It was never our intent to live stream the Opening Ceremony or Closing Ceremony. They are complex entertainment spectacles that do not translate well online because they require context, which our award-winning production team will provide for the large prime-time audiences that gather together to watch them.
I watched a few minutes of the spectacle on the way back and forth to the can at the bar where I was drinking, with the sound off, and even considering my generally low intelligence and inebriation, it seemed pretty obvious to me what was going on.
Regnad Kcin
i dunno, the live karaoke by whoever that blonde was next to Lauer-zombie was pretty priceless
Clark
Finally, an issue that is less important/interesting than the lack of diversity on Girls.
JGabriel
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NBC thinks we’re too stupid to understand the circus part of bread & circuses without commentary.
I know that’s not true for most of us here in the Balloon Juice commentariat, but, taking into context the whole of America — in particular the Republican leaning 40%-45% — are we sure NBC is wrong?
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Donut
Someone please shove me in front of a moving bus if I EVER need Mart Lauer or Ryan Seacrest to provide context to understand anything.
Cassidy
So far I’m annoyed. The bobbleheads not shutting the fuck up during the opening was bad enough. Now, they’re showing several hours of cycling and just letting us know what other events are happening. Why can’t they show us the other events and come back and update us on the cycling.
Donut
Mart/Matt, whatever. FYWP and iPad.
hep kitty
What was the message? I didn’t watch.
JPL
Bob Costas should be sent home after his commentary. ugh..
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
I know without Eddie McGuire (for non Australians the guy’s more or less a lout with a Ryan Seacrest gig, a network buys him to be an on-air personality and they make him do everything to get their money’s worth)reading from his pre-packaged program guide of notecards I would never have been able to understand all the subtlety and nuance of the guys in the punk rock costumes jumping on pogo legs, or Mr Bean at his keyboard. British culture is hard.
beltane
Is this any different to the way such events used to be broadcast to the public in the USSR, or does corporate totalitarianism make use of stronger firewalls than the old communist totalitarianism did?
During the Vancouver Olympics I was able to find links to pirated streams of live events. NBC’s equivalent of the KGB must have cracked down on this type of thing because I can’t find any of them now. Before the conversion to digital TV I also used to watch the Olympics on CBC (I live near the border). The Bob Costa-free coverage was a million times better than NBC’s and had the added benefit of forcing me to brush up on my French.
Alexandra
Have been reading over here in London that NBC littered the thing with commericals, cut away from the tribute to the victims of London’s 7/7 bombing, did some messing around with the editing of the athletics parade… and that Merdeith Viera started singing at one point.
If anyone would like a souvenir of the opening cermony or to watch it again, perhaps seeking out a torrent of the uncommentated version (shown on one of the BBC’s digital channels) might be best.
Honestly, though… imagine a Chicago Olympics with a tribute to the victims of 9/11 and you guys finding out that the BBC cut away during that moment to interview a British athlete. I guess you’d find that pretty disrespectful.
Mark S.
I’ve stopped going to parades because I can’t understand what the fuck is going on.
beltane
@JPL: The time has come for NBC to appease the Olympic gods by sacrificing Bob Costas on the altar of Zeus. My husband thinks my Bob Costas-hate is obsessive but to me he is like the Wolf Blitzer of sports commentary.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Alexandra: There was a tribute to the 7/7 victims? I think I missed that too. Then again I didn’t watch every second. Cutting away from stuff like that is uncool in the extreme.
JGabriel
Without context from NBC, many Americans might mistake the National Health Care part of the ceremony as a celebration of health care for everyone, rather than the desperate plea for Freedom! from health care that it surely must have been.
Better to just excise the whole bit, rather than confuse Americans.
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different-church-lady
Seriously, is there anything more tedious than the whining of people who are piqued they can’t get their free/cheap entertainment delivered to them using the exact method they wish?
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@beltane: Blitzer is pretty hard to top. Costas fancies himself a poet, that’s what’s insufferable about that munchkin. Wolf is a different sort of precious.
different-church-lady
@beltane: What makes you think Zeus wants him?
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@JGabriel: When I saw that I wondered how much wingnut outrage was going to come out of it, especially now that the Shirefolk have found Willard lacking.
JGabriel
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Mark S.:
I’ve stopped going to parades because patriotism in crowds scares me ever since I saw the Nuremberg Rallies (in color!).
