It is not my bailiwick or practice to comment on issues that are outside my realm of experience or knowledge. Foreign affairs, specifically (former) Soviet and Russian policy is not an arena where I have any standing.
I am however, an avid sports fan and look forward to the Olympics – Winter and Summer. Heck, I am depending on the Olympics to get me through this REAL New England Winter by offering an absorbing, legal and safe anti-dote to cabin fever.
Some years ago, when living in a European country as a young adult, I learned some of my first lessons about myopic American media. Seeing the Olympics through a western European lens was enlightening. I did not know prior to those experiences that it is not, “all about US.”
The opening ceremonies of the 2014 Sochi Olympics were an extraordinary display of imagination, broad artistic and technological talent. It is mind-boggling to consider the logistics for such an event. However, there was a glitch with a star that didn’t turn into an Olympic ring…which has been highlighted by American media; television, internet and print.
It was termed a “hiccup.” There was a potential plane jacking scare; there has been anger and controversy over both Russia’s flamboyant president V. Putin and the country’s anti-equality policy for homosexuals. And there is an horrific war in Syria with innocent people being slayed by the thousands that has the western “Free” world and Russia on opposite sides. It has been rumored that surveillance in hotel rooms was implanted by the Russian government.
As AP stated, “The show opened with a hiccup, as the lighting of the five Olympic Rings overshadowed the singing of the Russian national anthem. Five stars on cables drifted together above the stadium, and four of them turned into Olympic rings — but the fifth never unfurled and they all failed to erupt into white flames as planned.
Also missing from the show: Putin’s repression of dissent, those worries of terrorism and inconsistent security measures at the Olympics, which will take place just a few hundred miles (kilometers) away from the sites of an insurgency and routine militant violence. Also looked over: the tensions with the United States over neighboring Ukraine, NSA leaker Edward Snowden and Syria.
And the poorly paid migrant workers who helped build up the Sochi site from scratch, the disregard for local residents, the environmental abuse during construction, the pressure on activists, and the huge amounts of Sochi construction money that disappeared to corruption.”
All that seems like a thinly veiled AP backhand that highlights the opinion that there is a rotten underbelly to the event and host. Should media have criticisms of Putin, Russians or Russia in all of it’s MSM Olympic coverage? It looks like MSM has an agenda to demonize the host country by pointing out the failings with every report. Maybe this will change as we move into the actual events? Has this pejorative portrayal of Russia been orchestrated by American media outlets, worldwide? There even seems to be an undercurrent of testostrone zinging between President Putin and President Obama. Is there?
Is it justified? Well, yes if we are sticking with reality-based commentary, but is it useful to bash the host at this juncture? When the host country is chosen does the Olympic selection committee not take into consideration real issues of concern like freedom?
What are your observations?
51 billion spent and they can’t have manhole covers our shower curtains? They couldn’t make sure the Bruin’s 6’9″ defensemen representing his country had a big boy bed? I’m not buying it. How many I’d those billions were bribes to the IOC? How much were corrupt payouts to Putin allies and mobsters – it must be so huge that “skimming off the top” could hardly do it justice. There are tens of millions in Russia living in abject poverty, worse off now than at the collapse of the Soviet Union. Thousands of LGBT people are being beaten up, harassed and murdered – and when they go to the police for help, they get beaten up some more. Russia has pretty much made being gay or supporting LGBT rights illegal, as Putin had turned gay bashing into his new pet issue to win votes.
This is a country that’s turning into a brutal dictatorship before our very eyes, and who’s gross incompetence and incalculable levels of corruption has led to a winter Olympics that has cost more than all other Winter Olympics combined (!!!) yet is so profoundly unready and unprepared for them.
And I haven’t even gotten to the environmental abuse our the mass slaughter of dogs that have occurred around these Olympics. People can’t even put the water outing out of the faucets on their faces in many cases, warned against it by hotel staff.
This had been such an I’ll planned and disastrous affair that they couldn’t even sell out the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony! Few countries have ever deserved this international rebuke more – and it’s practically the only thing the world can do to tell Russia that enough is enough, to stop the corruption and the persecution.
Apparently Swype has trouble with that on my phone. Please excuse the other typos as well… long posts on a phone is usually a bad idea.
I think my general point came across though.
