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.