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monkeyfister
I watched the live stream via BBC, and they had the Official Olympics Talking Heads– the same people giving commentary on NBC- giving full “context.” The live stream was in beautiful, multi-camera, hi-def quality. Basically, the NBC guy is a fucking idiot.
NonyNony
@JGabriel:
No. NBC thinks you’re stupid because they think you’ll buy that nonsense about how you can’t understand the opening without “context”.
NBC’s real reason for not live-streaming the opening is that they want to recoup their investment in the Olympics. By making sure the only place that Americans can watch the opening is on their network broadcasts, they make sure that the only place anyone who wants to watch it can watch it is in the venue where they have the most and most expensive commercials. Backed up by Neilsen sampling which is the best we can do with tracking broadcast viewers, but are very likely oversampling the number of people who watch “events” like this. Raw download numbers would cut into those broadcast numbers (and provide a check on the Neilsen ratings to see if perhaps they are oversampling).
NBC has already signed contracts with the Olympics to broadcast the games through 2020. It was a metric fuckton of money for them to do that too. They are not going to be hurting their investment in the games by doing ANYTHING that will hurt the advertising revenue for the next 8 years.
Cassidy
I’ve found other streams. Just got to watch some rowing. yay!
JGabriel
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NonyNony:
Buzzkill.
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Odie Hugh Manatee
Listening to the complaining makes me happy that I’ve got better things to do than watch the next two weeks of this.
Go USA!
/waves imaginary foam hand w/ extended index finger
I’ll check back at the end of the games to see if we won anything. :)
Alexandra
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink:
You missed it because it wasn’t shown.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/28/london-2012-nbc-opening-ceremony
After Mitt Romney’s colossal arseholishness, it’s unfortunate that the USA comes across as astonishingly small-minded and parochial at times.
Randy P
I invested in FIOS service specifically to take advantage of the live streams for the Olympics. So I started out last night all fired up to check out the Opening Ceremonies and… of course it was a bust.
Fine. I got over that. I never watch them anyway. But then I started hearing about specific parts, and I’d like to at least watch a decent clip. Where do I find that?
For instance, right away I started hearing about 007 and the Queen. NBC had about 30 seconds of that on their website. Cuts off abruptly. Who’s got the rest?
Heard about the “queen” parachuting in. Anybody got that? Heard about Paul McCartney. Is that anywhere?
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Odie Hugh Manatee: It’s actually the only form of nationalism I don’t mind. I get a much happier feeling seeing a sprinter or weightlifter kick foreigner ass in their chosen sport than any other outlet that particular breed of tribalism can take.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Alexandra: I’m watching from Australia, but it’s possible they axed it for a commercial here too.
Cassidy
Watching Judo
beltane
@Cassidy: Please, please post a link.
Randy P
Anyway, the actual streams have started and I see I can get them. However, I’m disappointed to realize that NBC is going to be arbitrary about which ones can be replayed and which ones can only be watched live.
I’m looking for men’s gymnastics prelims this weekend, and I’m not going to be in front of the laptop all weekend. So what I miss, I miss I guess.
geg6
Watched at the BBQ place where we were having dinner and some brews. At the time, I was pissed because we had no sound due to a bunch of young idiots playing some of worst monotonous rap music I’ve ever heard (I don’t hate rap, but every song sounded exactly the same) on the jukebox. Now I’m glad I couldn’t hear the commentary. Funny enough, though, I got the context quite easily without it. I loved what I saw. Veddy crazy Brit. I appreciate that, what with my Anglo Saxon background and all.
KDUN
I couldn’t agree with NBC more. I simply have no idea what I would have done without Bob Costas around to mention IDI F’N AMIN during the entrance of the athletes from Uganda.
Sheesh. Apparently Costas and R-Money failed out of the same charm school.
Cassidy
WTF BJ. Keeps eating my posts.
edit: www (at) stream2watch (dot) me/
stream 2 currently has badminton
Baud
I actually thought I was watching the World Series until about halfway through. Thank God for Costas.
beltane
@Cassidy: Thanks
TheMightyTrowel
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: Me too. It’s on channel 9’s streaming version so I don’t think they axed it, but it’s pretty dark adn low key – the perfect time to duck out for a beer.
