TELEVIEWS / Olympic coverage was great except for the media itself

August 28, 2008 by Dennis Amith

In the latest Televiews column for the Daily Yomiuri, Wm. Penn wrote, “Maybe I’m mellowing with age, but I really enjoyed most of the Beijing Olympics TV coverage this year.”

“Oh sure, most days it was hard to tell where sports coverage ended and the regular news reports began. And, of course, the media’s medal-mania and greed for gold was on display all day long, every day. But the athletes themselves, with their dramas, triumphs and anguish, were all winners and certainly greatly deserved the little “thank you to all the athletes” that appeared on the Fuji TV screen at the end of their Olympics coverage. Unfortunately, the networks’ greed for gold trumped gratitude too much of the time.”

“Go, do your best, experience and enjoy” were not the operative media emotions. Most of the Japanese athletes were forced to bear the heavy weight of the media’s expectations, and commentators allowed them little slack even when they were injured or up against considerable competition.”

“The commentators back in their comfy Tokyo studios were particularly hard on the judo team and marathon runners.”

“By the second week, I was happy to see some of the athletes appear to ever so politely, ever so subtly, fight back by saying things like they had done their best and wanted to enjoy the Olympic experience.”