American Olympic coverage hyper patriotic?

[Locut0s]

One expects every country to cover their own athletes with a sense of pride and patriotism but every time the Summer Olympics comes up and I watch NBCs coverage of it I can't help but cringe a little when listening to some of the commentators. Was just watching some coverage of preliminary womens gymnastics and the announcer kept going on and on about how the US team CRUSHED the world and other countries at previous meets and how NO ONE is better than the american team. Then they very quickly mentioned how they had won silver at the previous 2 all round team events at the olympics and didn't want a repeat of that, huh what? Don't get me wrong I'm sure the coverage in China of their athletes is 10x as hyperbolic but it would still be nice to see both more balanced coverage and have some of the hyper patriotic notes turned down just a little. If you watch coverage from other countries which don't have as high a stakes in the game it's much more about the spirit of sports in general.

Edit: Note I'm Canadian.

[murielm99]

1. It makes me cringe a bit, too.

I don't watch it to see the U.S. crush other teams. I take pride in our athletes, but I love seeing a dark horse win, or the excitement when a country like Ireland sends a gymnast who simply gets to compete. I love seeing the discipline and dedication that produces such beautifully honed bodies. I love seeing the closeness of teammates who have worked with other disciplined young competitors.

This is about so much more than patriotism.

[AllyCat]

2. Dunno about patriotic but

I could do without the catty comments about the gymnasts while forgetting to post the damn score. Less "human interest " and more about some of the incredible sportsmanship I have seen would be welcomed.

[Odin2005]

3. Not enough coverage of other countries' athletes.

[veganlush]

4. i agree. tone it down a little

We don't need commentators spinning it, we can watch and see who prevails.

[Populist_Prole]

5. I've always thought so

Has been for decades. What burns my ass the most is when shallow finance types shit on American workers, industry, products, yet get all patriotic over sports

[tularetom]

6. I dunno about hyper partiotic but it is definitely hyper

It's all conducted many decibels and two or three octaves above normal conversational speech.

And several orders of magnitude below normal adult IQ levels.

Muting the volume works pretty well for me.

[LibDemAlways]

7. The morons at NBC think everybody is home screaming USA USA USA at the

television screen. Apparently no one told them that there are viewers who would appreciate a more international perspective that recognizes and appreciates the hard work and dedication of all.

Too much cheerleading. Too much dwelling on a few well known names. Pitiful excuse for Olympics coverage.

[kraj8995]

8. Its part of their profession.

I think there is nothing wrong in it.Its simply a feel of pride or these guys have to speak so much in a hyperactive manner.

[laundry_queen]

9. 'nother Canadian here who agrees

In the past, if a Canadian channel wasn't carrying a sport I wanted to see that a Canadian was participating in (perhaps a more famous, successful athlete/sport was being featured on the Cdn station) and the sport was being featured on an American channel, I would switch. It was usually only a matter of time before I would give up, since not only did the American channel not mention the other countries - often they just cut them right out of the feed so you wouldn't even know other countries were competing. I haven't even bothered with NBC this time. I've heard enough here, LOL.

[Surya Gayatri]

10. Disgusting display of nationalistic hubris...

For the men's 400m free-style relay, I watched both the BBC One and NBC Sports coverage of the same event.

After the French grabbed the gold in an exciting finish, the British gave the great French team their due despite the traditional and historical rivalry between the two countries.

Unbelievably, the NBC commentators hardly showed or even mentioned the French victors. Their coverage consisted largely of 4-year old footage of the US men's team beating out the French in Beijing. The sub-text was: They may have beaten us today, but damn, did we beat the snot out of them 4 years ago.

I couldn't believe I was watching the same event that I'd already witnessed on the BBC. Terrible reporting and coverage!

[meg3325]

11. Obnoxious patriotism

The coverage is totally one-sided and overly patriotic. Sure, we have great athletes but the NBC coverage is overkill. It's the USA kicking the world's ass. It would be nice to see a country come from behind and win a gold medal for a change. Also, there is too much bouncing around different venues instead of a seamless transition from one event to another. Don't even get me started on the annoying commercials.

[bhikkhu]

12. On BBC One (online) that I've been watching they focus quite a bit on the brits...

to the point that I would call it very patriotic. Which is fine, especially since they are hosting the games.

I'd watch NBC and probably not mind the cheerleading for the US team, but I refuse to buy into a 2 year cable contract just to watch the olympics, and that's about the only way they would allow me to view their coverage. Reminding me again how much NBC and US networks suck.

[JaneyVee]

13. No way. Power to the people!