavor'' of the Games in the eyes of the
American public. The president of the international committee, Juan
Antonio Samaranch, made the formal protest in a letter to the Los
Angeles committee.
    Ueberroth said that the letter repesented ''quite a consensus'' of
the nine-member I.O.C. executive board and that he had urged the
network ''to consider trying to give a good focus'' to its coverage.
''I think you'll see their focus change,'' Ueberroth said, describing
the network's reacation to the complaint as ''sensitive.''
    Neither the network nor the I.O.C. made any formal statements about
the incident Friday afternoon from their Los Angeles headquarters,
nor did they release the text of Samaranch's letter. An I.O.C source,
who requested anonymity, said the unusual personal appeal was made
''in the spirit of Rule 51 of the Olympic Charter,'' which mandates
''unbiased'' media coverage fair to all countries participating in
the Games and which ABC is expected to honor under the terms of its
contract with the Los Angeles committee.
    Tom Osenton, ABC's manager of Olympic publicity, said he believed
the I.O.C. complaint, and previous objections raised in recent days
by non-American athletes and coaches, was based on the
''misconception'' that ''what they're seeing on television in Los
Angeles is what the world is seeing.''
    The American network, which paid $225 million for the exclusive
television rights to the Games, is recording almost every minute of
competition in all sports. In addition to its 180 hours of broadcasts
in the United States, the network offers its entire 1,300 hours of
coverage to countries around the world, who then edit to fit their
needs.
    Another ABC official, who asked that he not be identified,
reiterated that ''each country has the opportunity to pick out what
they want'' and also defended the American coverage as an accurate
reflection of the competition, in which the Americans have won more
than twice as many medals as any other country.
    ''We cover, as all nations do, the medal winners,'' he said, ''and
we don't feel we should be in a position of apologizing for what the
Americans are doing. They're cleaning up and that's what we're
covering.''
    Going into Friday night's competitions, American athletes had won 24
of the 42 gold medals awarded.
    Ueberroth said that he had not seen very much of the television
coverage and had ''no personal complaint,'' but added that he had
received ''several'' letters from the general public objecting to
ABC's coverage. Similar negative opinion has been expressed by
American television reviewers and by many people who have been
watching the Games in large and enthusiastic numbers.
    Apart from concentrating on American athletes, which can be
justified by their domination so far, the ABC telecasts have
resonated with other sorts of partiality. When the American men's
team won a gold medal in gymnastics, their euphoria on the victory
stand was shown, with the National Anthem playing and the flag
raised. When the Romanian women won the team medal, the network
elected to pass up the victory ceremony and switch to a delayed
newscast.
    The ABC commentators - among them Jack Whitaker, Chris Schenkel,
Frank Gifford and Kathleen Sullivan - refer repeatedly during
American telecasts to ''our'' chances in a given event and how ''we''
won this or that competition. Friday morning, during an interview
with Jeff Blatnick, an American gold medalist, who had recovered from
cancer, Miss Sullivan wept openly.
    The American coverage has prompted denigrating comment in newspapers
around the world, including The Daily Mail and The Guardian in London
and Le Monde in Paris, all of whom characterized ABC's approach as
self-centered. Friday in Britain, BBC commentators, whose words
accompany ABC's pictures, described with dismay a decision to
re-schedule the final in the three-day equestrian event, to the
inconvenience of viewers elsewhere in the world, because American
competitors were unexpectedly involved.
    Compared to American telecasts, the broadcasters in other countries
are apparently rather more even-handed and different in tone. In
France, according to one viewer, the tone is ''self-mocking,''
including remarks like ''we did extremely badly in this event, but
what did you expect?'' In Britain, where the BBC broadcast more than
11 hours Friday, considerable air time is devoted to British
competitors, but more to pre-eminent athletes regardless of
nationality.
    ''The British swimmers, even though they haven't won, are being
watched closely,'' said Jonathan Wright Miller, a British freelance
television director in a telephone interview from London. ''But, in
gymnastics, there's no point looking at English people so we're
looking at the Japanese, Chinese and Americans. We're also seeing a
lot of Edwin Moses, because quite rightly everybody wants to look at
him, but when our commentators talk about Edwin Moses they talk about
Edwin Moses, not another win for America. Also, we don't see the flag
go up, not even our own, because we're not interested in that aspect.
We have a cooler atmosphere about the Olympics.''
    