There is certainly a time and place for exposes on what went wrong with the Olympics. However, during these two weeks the coverage should be focused squarely on what is happening at the various venues as we come together to celebrate athletic feats and the universal nature of sport. I don’t watch the Olympics much anyway except for the opening and closing ceremonies, but I’d be really turned off if coverage of every event sounded like it needed to include input from Debbie Downer.
being persecuted against for holding hands in public or gathering in a small protest not even inside Sochi?
What should we do as Russia butchers thousands of dogs in Sochi, poisoning them with a toxin that suffocates them slowly, so they don’t cause a ‘nuisance’ to the non-existent fan base?
What about all the hundreds of athletes who would like to show their support for human rights or anything that’s going on in Russia and told that they can’t so much as wear rainbow colored nail polish?
To HELL with that, Christopher. No way. Now is EXACTLY the time people should be speaking up the loudest, because it’s the ONLY time the world — and Russia — is listening. If we don’t stand up for what’s right now, nothing — NOTHING — is going to change.
You’ll have to elaborate on the dog thing – I have no idea what you are talking about. The athletes have worked their tails off to get to this point and it is their moment. Coverage of the events should stick to those events, preferably what I think of as C-SPAN style, though that’s probably too much to hope for from NBC. I didn’t say don’t speak up or even don’t cover it at all, just remember even Hitler hosted the Olympics and we should stick as close as possible to the principle of an Olympic truce.
I think the market will dictate whatever the TV “should” show. If coverage strays too far from that, there will indeed be consequences for it.
If Debbie Downer increases sales for Fritos, trousers, home insurance, or pizzas, you can bet you’ll see a lot of her.
Full disclosure: I’m not watching the Olympics. I don’t care about them. At. All.
I was out at a local restaurant last night, celebrating my son’s 20th birthday with him. I couldn’t avoid (because of the 27 screens behind the full-length bar) the entry of the US team.
I have never seen a finer example of schlock, cheesiness, cliche, and sheer vacuity. How many millions or tens of millions were spent on these embarrassing costumes, replete with the obligatory stars and such.
WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?
Our culture is tolerating the wholesale destruction of our world-wide faith and credit, the intentional dismantling of whatever safety nets had been strung up by Democrats during these four long decades after Ronald Reagan, the bald-faced lies about the need for “austerity” in the federal budget. All this driven by the claim that “we can’t afford it”.
Against THAT poor-mouthing backdrop, we see THIS flagrant display of utter tastelessness? Is there nobody in America who can design such uniforms with even a smidgen of elegance?
However much money was spent on these absurd costumes, it would have been more entertaining to print it as one-dollar bills, stack it in a huge heap, and set it aflame.
Are you complaining about being too patriotic? I think national pride is fine. If you just think they’re ugly, well, there’s that saying about there being no accounting for taste. I’m pretty sure the team is sponsored by private donations, but you seem to imply taxpayers paid for the uniforms.
The “taxpayers” paid for these uniforms indirectly in the form of tax revenues that should have been collected and weren’t. I’m willing to wager that the overwhelming majority of the “donations” that paid for these were tax deductible “contributions” to a “non-profit organization”.
This money, however many millions it was, would have been better spent addressing our pressing national needs — extending federal unemployment benefits comes to mind.
When demands for “austerity” cause federal goods and services to be retracted, the result is effective wealth transfer from the 99% to that 1%.
I love national pride, as much as anyone. It is that very national pride that these cheesy embarrassments offend.
Tom, we can’t claim rights over every dime that ends up on someone’s tax return. The sweaters are ugly, but what next — I deduct classroom supplies on my taxes so you get to opine on what type of dry-erase markers I buy?
All that said, yes, the sweaters are horrible. Worst-dressed opening ceremonies contingent.
I get that we can’t DO anything about it.
I’m was mostly responding to Christopher’s argument that because “private donations” paid for them, the taxpayers somehow did not. It seems like simple arithmetic to me — if the amounts spent on those uniforms were funded by tax-deductible contributions, then taxpayers paid for them.
I fear your analogy is flawed. I would rather see a small fraction of the deduction that somebody got for those hideous uniforms go to
your school district so that it buys those school supplies itself. I find it preposterous that a society that claims to care about children forces teachers to buy their own dry-erase markers. Especially when that society is offering tax deductions for Olympic uniforms (no matter how tasteful).