(ps: wow is channel 9’s streaming system crap. looks like a 14 year old’s video collection in a pre-youtube world and loads like its server is still the original series of tubes)
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@KDUN: Didn’t you know that Idi Amin gave up a promising career in synchronized swimming to join the military? Some people have no sense of sports history….
cmorenc
I’ll be grateful enough if NBC concentrates 95% on showing the freaking OLYMPIC SPORTS COMPETITION instead of diverting nearly half the air time to extended personality profiles of athletes, e.g. interviewing Hans the 1600m runner from Switzerland tending sheep on the family farm. Watching Hans run is why we’ve tuned in to watch him, not to see him tending his sheep while yodeling at home.
Cassidy
@cmorenc: They wouldn’t interview Hans unless he’s American.
General Stuck
This article put a smile on my face first thing Sat morning.
It is the Obama treatment, mystique, mindfu, or whatever you want to call it. We saw it with the befuddled Hillary crew in the 08 primaries, of a skill to living rent free inside their opponents head and fuck with them without doing much of anything. Putting them in a perpetual defensive crouch that is lethal to political campaigns that usually start lashing out at imagined attacks. It’s the perception of 11 dimensional chess that gets them, that is more powerful than any reality of it.
Cassidy
I just watched Dressage. I thought they were warming up. Then everyone started cheering.
General Stuck
@General Stuck:
sorry, wrong link. try this
once again http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/team-romney-readies-for-saturday-obama-surprise
Raven
@cmorenc: Um, does anyone realize that the games are being shown on MULTIPLE channels? CNBC has boxing right now.
Carl Nyberg
@Alexandra:
I cannot imagine Olympic officials or corporate media doing a 9/11 tribute that would not make me exceedingly angry.
The station would not have the opportunity to cut away. I’d turn it off.
cmorenc
@geg6:
In many parts of the south, if you were at a “BBQ joint” and there was a tv on showing a sports channel, you’d have to count yourself very fortunate if they had it set to anything other than a NASCAR race, with the vroom! vroom! sound on, and the cars going round and round and round the track. I realize that in many other parts of the country (including some southern areas like Memphis), “BBQ joint” often implies a black-owned establishment serving smoked rubbed ribs and brisket etc, but across much of the south (most especially in North Carolina), a “BBQ joint” is synonymous with finely chopped/diced pig basted in a vinegar/pepper sauce (or mustard/tomato/pepper sauce), and the joint is most often owned/run by a “good old boy” cracker.
Anya
@Randy P: Here’s the Queen and the 007 part. It’s in German (I think). I love Daniel Craig!
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Cassidy: I know, isn’t it riveting?
Cassidy
@Raven: I don’t have those channels.
JGabriel
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
The last games I watched were the 1976 Winter Olympics, because it seemed like the kind of thing one was supposed to watch when one was a ten year old boy.
So, it’s possible I’m really not the most knowledgeable expert on the subject.
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Maude
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink:
Please keep commenting here.
JGabriel
Cassidy:
Kinda like Romeny his own self — expects to get cheered just for warming up.
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Cassidy
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: Still better than cycling and the incessant prattle of the commentators.
Randy P
@Anya: Alas, it’s been pulled already. But your link tells me that the 007 thing and the parachuting thing were the SAME thing. So that helped.
NBC did the same thing with other parts of the ceremony. When they have clips, they are extremely short clips that only show a fraction of what they claim to be showing. It’s a very odd decision.
I’m sure it has something to do with money and rights. What else could it be?
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Cassidy: Oh this road racing is painful… Why couldn’t we watch the medal round of the rifle shooting?
JGabriel
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cmorenc:
Your loss. You will never know the profound power of Hans’ sexual seduction techniques until you’ve heard him yodel.
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Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Maude: Thanks for the love… I’m on vacation and juggling some WoW and the olympics and this, because, well, I don’t feel like dealing with more job applications
Cassidy
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: I loved how they shouwed that a beach volleyball match was about to star and then cut back to the cycling. And earlier a indoor volleyball game was happening and they went back to cycling. Seriously, what kind of jackass producer thinks we’d rather watch nonstop coverage of this?
And don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate the sport of cycling and how athletic and grueling it is. But not for hours straight.
