Olympics coverage: a travesty

Justin Hite / Sports Editor

Spoiler alert. For those of you who don't want to know who won what events this past week in Torino, please turn away. For the next eight hours. This new age of technology is bringing more and more problems to the television "coverage" of the Olympics.

While some of the events were brought live, these events consisted of curling and other moderately watched events. The events that were covered through tape delay were the biggest in the Olympics. The snowboard cross and the snowboard half pipe, the new face of the Olympics, were brought to the American public hours after they actually occurred. Shaun White won a gold medal in the half pipe early in the day but it wasn't aired until primetime, in order to capture ratings. But the public already knew who won.

Lindsey Jacobellis showboated on the last jump of the snowboard cross race and fell, losing the gold medal. And the same thing happened.

When I watched, I was on the edge of my seat waiting for her to fall, rather than waiting to see the winner.

There could have been live coverage of the entire games, but, because of the ratings wars that NBC gets decimated in every week, the executives decided that the Olympics should air at primetime, not live. And on top of that, they lost to sweeps shows: Grey's Anatomy, American Idol and Dancing with the Stars. Dancing with the Stars.

In replacement of the old system, a daylong broadcast on one channel should be called upon. ESPN2 would be a better choice than having a great event like the Olympics  ruined by the ratings wars of the four major networks. The majority of America was spoiled when the Olympics were in our time zone four years ago. A change needs to be made or fewer and fewer people will watch.

Contact Justin Hite at pendulum@elon.edu or 278-7247.