While I Was Out: You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

First, embedded video that plays automatically sucks.

As for the Olympics, I hate the NBC doesn’t want you to know when certain events will be televised. they cut back and forth from various events, trying to keep you watching the entire telecast. the result is that I got so bored waiting for skicross that I missed the whole thing. I really wanted to watch that, but I won’t watch even 5 seconds of ice dancing to do it. with all of their cable channels, they could easily schedule events so we’d know what is on when, but NBC is completely incompetent, so they don’t.

Also, how does curling get the most airtime out of any event?

RE: Palin’s newest manufactured controversy: and this is why she’d never be able to be president. In the last year she’s drummed up more false controversies than any 3 other politicians I can think of. Given how often she makes publica announcements about things that she’s offended about, I can only come to two conclusions about her motivations: she’s either paranoid and massively overly sensitive (especially for a public figure with her profile) OR she’s an opportunist who is cynically taking advantage of these innocuous incidents to keep her name in the news and give her supporters red meat to chew on.
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Either way, it’s hard to imagine how she’d be able to get anything done as president behaving like this. Criticism, ridicule, and satire come with being a public figure and the office of the president attracts criticism the likes of which she hasn’t encountered yet.
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It also begs the question, “What about that free speech you claim to promote whenever you give a paid speech?” Evidently free speech is fine when you accuse a political opponent of associating with terrorists or lying about the content and intent of legislation but not when pokes fun at you or the family that you constantly use to illustrate points you’re trying to make.

The hockey game last night was something special. One of my favorite sporting events to watch in years. Thankfully I get MSNBC in HD so it worked out pretty well for me.

“embedded video that plays automatically sucks.”

Replaced with embed that does not suck.

NBC’s coverage has been terrible to say the least. I suppose I wouldn’t mind the tape-delayed coverage if they’d stop advertising LIVE coverage. Sorry, @arch, but I am the flip side of your coin – I suffered through skicross time trials just so I could watch ice dancing. Can I tell you how frustrating it is to have to stay up until midnight every night just because the sport I care to watch is the highest rated??

Back in the day, we were driven mad by the constant Olympic coverage – all of our regular programming essentially taking a 2-week hiatus. Now I long for those days.

I mean, I love Ellen as much as the next girl, but she can go on vacation for a couple of weeks to make room for more live coverage. And Days of Our Lives?? You can watch that show once a year and keep up w/ the plot lines – why must they continue to air that drivel during the Olympics?

As other readers mention, it would also be helpful to have an accurate schedule of events listed somewhere. The newspaper gets it wrong, and even nbcolympics.com can’t seem to keep up.

Finally, my frustration hit a fever pitch last week when the men’s figure skating finals not only weren’t aired LIVE, as promised, but the tape-delayed coverage didn’t fit into the scheduled airing time. Result? My DVR’d coverage got cut off in the middle of the final skater!

Thanks to the interwebs, at least I knew the result before getting to watch.

Pathetic.

Oh, one kudo to NBC – their tear-jerker editorials are fantastic. The piece Al Michaels put together about the Miracle on Ice was delightful. I am too young to remember the actual event, and the recap and storytelling were wonderful. What an incredible time for our country.

It’s telling that we’re on opposite sides of the issue, but are both completely frustrated with NBC.

I guess we just have to hope that ABC/ESPN outbids NBC next time. I have plenty of issues with their coverage, but they would do a much better job, imo.

Yes, @arch, I just wish I knew at whom I should really be directing my anger and frustration. Is it NBC, local affiliate stations, or the organizers of the events themselves? I’m sure it’s some combination of them all, and I’m equally sure my ranting and raving won’t make a bit of difference.

I can tell you that it’s not the fault of the organizers of the event. Although they have had many a glitch this isn’t one of them.

I’m in Canada and thus I get to see both our own CTV’s coverage and NBC’s. What CTV has done is use their cable channels to their advantage. Example last night on the main CTV channel they, of course, showed the US – Can mens hockey live, in the meantime I was able to catch Ice Dancing live on one of their sister sports networks.

Then later on after the hockey game on the main network (in case you don’t have cable) they covered Ice Dancing on tape delay coverage. But stuck with it, instead of cutting in and out like NBC.

I do have to say NBC’s mini-docs about athletes and the games have been really good, as well as their interviews. However for general coverage, CTV has been much better. Oh, and if you can find it online CTV has had a great segment with a doctor (sort of like Dr. Sanjay Gupta) called Super Bodies, going into the details of what an athlete for a specific sport goes through. Like when a Mogul skier hits a kicker, it’s like jumping off a two storey balcony twice within mere seconds!

Thanks, @Mipiace. I’ll see what I can do about finding access to CTV in one form or another.

And this isn’t the first time I’ve considered moving to Canada! :-P

Good luck to your athletes! That Ice Dancing pair is stunning to watch. Of course I’m pulling for Davis & White, but your team put on quite a show!