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From: hutch@shark.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: American sportscasting : followup.
Message-ID: <963@shark.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-Aug-84 03:19:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: shark.963
Posted: Tue Aug  7 03:19:48 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 9-Aug-84 01:05:19 EDT
References: <368@oddjob.UChicago.UUCP>
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 57

< They pelted us with rocks and garbage! >

| W.r.t. comments that the problem is not the American people, but just
| ABC -- baloney!  ABC is a business.  They do not broadcast stuff that
| people don't want to hear.  Americans love to hear that they are the
| best.  Americans love to hear that they have won an infinite amount of
| gold medals, especially if they beat the communists.  And the American
| people just eat it up.  If you don't like the coverage, change it!  It
| is supposed to be a free country.

And do you care to tell us, oh wondrous fount of all wisdom, how we are
to change a fait accompli?  ABC has the coverage now and we cannot change
that fact in any way.  What we CAN do, and what HAS been done, is to
complain loudly to ABC and to their sponsors about the cruddy quality of
the so-called coverage.  That has already had some effect, not enough to
really change things.

Don't assume that just because we recognize your right to speak freely
that we will sit by and whimper as you self-righteously chastise us for
what you imagine to be the egotistical faults of all americans.  We will
laugh at you, or deride you, but not particularly pay heed to your rant.
I don't particularly care to hear anything at all about medals.  I am an
american.  Your assertion is demonstrated false.

| However, I am sure that the coverage is just what the American people
| want to see. Why don't we see any other medal ceremonies than ones in
| which an American has won (or co-won) a gold medal? No-no-no. Can't
| have that. It is already too much that the U.S. hasn't won.

Tell me, please, how you get this interesting notion?  What I want to see
is real coverage.  I would enjoy the boxing much more without Mouth Cosell
and his verbal flatulence.  I would have enjoyed seeing more of the
gymnastic competition, at least enough to get an idea of the caliber of
the field.  As an addicted weight trainer, I am very annoyed at the
lousy coverage of weightlifting.

I don't particularly care what country an athlete represents.  There is
no real effect on the world in any case, since we still prefer to kill
one another rather than to use this kind of competition to decide our
differences.

| To be fair, I have received some mail from Americans who agree with me,
| but I am sure there are not enough to change sports coverage, even if
| they wanted to try.

| David London ..!ihnp4!oddjob!london

David, I detect in your dulcet tomes (pun intended) an abiding and
intense detestation for everything american.  If it bothers you this
much then why are you here?  You may not realize it, but this sense
of national identity and pride which you detest is a common part of
the human being and can be found in people from all countries.
It becomes chauvinism in a lot of places.  That is unfortunate but
inevitable.  Rather than spitting venom, why not try to make the
worst cases aware that there is much to admire about other countries?

Hutch