Jewish World Review Sept. 21, 2000 / 20 Elul 5760
Bob Greene
If the Olympics banished
television . . .
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
The only good idea I've ever had lasted just one
edition.
This was during the Olympic Games in Atlanta in
1996; I presented the idea, which concerned the
Olympics, in the early edition of the Sunday
Tribune, and then that bomb went off in the park in
Atlanta. I subbed out the column for later editions
to write about the bombing, so only a relatively few
readers ever saw the original column.
Luckily -- or unluckily -- not much has changed in
four years, as far as the Olympics are concerned.
This year the Olympics are being held in Sydney,
but other than the geographical difference,
everything about the suggestion I tried to present in
'96 still stands.
The athletic performances that are at the core of the
Olympics are still beautiful. Yet the Olympics
remain garishly overcommercialized. The
price-gouging in the host city still goes on. The
traffic jams -- involving both motorized vehicles and
pedestrians -- continue. The athletes still participate
in a barely disguised race for endorsement
contracts. The huge corporations that try to make
the Olympics their personal trade show are still
ubiquitous.
Add to that the dirty dealing that has been
documented since '96 about the luring of the
Olympics to Salt Lake City.
The question, more important than it ever was, is:
How can the world return the true Olympic spirit to
the Olympics?
The solution is easy -- and, with the hopes that
mayhem in Sydney does not cause this column to
be pulled out of the paper by Sunday morning --
here it is.
All the International Olympic Committee has to do
is to add a very short sentence to its bylaws:
The Olympic Games shall not be televised in any
way.
That's all it would take. The first future Olympic
Games to be played under the TV-is-banished rule
would resemble as pure and untarnished an athletic
festival as has ever occurred in modern times. You
wouldn't see it, of course--that's the price that
would be paid--but all of the great aspects of the
Olympics would remain, and the terrible ones
would disappear.
Before we go any further: This is not a knock on
television's coverage of the Olympics. Network
television has traditionally done a magnificent job of
telecasting the events, and NBC's camerawork and
production elements are almost uniformly
breathtaking. And this is most definitely not a
criticism of the talents of NBC's Olympics anchor,
Bob Costas, who is as true and trusted a friend as I
have ever had in this business. Television's ability to
transmit the emotions of the Olympics to tens of
millions of homes around the world is unquestioned.
That's what you would miss if the IOC voted to
ban television -- all those colorful and emotional
video moments.
But think of the potential advantages to the
Olympics:
Overnight, the sprawling corporate village that is
erected in every Olympic city would cease to exist.
All of the big companies that spend millions of
dollars to show how much a part of the Olympic
spirit they are would flee like the wind if they
realized TV would not be present to give them
worldwide advertising exposure.
The merchants charging obscenely inflated prices
for everything from water to bathroom facilities
would come back down to Earth. If TV were not
present, persuading people from all over the globe
that the Olympic city is the world's biggest party,
the demand for goods and services would be
severely diminished. The only people who would
come to the Games would be people who loved to
watch sports contests.
The athletes themselves would compete in a
refreshing and different atmosphere: Because
television would not be present, there would be no
need to select certain athletes to build video
"storylines" around. Each swimmer, each gymnast,
each runner would be equal in the eyes of the
spectators in the stands -- evaluated only on talent,
not on pre-packaged TV personality profiles.
Would the great athletes still come to the modern
Olympics if they knew they would not be televised?
Good question. The athletes who compete for the
love of competition would probably come if the
Olympics were held in an empty shed. The NBA
basketball players? Come to the Olympics on their
own time if someone told them there would be no
television? You decide.
The banning of television from the Olympics will
never happen. But the Olympics became the
Olympics because they were unique. There was
nothing else like them. Today, everything in the
world is televised -- the one way to make the
Olympics unique again would be to keep them off
television.
As it is now, all the ills of the Olympics -- the
tawdry, the hucksterish, the logo-strewn, the
excessive, the larcenous, the low -- come to town
with the Games. Turn off the cameras, and the
Games would return to being merely games. The
best games in the world, but still merely games.
