I tried, I really did. I was determined that I wasn’t going to be one of those people who moan about the Olympics. Indeed, I was one of the people who quite clearly made my feelings towards the dissenters known: stop fucking moaning about increased traffic and an influx of tourists – the Olympics is great for our country and a perfect stage for us to show off to the rest of the world.
But I’m afraid I have to take a little bit of a step back from that opinion right now. Why? Have you tried to watch BBC News or ITN or even your local news over the past few days? All it consists of is repeated wall to wall coverage of people winning medals! Which is great...but c’mon – when does it become overkill? Sure, it’s fantastic that Team GB are kicking ass in so many different events...but why, oh why, do BBC News et al feel the need to show us endless repeats of Team GB winning medals and then have the same people sat on a couch being asked ridiculous questions about their achievement? For half an hour at a time. I kid you not – I put the news on last night: Dressage/Chris Hoy/those brothers who destroyed the Triathlon. And to them all I say well done. But to put the news on again this morning and be subjected to the same images, the same interviews, the same non-news? It’s a little bit tedious, wouldn’t you say? I want to hear the news. News. BBC News showed an 8 second snippet about the Bank of England issuing some new, more ominous warning about the double-dip recession...and then it was back to lycra-clad people crying and holding big golden coins. What juxtaposition.
Now, I want to state once again that I’m not an Olympic naysayer. I have maximum respect for the achievements of Team GB (except the SHIT men’s football team). I do not condemn the whole spectacle as nothing more than a waste of money, as some do. I haven’t even mentioned the ridiculous sponsoring of the event by fast food chains (oops). But please...let’s get some perspective here. Since when, I ask you, is some bloke winning a cycling race more newsworthy than a load of civilians being blown up by government soldiers? If you need 24hour coverage of the Games, there are various media outlets available that will cater for your (somewhat neurotic) needs. But I simply can’t condone the main news channels constantly pushing the Olympics into our faces. News should be news. Sport comes at the end. That’s how it should be on a news programme. Rant over.
6 comments:
So your basically saying you prefer solemn and depressing news over fluffy, uplifting news? Interesting
Not as such - just real current affairs. Nobody really cares about athletics usually, so I just find it strange that everyone raves about it for 2 weeks every 4 years.
I'm with you. Though I would go the whole hog and say that it's a waste of money and time.
It's pretty good not having tv and just the internet at times like these tbh. You can just avoid it almost entirely should you wish. And also the BBC website has a great setup for picking out individual events and stuff to watch, so why do they need to splash it all over the news?
Well said that man!
I watched most of the events online, sometimes 2 events at a time by half-minimising the screens. I also think that BBC 1 should stop showing news altogether as they have a channel dedicated to that. They should also keep sports on sports channels just for the Olympics. I think people care about track and field becaue it's there. If it was shown al the time, (possible in today's digital age) some people would continue to watch it. Others wouldn't.
Again - well said Matt.
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