Olympic boosterism and American cultural narcissism

If you would like a graphic (literal and figurative) demonstration of our nation's greatest failing, sit in front of your television set and watch NBC cover an international sports event, the Winter Olympics, as if only Americans were participating. Every time the Today show's Meredith Vieira stumbles over the name of the Russian figure skater Yevgeny Plushenko (it's pronounced exactly as it's spelled, Meredith, with the accent on the second syllables) and giggles to show that it's OK to be ignorant, I think about all of the announcers from Canada and Europe who pronounce everyone's name correctly. Their employers care about getting it right, and NBC doesn't. Not if the athlete isn't one of us, contributing to the mounting total of "American" medals announced breathlessly every day. Why, anyone would think that these medals were more important than the performance of American students on international comparison tests of achievement in school. In case you're interested, Finland was No. 1 and Canada No. 2 in the most recent international assessment of reading comprehension. The United States was No. 15. U.S.A., U.S.A....

This Olympic coverage matters because it offers a window into a deeply provincial, reflexively nationalistic mindset that hampers our understanding of the rest of the world and prevents any realistic assessment of American weaknesses and strengths in comparison to other countries. In a truly emblematic moment in the "We're No. 1" extravaganza, NBC showed a recap of the medals ceremony for the Men's Super-G, an Alpine skiing event. Americans Bode Miller and Andrew Weibrecht won silver and bronze, respectively, but the network simply blanked out the gold medal podium, which was occupied by Norwegian Aksel Svindal. Well, who cares about a Norwegian? He's just an athlete from one of those unhappy countries cursed by secularism and universal health care.

The conviction that the United States is morally and culturally better than other
countries--including other developed democracies--is a real social disease that hurts us more than it does anyone else. It is also a profoundly anti-intellectual. This cultural narcissim is what impelled Brit Hume to urge Tiger Woods to convert to Christianity because Buddhism (in Hume's view) is an inferior religion that does not offer enough opportunity for forgiveness and repentance. Ours is the most religiously diverse nation on earth--our secular Constitution guarantees that--but Buddhism isn't quite good enough, not quite American enough, for people still living mentally in the days when nearly every American (except, of course, for the people who were here when the first pilgrims landed) was a Christian.

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http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/spirited_atheist/2010/02/olympic_boosterism_when_american_superiority_means_inferiority.html

WE'RE NUMBER 1 !!!111111

K&R

You wish you had our awesome weather-negating shield technology so your maps could be all pretty and green too. You know it's true.

:rofl:

would provide broader coverage of the games, in both the summer & winter. A lot of sports you NEVER see, just because the USA doesn't stand a chance of medaling. Last time I checked, they're still part of the Olympics...

The over-the-top flag waving by the USA makes me want to barf. We could stand a bit more humility and sportsmanship, particularly from our "fans".

"So the Austrian finished first, followed by a Swiss and a competitor from Finland. But the BIG story here is that the CANADIANS came in ninth and fifteenth! If you had asked me if that seemed possible after the first day of competition, I'd have said NO WAY! What a GREAT day for CANADA!!!"

Maybe it's ubiquitous.

Sorry, but when I see Ozzies & Dutch & Canadians & Norwegians waving their flags & going nuts over their athletes, I don't see why Americans can't do the same thing. Such whining & moaning ring hollow with me.

I've seen a lot of coverage of sports where the US isn't even in the same zip code as the medal stand, & coverage of athletes from other countries besides the US. It wouldn't surprise me if the Norwegian media is focusing only on Norwegian athletes, or the Dutch media focusing on the Dutch, etc., so why all the whining over the US media focusing on the US atheletes?

:eyes:

dg

Quite frankly I find them to be an embarrassment! But if you think being unprepared and slaughtering the names of foreign athletes is admirable, then don't let me stop you.

Only in the US do the announcers mess up the names & they obviously do it on purpose.

:eyes:

I can't begin to tell you the number of times native English speakers have mangled my last name. It happens.

Find something real to get outraged about, will ya?

dg

I don't see the connection.

the skier the trill of victory and the agony of defeat. The would do little personal pieces on the person of interest from that particle country. It was always interesting. Now I just don't feel it is the same any more. Bring back that format when ABC had it and I would be more interested in it.