Imagine
that.
JWR contributor Bob Greene is a novelist and columnist. Send your comments to him by clicking here.
09/19/00: As summer ends, have the executives learned any lessons?
09/14/00: The new stardom that doesn't require paying any dues
09/12/00: Leave a light on for us children of the pioneers
09/09/00: River banks? How to turn water into an endless cash flow
09/06/00:Oh, give me a home, where the megabytes roam . . .
09/01/00: If this works, it can literally change young lives
08/30/00: From inside all those screen porches, one more cheer
08/24/00: Who will make your life better by August of 2004?
08/24/00: Four men running -- Why do we have to throw out two?
08/16/00:The certain way to measure the Lieberman factor
08/10/00: Can a library be a library without books?
08/08/00: Can't they spare eight nights every four years?
08/04/00: Cheney, Abe Lincoln and Ricky Martin -- do they add up?
08/02/00: Convention aside, you might want to tune in
07/27/00: How to make a killing
07/25/00: 'If we didn't do it, no one else would'
07/24/00: The executioners who walk among us
07/20/00: On Main Street, signs of the times tell two stories
07/18/00: Have the choices changed, or have we?
07/14/00: Gable, Hepburn, Zanuck--you wouldn't find them at HOJO's
07/13/00: The Great Lie about political conventions
07/06/00: If this is victory, what would defeat feel like?
06/29/00: A bright moon and a missing person on Orange Ave.
06/26/00: They're not singing our song
06/22/00: The name game
06/07/00: It's like knocking on a revolving door
06/06/00: Steven who? A close encounter of mistaken identity
06/02/00: Of summer days, summer nights and pebbles in a jar
05/31/00: The best laughter, the truest voices, will never fade
05/25/00: Of distant visions, close views, and Bobby Knight
05/24/00: 'The luckiest thing that ever happened to me'
05/23/00: 'It's funny how you remember the little things'
05/22/00: 'The whisper of a generation saying goodbye to its children'
05/19/00: The place to find life is not a keyboard
05/18/00: A problem of suds but no duds
05/17/00: Are those lazy, hazy dot-com days fading?
05/16/00: The truest things in life require not a single word
05/15/00: 'Evidently he didn't like the way she dusted the house'
05/12/00: Why news executives are hoping this 'woman' is a hit
05/11/00: Ted Koppel, Hitler, Mellencamp . . . and words of love
05/10/00: Maybe it's time for the right people to hear our cheers
05/09/00: The lesson that they always learn late
05/05/00: 'Excuse me, but there seems to be something in my water'
05/05/00: When your first dream turns out to be your best dream
05/04/00: Even baseball couldn't make light of this superstition
05/03/00: The ringmaster who looks back from your mirror
05/02/00: There they go, just a-yappin' down the street . . .
05/01/00: You must remember this (Unless you don't)
04/24/00: Now that casino ads are allowed to tell the truth . . .
04/13/00: The man in the seat across the airplane aisle
04/11/00: A star is born, but do you know where it's @?
04/06/00: Through the eyes of Norman Rockwell
03/21/00: 10 good reasons to avoid making this list
03/21/00: 'I tell myself that they've gone on vacation'
03/21/00: Monday Night Football memories
03/02/00: This report card deserves an 'A' in every subject
02/29/00: What really happened on New Year's eve
02/23/00: Of paste pots, Denver sandwiches and finding Dr. Sam
02/17/00: What would you like to stay exactly the same?
02/04/00: Politics: When did the stagehands step onto the stage?
02/01/00: An awesome idea to make you sound better
01/26/00: Y3K already? We haven't yet recovered from Y2K
01/21/00: Watching the pot that always boils
01/19/00:The story behind the men on the museum steps
01/13/00: Here's to the students who never hear a cheer
01/11/00: The oh-so-sweet sound of modems in the morning
01/04/00: The person in your mirror just got wiser
12/31/99: A lesson -- and a memory -- to last a millennium
12/29/99: Racing the clock, even when it's running backwards
12/13/99: The right to bear coffee
12/08/99: From teen idol to ink-stained wretch: Can you Dig it?