Steeplejack
@Raven:
Also, check to see if your cable system is doing what Cox is: they have a special temporary OLYMPIC ZONE channel that shows small pictures-in-picture of six channels doing Olympic coverage, so you can see what’s on and which one you want to watch. Handy.
geg6
@cmorenc:
It’s a real BBQ joint owned by Pittsburgh yuppies, but as good as any BBQ I’ve had anywhere in the country. We had ribs and chicken (though their pulled pork is to die for). We put a Texas-style sauce on the chicken and a Carolina sauce on the ribs. Baked beans, mac and cheese and slaw to compliment. Delish. No NASCAR (thank FSM), but with multiple tvs, we could watch the opening ceremonies and the Pirate game all at the same time. Good times, except the shitty rap.
Villago Delenda Est
@JGabriel:
You’ve got a point.
I imagine most of us have some idea of where Gambia is. The drooling slime that votes GOP and goes to teatard rallies, OTOH, think that New Mexico and Hawaii are not part of the United States.
Todd
The Queen’s constant expression reminded me of that of an oldster who was experiencing a senior moment involving loading up her Depends…
Villago Delenda Est
@NonyNony:
DING DING DING DING DING!
They can’t come out and SAY this, but it’s the real reason. So they insult the intelligence of the entire Balloon Juice commentariat (less Caz, BoB, Dorf or whatever his name is, and the other usual troll suspects) by saying that “context” by total idiot Matt Lauer is needed.
arguingwithsignposts
Shorter NBC Olympic Head: The U.S. is not a first-world nation.
JGabriel
Daily Mail:
So glad to see the Romney campaign is still honing its skills in the time honored GOP sport of: Projection.
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Villago Delenda Est
@JGabriel:
Win!
joe in oklahoma
@JGabriel: the MSM in the US does a better job promoting conformity of thought than Isvestia/TASS ever did in the USSR
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@JGabriel: Anybody in Romney’s camp calling anybody else weird is just adorable… Nice catch
Anya
I don’t know what the people are complaining about, I really liked the opening ceremony. How can you find fault with anything that begins with lines from William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” accompanied by the music of Sir Edward Elgar’s “Nimrod” from the Enigma Variations? All of the parts worked together but the lighting of the Olympic cauldron torches was truly awesome.
The only thing I did not like was Paul McCartney’s performance.
NonyNony
@Villago Delenda Est:
So here’s my question: Why can’t they come out and say it?
Why can’t they just say: “the Olympics are an expensive contract for us and we count on making up that expense by selling advertising. The Opening Ceremonies happens to be one of the most widely watched ‘single chunks’ of the Olympics and so our advertisers get more ‘bang’ for their dollars there, and if we dilute our distribution by putting it elsewhere, we can’t expect our advertisers to pay as much as they will for a single, network broadcast. Look we’re a business, not a public television educational network, and if we want to keep showing the Olympics for the next 8 years we need to be able to pay for it.”
Seriously – why can’t they just be upfront and admit it? It isn’t like their business model is particularly opaque (the network television business model is pretty damn obvious, unlike apparently the investment banking model), and it isn’t like people will be any more outraged than they would be by this obvious lie. Hell, people might be less outraged because in the USA making money is almost sacred and telling people “well, we could do that, but who would pay for it?” is one of the most effective ways to shut down an argument there is in this country.
It’s probably just a culture of corporate stupid that leads to decisions like this, but this really is one case where if they were just a teensy bit more honest about how they make money, people would be less upset about the final decision.
(Though of course that doesn’t explain their stupid meddling with the event and cutting away from the 7/7 tribute and anything else like that. That is probably more culture of corporate stupid, but I doubt it’s the same kind of stupid that is driving the streaming outlet decisions.)
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@NonyNony: Yeah I’m not sure about the rationale on that sort of PR flackery either. But, I also don’t do public opinion polling or focus groups either. Let’s ask Frank Luntz!
Cassidy
@Anya: I loved it. I hated the NBC broadcast of it. I thought the musical medley was well done. I just didn’t need the bobbleheads giving me “context”. I know who the fuck David Bowie is and as a lifelong listener to punk rock, I think I can recognize some great British tunes. I just wish that they had shut up for one second. But what really pissed me off was listening to Bob Costas make veiled, and not very witty, insults towards the other nations. That just irked the hell out of me.
dmsilev
@JGabriel: The best part of that article was a bit further down:
They hadn’t prepared for a visit of this magnitude? The fuck? The visit was *their idea*. They chose when and where to go and who to talk to. What this unnamed campaign official is saying is “we are a bunch of incompetent goobers”. Which, granted, has a certain degree of truth to it.
