How is it live if it’s already been blogged?
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No, this isn’t going to be another complaint to NBC whining that the Olympics are being tape delayed.
I get it, you wanna make money. And, not surprisingly, the best way to make money is to present your hottest events when the most people can watch them. And it seems to be working for you.
Besides, anyone with a high-speed Internet connection, or a local sports bar, or a decent proximity to the Canadian border can see these games live if they want to. And for that I am truly grateful.
My problem is, don’t tell me it’s ‘live’ if it’s not.
Last night I knew perfectly well that Michael Phelps had won the gold medal and broke a record in doing so. I knew because I was working on this lil Olympic blog and we already had two posts up, and because I follow things on Twitter which had hundreds of tweets, and because I got a breaking news alert from the LA Times on my iPhone. It’s safe to say that early last night pretty much everyone knew that Phelps won.
But for some reason when presented their evening assortment of Olympic tape to us here in Los Angeles, they put the words ‘live’ on the screen.
When Phelps dove into the pool, there it was ‘live’. When he swam around in front of everyone, my Sony was saying ‘Tony what you’re seeing is happening now’. Even when they messed up the National Anthem, there was Michael Phelps smiling like a champ as the president and the first lady waved at him, and there was that chyron swearing that what I was seeing was happening right then.
Later I paused my DVR and took a picture because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Like I said, I understand why things are being delayed for American viewers, and even for we West Coasters. And trust me, I don’t mind staying up late to see it, I don’t even mind waking up early. And I’m totally happy that these Olympic games aren’t getting yanked prematurely in favor of Australian Rules Football.
All I ask, which I seem to be seeing today, is if it’s not live, don’t say it’s live.
It’s bad enough that it’s not live.
Update: during tonight’s gymnastics and swimming events NBC still had the ‘LIVE’ bug on the upper right portion of the screen even though the competitions were over. What the hell, NBC?
-- Tony Pierce
photos by Tony Pierce / LA Times