Are there anyone else who is as disgusted with NBC's coverage of the Olympics as I am?

Question

Swimming, gymnastics, and beach volley ball are not the only sports in the Olympics. Where is the coverage?

They need to add subtitles when Bela Karoly is talking. I can't understand half of what he tries to say.

I work with the public. If Bela applied for a job with my company, he would be rejected because of his heavy accent.

You should have taken some ESL classes before you accepted the job at NBC, Bela!

Answer 1

YES!  I was just thinking about that tonight!  

I suppose they expect you to stay home and watch all day long if you want to see the other events.  At 10 PM - 1 AM, you're just going to see the "LIVE" (ahem) coverage of swimming, gymnastics, and volleyball.  Or you could see Boxing and weight lifting on one of the alternative NBC cable channels too.

What bothers me is the commentator slant on things.  I'm proud to be an American, but the games are about great athletes from all countries.  I'm just as interested and often cheering for the other countries as well, but the broadcast focuses on strictly the Americans.

Like when the Chinese girls were on the uneven bars, and they're just getting started... OOPS, gotta switch to SWIMMING!... then they come back and say, "You just missed a spectacular routine by the Chinese gymnasts.  Here's a couple of highlights."  I was yelling at the TTV, "Well F*** Y** why the h**l did you cut away for then?"

Bela is a famed gymnastics coach, which is why he's there (not because he's an expert English commentator).  He's speaking English as a second language, so of course he's going to have an accent!

Would you be happier if we got to see the entire coverage in its host country's Chinese language, with English subtitles?  (Actually, I would be!  It SHOULD be broadcast entirely and solely in the host country's language and from that country's POV of interest -- that should be part of the reward for winning the hosting priviledge!)

Answer 2

I understand what you mean about the lack of diversity in the coverage.  But what a terrible thing to say about Bela!  The world doesn't like people like you.

Answer 3

wtf??? bela is the sh it. and theres more olympics on the other nbc channels...msnbc and cnbc. duh

Answer 4

About swimming, gymnastics, and beach volleyball, I agree with you.  I was really hoping to see more diversity.

But about Bela Karolyi?  I LOVE him!  

I can't understand half of it, either, but who cares!  His passion and animation make up for it ... it's so refreshing to hear it from someone who simply loves the sport, rather than a paid talking-head or a former know-it-all Olympic Gold Medalist has-been.

Answer 5

What part of the coverage are you disgusted with?

If it's with Andrea Joyce and the other on site/venue interviewers or with Bela Karolyi then yes I agree with you.

But most of the commentators and sport experts have done a good job. (Swimming, Gymnastics, Beach VolleyBall, Equestrian, Boxing)

I've enjoyed the coverage to this point.

I hope this helps.

Answer 6

I'm from Australia -  at least it appears that the NBC website has lots of live streaming - of course it's not as good as it being shown live on TV but at least you can keep up to date a bit better than here in Australia. The channel 7 coverage in Aust. is showing primarily swimming, and you hardly see any coverage of sports such as softball. People I know here have even been trying to log into the NBC website to watch events live online!

It appears there are people in a number of countries not happy with Olympic coverage !

Answer 7

Bela is ******* god.

Answer 8

Well said! And spot on with the real problem of nowadays narrow-minded media.

I am not American, I don't watch neither NBC nor Bela, however, I fully understand what you meant and we have the same problem in here (England), believe me: Eurosports is just as BAD!! And the commentators at Eurosports are really narrow-minded, pre-judgmental. Some of the comments made by them shows profound ignorance and stupidity that become laughable!

I'm very very annoyed. Some times I feel that the media treats us public with no respect that is an insult to our intelligence!!

I know I'm no say to NBC, but I give you all my sympathy and am just angry at the media as you are.  

Thanks.

Ta.