Villago Delenda Est
@NonyNony:
And admit that they’re Ferengi slime? Concerned only with profit?
It’s like the GOP covering up their actual policy goals, which are to make the rich richer by stealing from everyone in the 99%. You can’t just say that.
joe in oklahoma
@Donut: lol
beltane
@NonyNony: Well, if they didn’t pretend the 7/7 tribute with its references to ALL who could not be there never happened, then Bob Costas would not have been able to go on and on about the failure to have a moment of silence in honor of the Munich victims.
I agree that honesty on the part of NBC would be vastly preferable to this patronizing explanation for their censorship.
Allen
“Complex entertainment spectacles” needs to become a new Internet meme.
Cassidy
Wow. Really good boxing match between GBR and DOM right now.
dopey-o
@Anya:” The only thing I did not like was Paul McCartney’s performance.”i was thinking that mccartney got a final blast of stage-fright when he realized a.) this was probably his final public appearance and b.) he was performing in front of 1 billion people and the Queen.
also, i think he was playing Hey Jude about 2 keys sharp.
Culture of Truth
This fencing on MSNBC is very exciting. En garde!
Culture of Truth
Indeed, arguably Romney’s alleged gaffes like his assessment of London’s preparation could be the remarks of a perfectionist manager who would be a good President…. but it’s clear that Romney and his team did not prepare at for an important event and that does not bode well, at all, for a future President. Get it right. These are the big leagues.
NonyNony
@Villago Delenda Est:
But this is America. It isn’t a sin here for a corporation to only be concerned with profit. People only get upset when it has an actual human impact – like their buddy getting fired, or fracking mucking up their own town’s water supply. In the abstract people admire corporations that make lots and lots of money. We fucking HERO WORSHIP corporate overlords in this country for the most part.
(I suppose you could argue that inability to stream anything I want anytime I want might count as an “actual human impact”. I suppose it might – but it can’t possibly be any worse than “you’re too stupid to understand a parade without Meredith Vieira and Matt Lauer explain it to you”.)
Pongo
@Anya: The clip has been removed.
NotMax
“require context.” Hah.
“There are three people on your screen. See? One – Two – Three.
“Listen carefully, now. The one standing on the tallest step, with the golden shiny thing on his/her chest, came in first.”
Margarita
The gist of Bob Costas’s comment on the Uganda team was: “Winston Churchill called Uganda the Pearl of Africa. [Pause] I guess he never met Idi Amin! [Rimshot]
At first, I was taken aback at how toweringly inappropriate the comment was. But then I found the thought of giving every country the same treatment of undisguised, jovial contempt hilarious. Maybe in the persona of Basil Fawlty or the Duke of Edinborough. Or Mitt Romney.
Anya
@Cassidy: I watched the live BBC stream, so I was spared NBC’s inane commentary.
@dmsilev: The least they could’ve done was program the name of the person he was meeting. But seriously, how does he not know the name of the leader of the Labour Party? Did he think Tony Blair was still their leader?
joe in oklahoma
@Anya: no one is criticizing the actual ceremony. it was marvelous and uniquely British. we are criticizing the NBC handling.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
I’ll be damned… A Kazakh and a Colombian win the road race, after all that dreck about how great the Brits and Germans and Spaniards were. I dig that.
Cassidy
@Anya: You were very lucky then.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Margarita: As you say, that works if you do it to everybody. But I doubt our Pint-Sized Lord of the Sporting Verse felt the need to do anything like that.
Anya
@Randy P: @Pongo: That’s too bad. I watched it this morning.
Anya
@Cassidy: perks of unemployment. My poor husband was stuck with NBC.
katie5
@Anya: I agree; I really enjoyed the opening ceremonies. And from reading the comments I guess I’ll stop complaining about CBC’s coverage. Only a couple of breaks; otherwise they covered everything in full, including the parade of athletes. I loved Danny Boyle’s interpretation of nationalism, which included workers’ rights and women’s suffrage. And where else would you see a ceremony that began with Brunel and ended with Tim Berners-Lee? And the Queen addressing 007 as 007 and the two of them being escorted by corgis (thought the parachute jump was hokey, though). Nuff said.
JGabriel
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dmsilev:
And, let’s not forget, they flubbed it with English-speaking Conservatives. This was supposed to be the easy, no-brainer, part of foreign policy — especially for an Anglo-Saxon Republican.
