Beijing reality show
The TV pep rally that surrounds the Olympic Games could prove tricky for NBC this time.
Every four years, we're taught to see the Olympic Summer Games as a celebration of its host city. The TV networks love to connect the dots for us on this front; they need a launching point to work viewers into a lather over the triumph of this glorious worldwide collaboration.
Bob Costas, NBC's prime-time anchor for the 2008 Olympics, is sure to ruminate on how groundbreaking, how deeply stirring it is for China to host the Games, just as he dropped us some knowledge on the history of the games in Athens, fed the flames of patriotism in Atlanta and quizzically marveled at the unrivaled enthusiasm of those nutty Australians in Sydney. Costas has been criticized for casting aspersions about the Chinese Olympic team's drug use in the past, but he'll likely shelve such jaundiced speculation and celebrate the mysteries and historical richness of this great land, so that we might join hands in such a wondrous metropolis and sing a rousing chorus of "It's a Small World After All."
Summer Games: The byline and bio of an Op-Ed article Thursday about the Olympics misspelled the last name of the author of the essay. The correct name is Heather Havrilesky, not Heather Havrilevsky.
For years now, plenty of us have been scratching our heads over how Beijing ended up with the Olympic Games in the first place. Why put a country with rampant, largely unchecked pollution, a notable inability to play nicely with others and a widespread pattern of human rights violations at the center of our global lovefest? Oh, the Chinese government assures us that it will make it all right, at least while the Games are taking place. And we trust them? Isn't letting China host the Olympics sort of like throwing your Chihuahua into the tiger exhibit at the zoo just to see what happens?
