Awful Olympics Coverage
Dear editor,
After watching the first several days of the Beijing 2008 coverage by ``ubiquitous" Korean TV sports channels, I wasn't optimistic about seeing the two finals events being held on the opening day of athletics (track and field).
Just as I suspected. No Koreans in the events, so, for all intents and purposes, the events simply did not exist. No show. Not a single second.
There were in fact seven Korean TV stations on air late Friday night (Aug. 15) at the time in which the finals in men's shot put and women's 10,000m were scheduled. Three of the stations aired the Korean-Chinese badminton doubles gold medal final, and the other four showed replays, countless times, of Korean participants.
How many times do Koreans have to see their champions in action before they're convinced they've won? Are the producers of Korean TV sports programming really that narrow minded, if not in fact ethnocentric? Isn't there even a little interest in any event that doesn't involve Koreans?
Incredibly, one of the Olympics' premiere events, women's gymnastics, has received token coverage at best, and that being mostly replays. Is there no curiosity about an event like the shot put, or the men's 400m hurdles, or the women's triple jump or pole vault?
How about the kayaking or bicycling competitions, women's softball, the triathlon, volleyball, basketball? The answer appears to be no. Instead, we see unending replays of a Korean women's handball match, of preliminary heats showing Pak Tae-hwan's march to the 400m swimming championship, of archery, archery, and more archery. Haven't Koreans had enough?
Turn on your TV now. It'll all be there. Again. Forever. Ad nauseam. While events such as those mentioned above are in the process of showcasing some of the world's greatest athletes, Korean sports TV will only be showing Koreans.
Again, again, and yet again. Over the weekend, more great events, e.g., the U.S.-Spain basketball match, the woman's marathon and other track events finals, gymnastics finals, and much more, received not a moment of live coverage, while the Korea-Canada baseball game was re-shown at least six times, and all other events Koreans had been involved in, replayed, replayed, and replayed.
Finally, on Monday (Aug. 18), no less than four Korean sports channels were showing a Korean baseball match. Couldn't one of them have shown some of the other numerous great events in progress during that time? No, because no Koreans were involved.
I have enjoyed seeing Koreans in competition, but the Olympics are not just about Koreans. It's the Olympics, not the Korean Olympics. Coverage by Korean TV has simply been awful. Awful! I'm frankly disgusted. Trust me, I'm not a solo voice regarding this situation.
Ralph Lyons
English instructor
at a university in Seoul