It was great. But too many people now whine about all those "Up Close & Personal" spots which made the Olympics interesting to watch.

It's really more like malcontents looking for something to be outraged about. Too many Up Close segments = excuse to whine. Not any or enough of those segments = excuse to whine. Focusing on the US athletes = excuse to whine. Showing too many events with no US medal contender = excuse to whine.

And it's always the "in" thing to bash the US spectators for waving flags & cheering for the US athletes for being "nationalistic" & "self-centered," while ignoring the other countries that do the same (if not more).

dg

One was about Kim Yu Na, an ice skater from South Korea, and the other was about Joaniie Rochette, an ice skater from Canada.

One of the American skaters was briefly mentioned in a montage piece, and the other wasn't mentioned at all.

:loveya:

He's adorable...he gets it from his father!

I :loveya: both of 'em!

Yes, there are many problems with NBC's coverage, too many commercials being my personal pet peeve, but having one's national news media focus on one's national athletes isn't one of them. Every single country out there competing is focusing on their own athletes, much like NBC is doing. And as far as mangling the name's of foreign athletes, that happens all the time also. Watch the world cup next summer, better yet, watch in on Univision or other Spanish language television. Then listen to them pronounce Asian last names. That's a mangle-fest.

Apparently we suck. :eyes: And I am sure there are many reporters out there from all over mispronouncing names. We are only human.

or wave our flag or chant "USA." It might hurt someone's feelings or something.

:eyes:

dg

and I can attest that sports fans from other countries can be just as loud and pro-us (as opposed to pro-U.S.)as Americans. I had thought the Swiss mild and restrained until I sat near their soccer fans.

While I think most of NBC's coverage is jingoistic and simplistic, I was surprised that they covered so much of the ski jumping, where no Americans were expected to do well.

because historically Americans have not done well in many of these sports and the number of events is far more limited than the summer games. In the summer games, if an American is not in contention, the event doesn't exist. There are just too many events.

I thought NBC did a great job presenting that Norwegian skier, to the point that I was cheering for him.

Most of the Americans athletes have worked dam hard to get where the are, and are not getting rich doing this. I am uncomfortable with nationalism, but I do love cheering on the home team for these games.

That said, The american hockey team is not "up-start" like in 1980. It is not an upset that they beat the Canadians. All the players ar professional NHL players, there should be no surprise that they are good.

He came back from terrifying injuries. NBC even interviewed Aksel's Dad twice that I saw. Maybe America can be America-centric at times, but the Winter Olympics isn't one of them. I was in Buenos Aires during the last summer games and they made no mention of who won medals if an Argentinian wasn't involved. NBC's coverage was much more inclusive.

And while we're on a roll, let's demand that MLB change the name of its championship series to The Championship of Part of North America!

I watched the summer olympics two years ago on the BBC -- it was hard to find out what American atheletes were doing (or athletes from countries not part of the United Kingdom).

I think that NBC has actually done a decent job of telling some compelling stories about some of the non US athletes. The skating coverage last night certainly didn't hold back in its coverage of the Japanese and Korean favorites or in covering the Canadian skater who just lost her mom. Same thing with the coverage of the Canadian ice dancing team and with the Canadian winner of the skicross racing. I've seen a couple of feature pieces that were produced by the Canadian Broadcast network but provided to NBC for them to show to US audiences.

Heck, last night they showed the Turkish figure skater who moved to Canada with her so she could train. They live in Canada but she competes for Turkey and they were sitting in the stands with their Turkish flag. So flag waving isn't unique either.

It seems like there are a number of athletes that compete for their "home" country who haven't got a lot of connections to their home countries -- or who have new "adopted" countries on whose behalf they compete. And its somewhat odd when someone who effectvely is a citzen of one country charges around waving the flag of another country. But I don't hold it against them -- its quite an achievement to get to participate in the Olympics no matter how you manage to pull it off.

She was so cute, and her program, although simple compared to those of the leaders', was skated cleanly and attractively. I was so glad her parents were able to come see her skate this Olympics.

no Americans are in contention to win. Part of the charm is seeing people from other places and following the contest and its drama.