nyt-08-03-84 2124edt
***************

!a214  1121  04 Aug 84
AM-American Olympics, Bjt,820
Are the Games Too Red, White and Blue?
An AP Extra
By SCOTT KRAFT
Associated Press Writer
    LOS ANGELES (AP) - These Games of the XXIII Olympiad have become an
American Olympics, a red, white, blue - and gold - crescendo that has
almost drowned out those 139 national anthems that don't begin, ''Oh
say can you see...''
    The United States has won almost half of the gold medals contested
thus far, and even some U.S. fans are embarrassed by the riches.
    ''It's a shame we don't have more competition,'' said Dorothy Malo,
of San Diego, watching track and field competition at Los Angeles
Memorial Coliseum, where the Olympic Torch burns.
    Certainly the Games of Los Angeles, which reached their midway point
Saturday, have been a big, brassy celebration of Americana.
    The torch relay was the longest ever. The opening ceremony was
hailed as the most dramatic. The American team quickly won more medals
than anyone else.
    A lot more. Too many more, some thought.
    ''Americans do like to see Americans win medals, but it's gotten to
the point where you want to see the other competitors win some,''
said Jim McKay, ABC-TV's Olympic anchorman.
    The cheers are louder for the Americans. The crowds are bigger when
the Americans are in contention. The stands are usually a sea of
American flags.
    ''We are much calmer in our countries, not so full of patriotism,''
said a Swedish official who asked not to be identified. ''We're used
to spectators screaming, but this is a bit too much.''
    The International Olympic Committee, worried that the Games were
losing their international flavor, had asked ABC to tone down its
pro-American coverage. But after meeting with top ABC officials, IOC
President Juan Antonio Samaranch changed his mind. ''We are very happy
with the coverage,'' he said.
    Nevertheless, Roone Arledge, president of ABC news and sports,
conceded that Samaranch had a point.
    ''There is some validity with this complaint,'' he said. ''I'm
trying to get across to our people that we're not here to root
Americans home.''
    Not only is the United States grabbing much of the gold, it is
reveling in the victories. But few countries would be doing as well if
the Soviet Union and the 13 Warsaw Pact nations it led on an Olympic
boycott were here.
    The Soviet Union's official press has been haranguing the Games from
afar all week, reporting some Olympic results but reminding its
citizens that many of the world's top athletes are not in Los Angeles.
    That, along with some stunning U.S. performances, has fueled
patriotic feelings that peaked Wednesday night when a sextet of
clean-cut young gymnasts upset China for the men's team gymnastics
title.
    It continued Friday night when a capacity crowd at Pauley Pavilion
joined 16-year-old gold medalist Mary Lou Retton in singing the
national anthem after she upset Romanian Ecaterina Szabo in the
women's all-around gymnastics competition.
    Clara Ruckman, of Covina, Calif., who was waiting for a shuttle bus
to take her to another Olympic event, said she has been heartened by
the flag-waving.
    ''I'm thinking about the '60s, when kids wouldn't have been caught
dead with an American flag in their hands,'' she said. ''I think
patriotism was here all the time. We just needed something to bring it
out.''
    For non-Americans, though, all the attention is bothersome.
    While Petra Van Staveren was winning Holland's first gold medal, in
the women's 100-meter breakstroke on Thursday, the Dutch National
Olympic Committee here got a call from Holland complaining that
television coverage had suddenly switched over to gymnastics because
the Americans were in the lead.
    ''All we ever seem to get on television is America, America and more
America,'' said Truus Van Amstel, a spokeswoman for the Dutch
committee.
    Tom Osenton, ABC's manager of Olympic publicity, said the U.S.
telecast ''reflects what has happened. The Americans have dominated
the Olympics early, and the show has reflected that.'' He noted also
that ABC broadcasts were tailored for each country's needs by native
broadcasters.
    In staying home, the Soviets said the United States couldn't
guarantee their security during the Games. Security precautions last
week included concrete barricades on roads leading into the Olympic
Villages, skies full of police helicopters and SWAT teams stationed on
rooftops near Olympic events.
    This is the first Summer Olympics in the United States in half a
century, and Los Angeles had plenty of pre-Olympic nightmares about
choking smog, gridlock and terrorist attacks. None of those nightmares
has come true.
    But the city's good dreams - a business boom for merchants, rental
car agencies, airlines, hotels and restaurants - haven't come true
either.
    City officials blame the worries about problems during the Olympics
for scaring off potential non-Olympic vacationers. But Mayor Tom
Bradley was philosophical. ''The tourist who would have come this
summer will come another time,'' he said.
    