I have a child in school. In my town, parents get a list at the beginning of every school year, telling them what office supplies they’re expected to send to school with their child. At least one year, dry-erase markers were on the list. Other listed items were Post-It note pads, tissues, and Sharpies.
I get to buy all those things AND subsidize the Olympic program – the best of both worlds!
At first I didn’t like these sweaters, but they have started to grow on me. Like an Ugly Christmas sweater.
Couple of things about them:
They are currently sold out.
Take more than 12 hours to make.
Hand made in the USA.
Cost $595 (add $195 if you want the pants too)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/08/team-usa-olympic-sweater_n_4751673.html
I’d bet they were thinking “Too bad we couldn’t get away with some big ExxonMobil and WalMart logos on these things, like NASCAR.” Also, corporate sponsorship for event teams: The Citibank US Skating Team! The Target US Biathlon Team! The Morgan Stanley US Downhill Skiing Team!
Matt Lauer and Co are having a positive controversy free coverage over at NBC. I don’t mind the focus on athletes and am heartened that at the Winter Games the focus is more international than American centric-but not reporting on what is happening outside the arena abrogates journalistic responsibilities. Sochi looks like a Potemkin village and the arena didn’t even appear to be half full. The opening ceremonies between the recent summer and this games couldn’t be more different. Britain’s was fun, poppy, and multi cultural. It celebrated achievements in music, culture, science and even public health. This one was dark, dour, with Wagnerian music and Rifenstahl imagery and an undertow of muscular uberman winning one for Mother Russia. I wasn’t impressed.
Bob Costas was all over the subjects mentioned in this thread last night and said we’d be hearing more about all of them the next two weeks.
The NBC coverage of the opening ceremonies pointed out quite clearly the omissions in the “history” segment. No mentions of Lenin or Stalin, the whole Yeltsin era glossed over, etc.
was the word I heard used to describe the omissions.
Why shouldn’t it? Though one might be forgiven for wondering if they forgot the whole Soviet Union era. This is a sporting event, not a news story. I’m not at all a sports fan so maybe I’m missing something, but we don’t expect all this extraneous coverage of our World Series and Super Bowls, do we?
except the rare case where a Canadian team (there’s only one left) makes the World Series.
The Olympics are by definition international, even global, and have always had a political aspect. From Jesse Owens winning 4 golds in Hitler’s face, to decisions about recognizing West and East Germany separately, to Tommie Smith and John Carlos, to the horrors of Munich, to the dueling boycotts of Moscow and LA, to the “opening” of the Iron Curtain in post-Tito Sarajevo, to concern about China’s human rights record in 2008.
Did they displace thousands of homeowners to build the Meadowlands? Were they shooting dogs and beating gays right outside the stadium? If you think Jesse Owens was just a sports story you really missed something in history. I hope Billie Jean King can drape some medals over our athletes and I hope we have a least one openly gay winner at the podium. Mr. Putin can sincerely go fuck himself-maybe then he’ll finally be thrown in jail for breaking the law.
Above Directed to Christopher not Fenway
…and thus absolutely appropriate to focus on his role at the 1936 games. Again, I’m not saying don’t cover this stuff at all, just not while I’m trying to watch the actual events (hypothetically speaking, since I’m not likely to watch).
I’m not sure what the desired outcome is here. I would have prefered not to award the 2008 Olympics to Beijing either given their human rights record, but the IOC maybe on principle turns a blind eye to such things in favor of which city can logistically be the best host. Once that was lost I just say for two weeks lets enjoy the games.
It also occurs to me that BMG commentary on the Olympics has been heavily negative in general. I seem to recall a thread during the Vancouver games the premise of which was how dare an American network sound like they were rooting for Americans. Not to long ago we had a thread discussing the possibility of bringing the Olympics to Boston and almost everyone panned the idea. Now there is this thread. Did I miss a memo saying that progressives should be opposed to the Olympics in general on some sort of knee-jerk ideological grounds?
They focused on his success in Berlin contradicting Hitler’s views on racial supremacy, and the social ramifications of Hitler having to award those medals. Some journalists even mentioned that, in focusing on Hitler, the U.S. was hypocritically ignoring that it had its own people who believed in white supremacy. The politics, not just running fast.
The opposition, as I read the thread, is not to the Olympics in general but to Putin’s Russia. And don’t you think U.S. networks go over the top with their U.S. focus and rooting? When I lived in Western Europe coverage was nothing like it is here.