What happens when Romney & Team have to face people from different cultures with different languages and political views? Will he make it back to the US before setting off a major diplomatic incident?
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JGabriel
@Allen:
Sounds like some sort of new-fangled glasses — Google Bi-focals, maybe?
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JGabriel
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Margarita:
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If the Dutch win an award, Costas has his next joke lined up: “George Bernard Shaw once told Isidore Duncan, ‘We’ve already established what you are. Now, we’re just haggling over the price.’ I guess George never went to Amsterdam! [Rimshot]”
On the Italians winning an award: “Tony Blair just became Catholic a few years ago. I guess he never got raped by a priest! [Rimshot]”
Wait. That’s not funny.
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amused
My daughter and I thought the whole thing was like some 8th grade history project, with disjointed music, too many actors on too large a stage and silly puppets. Mr. Bean was good, and the Queen parachuting was fun, especially the part where Daniel Craig almost had an expression other than his perpetual Blue Steel when they showed the doggies had been left behind. All that money and technology, and that’s what Boyle came up with? Eesh. Reminded me of Waiting for Guffman and the Working, Building song. The only good line from the moronic announcers was when the huge dead baby showed up, Costas or Lauer says, “I don’t know whether that’s cute or creepy!” I mean, Costas’s first line of the night was about Munich, and his hoping nothing bad happens. It was all “Remember the terror, oh, and you kids have fun now!” The best part was the team from Unaffiliated or whatever they were called. They were having a great time, it looked like. /rant
Roy G.
I thought the Olympics was supposed to be the time when politics were put aside, yet most of the inane commentary during the parade of nations was about politics, AND it was mind-bogglingly stupid, and often wrong. Really, is it too much to ask that the announcers pronounce the countries’ names right? And how does a country feel when it gets its 10 seconds on the camera, and the announcer thinks the most important thing about that country is that the Queen’s Grandson honeymooned there? Gah!
As I ranted last night, “At least The Clash kept their dignity.”
Anya
For those of you who missed it: Here’s The Opening Ceremony Tribute To Terrorism Victims NBC Doesn’t Want You To See.
Ben Cisco
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: In spite of myself, LULZ.
TooManyJens
@Roy G.: I’m never sure in these situations whether the commentators don’t give a shit about any country other than the U.S., or if they just think we don’t give a shit about any country other than the U.S. so they have to pander to us. Either way, it’s gross.
Ben Cisco
@Villago Delenda Est: I approve of this post.
Cervantes
@beltane: Expecting honesty from NBC would be silly, I agree, and their stated rationale is transparent nonsense.
On the other hand, “censorship” is not the same as their expecting people to watch commercials in exchange for their coverage.
Tehanu
@Alexandra:
Alas, you’re right. Their “coverage” sucked even worse than I expected it to. We only found out about the 7/7 tribute online, and they almost completely blew off Uruguay’s entrance because they kept showing the American flag — not the athletes, the flag. And that’s not even mentioning their general misstatements about, well, practically everything. I’d weep for my country except that so many of my countrymen seem to enjoy being ignorant fuckheads.
karen marie
@General Stuck: This is my favorite part:
I want to have Ben LaBolt’s baby.
Rathskeller
This might be helpful:
http://www.quora.com/2012-Summer-Olympics-in-London/Where-can-I-watch-the-London-2012-Olympics-online
karen marie
@amused: I agree. I watched the opening livestreaming from some interwebs site I’d never heard of. I spent most of it with my jaw dropped, the rest of the time rolling around in my chair screaming, “Make it stop! Make it stop!”
The corgis couldn’t save it.
JWL
Of course they say you need them. Even NBC’s award-winning production team have mortgages to pay and children to feed.
pseudonymous in nc
@amused:
Mr Bean was in the ceremony as a special gift to the foreigners who have embraced him as they embraced Benny Hill. (I loved the ceremony’s looseness: if you don’t want to compete against Beijing on mass orchestration, you head somewhere else. But I think it was meant to be loved most by the British audience.)
@katie5:
And immigration, but the segment involving the Windrush also didn’t make the NBC cut.
pseudonymous in nc
@dmsilev:
What kind of briefing do you need to realise that it’s not a good idea to insult your hosts, other than one in common courtesy? As a friend said, in financial terms he was the sucker who sells short just as the shorts are going long.