OLYMPICS BLUES 13

Here's a comment on CMC's response to criticism of their coverage of the Beijing Olympics, from PW.

"So CMC's Michael Whyte has responded (in the TV6 lunchtime newscast) to negative criticisms of CMC's coverage at the Beijing Olympics; but all he could have said to justify their not so thorough coverage is that the Caribbean would not have seen much of the Caribbean Athletes if it were not for CMC.

"And of course the underlying tone in that statement is that "no one could satisfy third world-minded people".

"Well Mr. Whyte, for starters --- since the game began picturesque scenes of the Majestic Olympic stadium was shown from time to time, but to this moment the famous and very seasoned Lance Whittaker and the other commentators have not formulated words to match the scenes or to speak to the picture and about the Stadium's design, except to keep saying it's beautiful...Eh? Can they tell us what the seemingly two warehouses outside the Stadium is for?

"Did you see today's 4x100M relays heats for the women Mr. Whyte? Well the famous Whittaker guy had not a clue that the baton fell between the third and fourth leg sprinters for Trinidad and Tobago...Eh? Is that the Caribbean coverage you speak of Mr. Whyte? Thank God Jamaica won so we got mentioned, but had that not been the case, the focus would be strictly on the winners and the Caribbean athletes are mentioned when it no longer matters.

"If a Caribbean athlete comes 7th or 8th or does not place in the top three of a race, the focus is still on the foreign athletes... Eh? Is that not why we escaped NBC and their extreme bias to the American athletes? And while Whittaker seemed not to want to be as obnoxious as NBC, and give a wider coverage - to which I applaud, the focus has to be the Caribbean athlete no matter their placement. They need to take a close look at how the US does it gain, and copy what's good. This occurred way too often and is worthy of note.

"But let me guess, Lance Whittaker been doing this from his mother's womb, so no one could tell him anything right? So enters Whyte to make excuses for mediocrity and the limited coverage that's been extended to us.

"Well CMC if you can't get this right, we will settle for the biased NBC coverage because in the 2012 Olympics...it is the same as CMC...they focus on the winners and their losing athletes. We would still be informed when the Caribbean wins. As we are doing now, we will know the rest when the final and official results are shown to us."

Well TV6 took their time to pick up on that story. It was run in their sister newspaper, the Sunday Express, and the Express also had a comment from TV6's General Manager.
But like we said, the excuses are too little too late to make up for the already poor coverage.
Let's just hope regional governments and television stations band together in the next couple of years and set up a London 2012 fund so we can have complete Caribbean coverage at the next Olympics.

BTW, we thought we were the only ones who noticed that Lance Whittaker and his cohort didn't even notice or mention the misfortune of the Trini girls.