I got a “poke in the ribs” message from my sister who lives outside Detroit on Thursday morning. “Having coffee, getting ready for work, watching Olympics on CBC.” The advantages of living near the Canadian border…
Joanna Weiss had a funny piece on the NBC coverage in the Globe today. Not sure if you can read it online w/o a subscription.
The government of the PRC owns all the TV networks there, and there’s a lot of them. My wife tells me that in China, you can watch all of every event, even if there are no Chinese athletes in it. She’d know, because she grew up there, and was in Beijing during the 2008 Olympics. Our capitalist model of selling exclusive rights to one network ensures that we can’t have what the Chinese have.
NBC sucks, but the Russians censored the fifth ring failing and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chinese state tv coverage was similar in its censorship. But the whole idea if “buying rights” in a b2b fashion off of publicly created airwaves is rather offensive in general but especially for events of significance like this one.
I am intrigued by the different perspectives being put forth and really have more questions than answers or opinions.
Curious though, are my reverse reactions to Great Britain’s vs. Russia’s opening ceremonies. I thought GB was dark (that whole industrialization segment was not only boring it was three-toned brown, black and gray….very dour) and the Russian ballerina, dancing and colors were very good if not surprisingly whimsical.
They had a whole dance number celebrating Mods, the British Invasion, punk, interracial dating and the NHS. The industrial segment definitely dragged and had a Byronic/Tolkein air about it (ents getting devoured to fuel the fires of Isengard’s army and what not) that made us question the otherwise march if progress through space and time. The Russian one, while colorful, seemed focused on the idea that we are a tough people run by tough men and that is the way it is and ever should be. It would be nice if the IOC added promoting human rights and democracy to its platform.
….that was er, unique.
I absolutely LOVED the shout out to the NHS in the London Olympics! I guess that puts me in the company of the “the second most dangerous man in America” . . .
Sometimes liberals turn into self-parodies insisting that misery must always dominate. No, Russia’s Opening Ceremonies did not discuss supporting Syria, Russian homelessness, antigay repression, or its other past and present crimes. When I attended Atlanta’s Opening Ceremonies, I don’t remember much on the Native American genocide, legacy of slavery, or today’s barbaric incarceration rate. Sometimes a country can allow itself some pride. Doesn’t mean I’m going to attack the whole exercise and hundreds of millions of people.
More telling, frankly, is the fact that the Russian tv feed was doctored to exclude the snowflake/ring malfunction, lest it show any imperfection. Very totalitarian (and not dissimilar from NBC’s awkward exclusion from a midspeech statement in support of diversity by the Olympic head.)
If you recall Christopher I was a Boston booster for a winter games (similar siE to Vancouver and it could be regionalized). I also was not critiquing the opening ceremony for excluding bad parts of the history-just that it was clearly designed to tell a dour , dark, monolithic message befitting its present. The anti-gay environment is also important and something I’ve heard NBC mention zero times. Owens was an athlete but his victory made a statement, so did the black power salutes, and I would argue those actions lived up to the best ideals of the IOC and I hope we can have some moments like that here. Hard to see how with the media and athletes neutering their comments though. But I didn’t back a boycott -that would be unfair to the athletes and the program.
I think it bizarre that NBC cut out in mid-speech the warning of the IOC President to be more tolerant. Costas did talk about some negatives at the opening of the broadcast on Friday night. Then again, NBC coverage of the games has been atrocious for decades.
Except for the fringe I think Americans are generally on board these days with basic tolerance even if we aren’t all ready for marriage equality, and I doubt many here condone violence directed at gay people. Therefore, I’m not sure if NBC were afraid to offend someone and if so, why, especially since they are the parent of MSNBC. Also, since it wasn’t live anyway they could show everything without worrying about timing.
I haven’t watched endlessly, but the sports coverage I’ve seen has been no different from any other Olympics. The only political comments I’ve seen were by Costas before the ceremonies and then during the actual ceremonies coverage. The idea that Putin was trying to get across the message, via the program. that because of its vast size Russian needs a strong-handed leader, was clearly stated.
One other note: Some folks (including us) thought that the gloves worn by the Greek team were purposely rainbow colored to make a pro-gay statement. It ends up that the fingers of the gloves are the colors of the five Olympic rings and they are actually for sale in Sochi.
Final note: Lugers are nuts!!! 🙂 But not as nuts as the skeleton racers.