12/02/99: Human 'search engines'
11/30/99: Here's looking at you -- now hand over the cash
11/23/99: Who'll say 'I'm sorry' to the other Decatur students?
11/18/99: "From bad things, good can come"
11/16/99: The man who didn't know the meaning of 'whatever'
11/12/99: Is this progress? We have made the weekend obsolete
11/09/99: Today he would probably be called Kyle Kramden
11/04/99: And you thought the IRS was heartless
11/02/99: When it's free, what will the real price be?
10/29/99: The tissue-thin decisions that define who we are
10/26/99: One way to cut road rage down to size
10/22/99: Asking all the right questions takes a special pitch
10/18/99: The signs are talking to you; Are you listening?
10/12/99: Even Capone would be disgusted
10/08/99: Don't ever look your neighborhood bear in the eye
10/06/99: Land of the free and marketplace of the brave
10/04/99: German warplanes in
American skies
09/30/99: While you fret, something is sneaking up on you
09/28/99: In these busy times, why not bring back a certain buzz?
09/24/99: The storms whose paths no one can track
09/21/99: Who's minding the store? Oh . . . never mind
09/17/99:Here's another place where you can't smoke
09/14/99: As certainly as `lovely Rita' follows `when I'm 64' . . .
09/09/99: Why is patience no longer a virtue?
09/07/99: Once upon a time, in an airport close to you . . .
09/03/99: The answers? They are right in front of us
09/01/99: Up the creek with a paddle--and cussing up a storm
08/30/99: $1 Million Question: How'd we get to be so stup-d?
08/27/99: Fun and games at Camp Umbilical Cord
08/25/99: How life has been changed by the woodpecker effect
08/23/99: If you don't like this story, blame the robot who wrote it
08/20/99: A four-letter word that has helped both Bob and Rhonda
08/18/99: They have picked the wrong country
08/16/99: From paperboy to stalker--how the news has changed
08/12/99: Why wasn't anyone watching his brothers?
08/10/99: Come to think of it, stars seldom are the retiring type
08/05/99: The national gaper's block is always jammed
07/29/99: 'Can you imagine the gift you gave me?'
07/27/99: A view to a kill -- but is this really necessary?
07/23/99: Some cream and sugar with your turbulence?
07/21/99: When your name is JFK jr., how do you choose to use it?
07/19/99: The real world is declared not real enough
07/15/99: The real victims of cruel and unusual punishment
07/13/99: A 21st Century idea for schools: log off and learn
07/09/99: Are life's sweetest mysteries still around the bend?
07/07/99: Of great minds, cream cheese and Freddy Cannon
07/02/99: The perfect spokesman for the American way
06/30/99: 'He's 9 years old . . . he trusts people'
06/28/99: A $581 million jackpot in the courthouse casino
06/25/99: A nighttime walk to a House that feels like a cage
06/23/99: At least give men credit for being more morose
06/18/99: On Father's Day, a few words about mothers
06/16/99: If work is a dance, how's
your partner doing?
06/14/99: Should a dictionary ever tell you to keep quiet?
06/10/99: A story of Sex, the SuperBowl and your wife
06/07/99: Take a guess where "California Sun" is from
06/03/99: Of summer days, summer nights and pebbles in a jar
06/01/99: Putting your money where their mouths are
05/27/99: Pressed between wooden covers, the summer of her life
05/25/99:The lingering song of a certain summer
05/24/99:We could all use a return to the Buddy system
05/20/99: Now, this is enough to make James Bond double-0 depressed
05/17/99: It's midnight -- do you know where your parents are?
05/13/99: And now even saying "thank you" creates a problem
05/11/99: The answer was standing at the front door
©1999, Tribune Media Services
|