ap-ny-08-04 1421EDT
***************

!a253  1650  04 Aug 84
AM-Olympics Coverage,530
ABC Not Alone in Being Criticized For Home-Team Coverage
With AM-American Olympics Bjt
Eds: A version moving on the sports wires.
By The Associated Press
    ABC isn't the only network in the world being criticized for
home-team boosterism in its Olympic coverage.
    Viewers in Australia complained that coverage beamed there dwelled
too much on Aussie competitors, and Italian columnists ripped that
country's commentators for a pro-Italian stance, especially one
broadcaster's pat on the back for an Italian athlete accused of
cheating.
    Many countries are carrying pictures and commentary supplied by ABC,
but the British Broadcasting Corp. and West German television each
have cameras in Los Angeles.
    The BBC, which said there was ''no danger'' of its programming
becoming ''Americanized,'' was in turn ripped by Kenyans for failing
to cover African athletes.
    ''Admittedly, television coverage of the Los Angeles Games is an
expensive affair, but it is beyond the means of any one African nation
to bring live coverage of its national team's performance to its
television viewers,'' wrote editor Hilary Ng'weno of the Independent
Weekly Review.
    ''But going to the other extreme of taking any old material that is
offered is no answer to the problem,'' Ng'weno added.
    The International Olympic Committee issued the loudest objection
when it wrote a letter to Peter Ueberroth, president of the Los
Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee. The letter said ABC's coverage
threatened the international flavor of the Games.
    IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch met Friday with ABC officials
and later said he believed ''international broadcasters have received
appropriate coverage of the Olympic Games.''
    The London Daily Mirror and Mexico's Televisa S.A., among others,
admitted that ABC can hardly avoid a heavy American tilt because U.S.
athletes have won about 40 percent of the gold medals awarded so far.
    ''They have been covering first places,'' said Televisa S.A.'s
Gullermo Gonzalez said. ''If the United States is in the first place,
that's not their fault.''
    However, the Daily Mirror added, coverage is ''creating
ever-mounting criticism. They (ABC) are burying the Games beneath a
Stars and Stripes flag.''
    And British journalist Michael Thompson-Noel of the Financial Times
railed against the ''nonsensical frenzy of some of the commentators
of the ABC, who psyche and flagellate themselves into such a lather of
over-kill at the merest scent of an American victory that the
distinction between programming and puffery became so finely etched as
to be rendered invisible.''
    Australia, a country traditionally strong in swimming, has been
mixing the ABC feed with its own footage from six Australian cameras.
    ''Almost everything we need we've gotten from the ABC,'' said John
Davies of Network 10. He said there are no complaints about a
pro-American bias.
    ''If anything, we've had complaints on just the opposite,'' he said,
noting several complaints alleging a pro-Australia bias in local
feeds.
    Italian broadcasters have been criticized in their home press for an
ignorance of the English language - they had no idea what ''welcome''
meant during coverage of the opening ceremonies - and for scoring
rules of lesser known sports like Greco-Roman wrestling.
    
ap-ny-08-04 1950EDT