Right - as I have said, this is not a reason to fire him, and there are lots and lots of other reasons to replace him with someone better (and there most be scores of candidates). And I am a power consumer of NBC's Olympic coverage, on most of its platform, and would rate myself as generally pleased with it, and very much enjoying the games. I hate the Opening Ceremonies of all Olympics anyway, so I don't downgrade them for anything they did with that. I also don't care that much about swimming, and mostly feel obligated to track gymnastics, so for the first week I am not that upset about anything that happens in prime time (I will care more next week with the track and field meet). As I have said, I do fault NBC for not live cable-casting the primetime events in addition to their slick broadcast package.
For me the break-out sport of this Olympics has been the Rugby 7s. The Women's Tournament was great, and the game is fast and short enough that it fits perfectly into television. I could wish for a little more info on the rules and strategy (still not sure about the details of the scrum). Also, and this seems to be a problem with most of the coverage announced State-Side, the announcers in the Rugby are at times oddly unconcerned with either the action or timing on the field. For example, the US-Australia match was close and dramatic. The US was surprisingly ahead until the very end. Australia took the ball and got it all the way down the field for a score, then got the 2-point conversion. If you were paying very close attention to the screen, you would have noticed that the entire run happened as time ran out, and that the score meant that the Aussies had dramatically snatched a tie from the jaws of seeming defeat. But if you were relying on the announcers, you would have heard the end of one of their canned anecdotes about the players (in Rugby the clock is continually running, so there is no time to tell these stories during a huddle or something), and would only have realized the impact of the score after the conversion when they announcers told us the game was over and had ended in a tie. I suspect if the announcers had been in the stadium live, they would have been better cued to match their commentary to the actual action on the field. I have seen similar problems with other sports announced remotely. On Mon, Aug 8, 2016 at 2:44 PM, Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, Aug 8, 2016 at 5:03 PM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > >> And here I thought I was the only one who hated Al Trautwig... >> >> http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/rio-2016/2016/ >> 08/08/simone-biles-al-trautwig-parents-twitter/88397510/ >> >> I pay almost no attention to gymnastics between Olympics, and even I know >> the story of Simone Biles, the most accomplished and talented gymnast in >> history, and how she and her sister were adopted by her grandfather and his >> wife when she was around 4. If I know this, Trautwig knows it (and if he >> didn't, NBC ran an "Up Close and Gooey" segment on it last night, one of >> the few I have watched). Since they adopted the girls, they are legally >> their parents, and since they have raised them since young childhood, and >> they have always called them mom and dad, they are emotionally their >> parents, and aside from all that who the hell cares, if the girls say they >> are their parents why not just call them their parents? But Al tweeted (and >> I believe made a point of saying something to the same effect on air last >> night) that they are not "really" her parents. Asshole. >> >> The internet has apparently been exacting their pound of flesh today, >> which is good. I don't know that this incident really is grounds for firing >> him (unless it turns out he is doing it for some specific, yucky purpose). >> He has issues a modified apology, but not really an explanation. The >> reasons for firing him are decades of jingoistic, bloviating gymnastics >> play by play which sometimes makes Donald Trump seem reasonable and >> restrained. >> > > I was reading through TPM headlines today (my primary online news source) > and came across a story > <http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/nbc-olympics-coverage-is-a-mess> > (link) titled NBC's Olympic Coverage Has Been a Dumpster Fire. The Trautwig > item was in there, as well as the delay and editiing of the opening > ceremony, and one or two other mistakes. I did not rush to post the story > link here because that's far from a dumpster fire. > > These Olympics may become a social media pile-on where every mistake and > perceived slight become evidence that this is THE. WORST. OLYMPICS. EVER. I > think we need to get a grip, in this group if not in general society. > > Trautwig said something inaccurate and insensitive. He did so without > malice and when his attention was called to it he apologized. Does it > really need to go beyond that? > > -- > -- > TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "TV or Not TV" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. 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