When I was a kid they'd show the whole gymnastics competition, Americans or not. Now they would cut it all out if there were no Americans. So I discovered it was the sport I liked to watch, and it did not matter to me where the participants were from.

Everyone was interested in Olga or Nadia and their lives. If the same contests were today, no one would ever have heard of them.

So the OP article is basically hand-wringing bullshit.

It makes sense - that's what people from that country care about most.

Anyway, I've actually seen a ton of 'personal interest stories' from NBC during this Olympics that were about non-US athletes. I saw two of them just last night - there was a segment on a skater from North Korea and a skater from Canada. One of the American skaters was mentioned briefly in a montage-like segment, and the other one wasn't really mentioned at all. They also talked quite a bit about another skater from Japan, and showed the programs of a number of lesser-known skaters from different countries (e.g., Turkey, Finland). It really wasn't US-centric at all. If anything, it was mostly "favored to win" centric, which is ok too.

I've also seen quite a bit of coverage of other events where the Americans weren't favored to win, like ski jumping and women's ski cross.

Overall, I think this article is a bit unfair. The coverage isn't nearly as bad as the author suggests.

Since the beginning, the Olympics have always been largely influenced by nationalism. Just looks at the opening ceremonies, the uniforms, the medal ceremonies, etc. The country the athletes are from has always been important.

For some reason though, when the US celebrates it's athletes and their achievements we're horrible nationalists, or ignorant.

I swear every two years, pseudo-intellectual, "cultured", and sanctimonious editorialists pounce at the chance to shit on the US. They lament how we can't be like other countries, how we can't pronounce foreign names, and a bunch of other ignorant gripes that if they bothered to watch 10 minutes of other countries' coverage they would see are universal.

What takes the cake for me in this article is this line: "Why, anyone would think that these medals were more important than the performance of American students on international comparison tests of achievement in school. In case you're interested, Finland was No. 1 and Canada No. 2 in the most recent international assessment of reading comprehension. The United States was No. 15. U.S.A., U.S.A...."

What the fuck does that have to do with anything? That's childish grasping at anything to put the US in a bad light, and shows the author of this article is entering into it in very bad faith.

:thumbsup:

I love cheering for Americans and I always will.

to show just how intelligent & cultured they are as opposed to the unwashed masses.

dg

Do you think Sweden's coverage is focusing on Russia's athletes?

when they seem to deliberately EXCLUDE athletes from other countries, that's obnoxious.

I first noticed it in Atlanta, when two Americans, Gail Deaver and one other whose name I can't recall, won gold and bronze in one of the track and field events. The silver went to Merlene Ottey, one of the greatest women track and field competitors of recent decades, who happens to be from Jamaica.

During the medal ceremony, the camera was close in and focusing only on the two Americans, cutting Ottey out of the picture.

Would it have killed them to show the non-American medalist, especially such a distinguished one?

and the Canadian girl who just lost her mother,so while in some instances it is true, in others, it isn't.

I've been watching men's cross country & they're focusing on Sweden & France...no word on the US, whose probably back at the starting line....then the hullabaloo yesterday with the Dutch skater whose coach f'd him out of the race.....


dg

...as they cover everything else.

Which, of course, says very little.

But they cater to what they think the audience will watch. I think they think of us in a bad light. I am rooting for the Canadian ladies figure skater to win a medal, after the death of her mother. Americans can have big hearts and root for people not from our country.

and the feature was actually produced by CTV in Canada and rerun on NBC.

I was mixed up with the American snowboarder whose brother has Down's (Kevin Pearce, had a bad accident but is starting to recover). I didn't know Canada produced that feature. Really, NCBC is pathetic.

I bet that ignorant reporter even failed to correctly pronounce the Chinese athlete's names as well (they are pronounced just like they are spelled sweety. Remember 4th tone goes down) If only everyone had rich parents like me, that way they could afford to go to college and write articles for newsweek's web edition. Fucking proles and their nationalism.

:sarcasm:

how civil and polite the Canadian broadcasters were stating that he "couldn't believe that the Russians brought their Eurotrash game".