Sunday Thoughts 20

- Like a lot of people I have been frustrated with the Olympic Coverage.  During the Beijing Games we were actually on vacation in the Pacific Northwest, and were able to watch the Canadian coverage of the games and were absolutely blown away.  Not only were there fewer commercials, less “studio” segments, and less tape delayed coverage; but there were almost no human interest montages.  You know the ones with manipulative music and lighting all designed to make you feel a certain way about an athlete in an event that may have already played out.  Shockingly the Canadian network thought the events spoke for themselves.  Whether it is because most people like NBC’s coverage or because they are the only game in town, their ratings have been historically high.  So I guess spoon feeding and pretending that we don’t already know the results works for them.

- I am a product of the SportsCenter generation.  When I would miss school as a kid I would watch the highlight show 3 or 4 times in a row as they used to run the previous nights show on a loop the following morning.  Like a lot of people there are things about the show that have become annoying (East coast bias, rampant cliches, Stuart Scott), but I still crack up at the obscure pop culture references or whenever Kenny Mayne is the host.

Now the running cliche from my youth was “How many times do you see a guy make a great play on defense and turn around and make a great play on offense.”  However in the last four years instead of showing an athlete using the apparent momentum from one big play to make another, the anchor has started saying: “Whenever we edit it that way.”  SportsCenter is reflecting the postmodern turn of society.  Watching highlights is an illusion and a controlled experience.  By admitting this openly they are communicating more effectively with the audience.

- Like everybody else I watched the Tiger mea culpa.  I know there has been a lot said on whether or not he needed to apologize or even if he apologized enough.  To me it seemed that he was primarily trying to convey his extreme regret but he did so in a very robotic way.  Now he may be sincere and just been on empty as he continues rehab and trying to save his marriage, but on gut reactions alone he seemed to try and do too much without saying enough.

- The Tea Party folks are trying to go mainstream while maintaining their “grass roots” identity.  I think they may have just loaded the gun they have pointed at their own foot.

- Not sure if President Obama is approaching this bipartisan health care meeting the best.  I know he is saying that he wants to hear their ideas, but to say he is doing it with a condescending tone would be an understatement.  With the Republicans embracing the “Party of No” ideal and running to the right at CPAC I think he has to be a bit more diplomatic in his approach.

- Sarah Palin endorsed a former reality TV star.