NBC (Pea)cocks a Snook At Olympics Audience?

[Joel S. Berson]

At 9/12/2008 01:35 PM, Doug Harris wrote:
>Some controversy has arisen
>http://www.thrfeed.com/2008/08/nbc-fake-olympi.html over various aspects of
>NBC's coverage of the Olympics.

And the New York Times yesterday (Aug. 10), NBC Is Broadcasting Live,
Except When It Isn't,
By RICHARD SANDOMIR,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/sports/olympics/11sandomir.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=olympics%20live%20west%20coast&st=cse&oref=slogin

Joel

>NBC denies, of course, that it's (pea)cocking a snook at the intelligence
>of viewers. To the contrary (I suppose), said an NBC Sports spokesperson,
>when asked about a stamp declaring onscreen that the west coast's version
>of events was "live" when coverage was only "live" on the east coast:
>"The audience makeup of the Olympics is very much like that of 'American
>Idol' and 'Dancing with the Stars' which have 'live' season finales
>presented in much the same way," the spokesperson declared.
>I know those shows are good old fashioned (!) American entertainment, but
>I for one (he says somewhat elitistly) wouldn't want to be considered as
>one with audiences of either of those shows. But then my perspective on
>such things may well be, like the 50 million Frenchmen who couldn't be,
>wrong.
>--
>I'm reminded, re the 'live' issue, of radio shows of yesteryear that
>declared themselves to have been "recorded before a live audience." Now
>I think of it, was that phrase born about the same time as laugh tracks,
>which made it difficult to tell if an audience was, in fact, present
>during the original presentation of the material that was, in another
>then-common phrase, "recorded live for rebroadcast at this time"?
>dh
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org