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David TroubaOaily Nebraskan
Th UNL Freshman football team began their first two-a-days Monday.
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Olympic coverage pro-American, melodramatic
Opinion by Chris Burbach
Two weeks and 172 television hours after Rafer
Johnson lit the Olympic torch, the Games of the
XXIII Olympiad are over. Thank God, Yahweh, Bud
dha, Allah et al.
In July, U.S. triple jumper Willie Banks predicted
that the Games would not be a sports contest. He
said they would be a television show. Banks said
everyone just wanted to see Carl Lewis and Edwin
Moses, and ABC would cater to that desire. Banks
was wrong. From a television program point of view,
ABC did much worse.
Jim McKay was near the forefront of the Olympic
television malaise. That commentator has had his
moments, but this year, his work resembled Muham
mad Ali climbing back into the ring just one too
many times. Like Ali, McKay stumbled and slurred.
Time and again the veteran sportsc aster defied
the laws, letter and spirit, of English grammar while
striving to rescue sentences, or facsimiles thereof,
which were garbled from their first syllable. His
enunciation was muddier than the Mississippi, and
he was as alert as Yogi Bear in mid-winter.
The only thing McKay had going for him was his
recognition factor as the man who has covered a lot
of Olympics. One too many Olympics.
After McKay, ABC's coverage went downhill. And
that wasn't easy. Of the myriad of laughably medio
cre facets of the Olympic television show, two stand
out the disgustingly pro-American raving of most
commentators, and the melodrama.
Nowhere were the commentators worse than in
their gymnastics coverage. And no one among that
group was worse than Cathy Rigby-McCoy. While
the audience cheered good efforts by members of all
teams, Rigby-McCoy cheered only for the Ameri
cans. She goaded "the competition" on to failure.
McCoy's excitement peaked not when the American
men captured the gold, not when Koji Gushiken of
Japan rallied from way back to win the all-around,
not when Mary Lou Retton nailed her victory vault.
No, McCoy was more elated by gaffes committed by
the Chinese men which opened the door for the
Americans.
That type of advocacy commentary is inherent in
sports journalism, and often is worse in interna
tional competition. But in this Olympics, ABC hit
bottom. In a showcase of world atheltes, viewers
saw almost exclusively Americans. All disputes,
save some unarguabh rotten boxing decisions, were
seen from the American point of view. And viewers
were inundated with that view, often "Up Close and
Personal."
The "Up Close and Personal" features were on the
cutting edge of Olympic melodrama. ABC could
have foregone showing even shortened versions of
its most popular soaps and merely directed soap
opera addicts' attention to its Olympic coverage. All
that was missing from the "Up Close." spots were
audience cues saying "Cry" or "Feel Warm hearted."
The melodrama reached its nadir with a feature on
American boxer Mark Breland, whose face faded
out to a roaring tiger as he described himself as an
animal. . .
Worse than the hardship this type of malarkey
caused to viewers was the effect it may have had on
the athletes themselves. After ail, they were trying to
accomplish something, we were just watching. A
prime example was American swimmer Rick Carey.
Continued on Page 12
now. .
Over
'fo you
00 boo
Tuesday, August 14. 1984
Daily Nebraskan
Page 11