Olympics so far: The visuals are pretty. The picture isn't.

Also: Maybe Brian Williams can take over for Jay Leno ... because Bob Costas just took over for Williams.

Who could have predicted that the biggest Olympic cheating scandal wouldn't involve any of the athletes?

After one week of the Beijing Games, NBC is enjoying audiences larger than it projected; the USA teams are performing as well or better than anyone expected; and the wow factor for these Olympics is much higher than I'd anticipated.

And yet, if there is one storyline that no one either at NBC or the Chinese overseers of these Games could have imagined emerging from the first week, it was the outrage over revelations that portions of the dazzling opening ceremony had been faked.

One striking minute-long sequence showed fireworks going off in the middle of Beijing along the course of a mile leading up to the national stadium (or Bird's Nest) where the ceremony was taking place. As viewers watched, the light show in the sky appeared to have been perfectly tracked by a helicopter-cam. If you had just tuned in, you might even have thought it was opening shot from "CSI."

As it turned out, that comparison was unfair to "CSI." A Beijing newspaper reported later that a much brighter set of footprints had been recreated in a CGI effects lab and shown on television instead of the real fireworks.

Why they were recreated was unclear. An Olympic official, defending the visual trickery, cited safety concerns with having a helicopter shoot fireworks from above. Another explanation, from the same official, was that it would be too difficult to get the 29 different explosions on camera. (As it was, according to the London Telegraph, the fake fireworks took nearly a year to make in the lab.)

NBC figured out a way to be truthy about the sham fireworks without really calling attention to their shamminess. "Today" show co-host Matt Lauer, who was helping call the ceremony, told viewers they were looking at "a cinematic device employed by Zhang Yimou," the action-film director who oversaw the opening ceremony.

Lauer then referred to the sequence as "almost animation." In fact, it was actual animation.

That might not have been such a big deal by itself, but the Chinese cover-up deepened when two more deceptions were revealed later in the week. The New York Times revealed Tuesday that Lin Miaoke, the 9-year-old girl seen in the ceremony gliding through the stadium suspended by a wire, was substituted at the last minute for another girl whose looks were deemed "not suitable" by party officials. However, her voice was judged to be just fine, so they used it, and told little Lin to hold the microphone and lip-synch.

The Times said the producers were "under pressure from the highest levels of the ruling Communist Party to find the perfect face and voice," and failing that, they settled on a hybrid without telling anybody.

Joe Bua, a blogger and reader of mine, summed up the resulting outrage of many viewers: "I knew the footprints thing was CGI, but the swap of the little girls is beyond the pale. Years from now, one girl has a video record of the event, the other has the memory of not being cute enough.

"Whoever decided that is evil."

Or just poorly versed in the ways of an open and free press. Perhaps the Cultural Revolution was going on when the movie version of "My Fair Lady" was released; otherwise the Chinese should have known you can't have someone lip-synch in front of millions without the media finding out.

And then on Friday, the Times Online revealed a third bit of deception. Remember those 56 children who walked into the stadium dressed in the garb of China's 56 ethnic minorities? Oops - they were all actually members of the country's Han majority.

This last instance was especially egregious because it crossed the line from illusion - which many Western PR campaigns engage in - to lying, which as John Edwards will attest, you just can't spin. China may have done a pretty good job of replicating American manufacturing techniques, but it's still got a ways to go when it comes to learning how our PR machine works.

And indeed, the ethnic-minorities story popped bigger than it ever would have on its own, because it was immediately added to an ever-growing list of cover-ups. The whole kerfuffle might have been avoided had Chinese officials simply admitted, before the event, that there would be some movie magic going on during the ceremony. NBC announcers could then have explained what was going on in clear, non-obfuscational language.

While they were at it, they might have also told us that the opening ceremony had been extended by 27 minutes over its actual 50-minute running length to make room for numerous commercial breaks. (Even better, NBC could have shaken down one of its corporate sponsors to do one of those "limited commercial interruption" deals and cut down on the number of breaks.) Also, would it have killed Bob Costas to tell us that the Parade of Nations was edited for time?

And after that litany of complaints, I realize that any praise for NBC's high-definition Olympics will seem faint by comparison. But I'll try anyway: I have never watched a Summer or Winter Games where I was so bombarded with spectacular, gasp-inducing, utterly riveting video.

I'm the first to admit that I like seeing people from my home country win. And that they did, a lot, during the first week. And when they did, it seemed NBC cameras had 14 different replays at the ready.

Also, the fact that these games were able to broadcast so much live to the Central and Eastern time zones helped. The time lag between Kansas City and Beijing is 13 hours, which means many events can be covered as they happen -- with a little help from Olympics schedulers who know what time is prime time in America.

But part of the overwhelming feeling was simply a product of sheer volume. Not only is this the first all-HD Olympics but the first to offer thousands of hours of online video of non-televised events. NBC has far more material to draw upon for highlights than in any previous Games it's covered.

True, you have to install a new version of the Silverlight media module on your web browser to watch them, and that process did not go smoothly for me (a tech-savvy Mac owner). But the trouble was worth it -- the online video is the best I've ever seen for a screen that size, and navigation was fluid and glitch-free.

The commentators were by and large good at what they did, and I include Rowdy Gaines, the former Olympian and longtime booth announcer for the swimming events. However, I found myself getting increasingly annoyed by Gaines' relentless chatter about all the world records being broken. As Olympic-savvy viewers already knew, Speedo has introduced a new “high-tech swimsuit” that is being credited by most experts as the reason for the sudden decline in race times. It's legal doping and should be treated as such. Instead, it was like the 1998 home-run chase all over again, with Gaines and his colleague Dan Hicks blindly enthusing about all the feats of strength.

“That's the first time anyone has broken 1:55!” Gaines yelled after the Italian Federica Pellegrini broke the mark in the women's 200-meter freestyle. Later that night, during another race, Hicks asked, “and how many world records are we going to see here?”

Oh, I don't know, but let me guess: A lot?

Still, there was no denying the tremendous drama of the men's 4x100 freestyle relay final, where the underdog Americans beat the Frenchmen, whose star swimmer had made an ill-advised victory prediction that made Michael Phelps' reluctance to say anything interesting to the news media more understandable.

However, NBC didn't shy away from Olympic drama that didn't end in USA wins. For instance, the stunning equalizer by the Dutch men's soccer team, in the 90th minute of a match that the Americans seemed to have in hand, was featured in highlight reels the first weekend of play.

Other highlights made their way around the Web without any help from NBC, like the horrific footage of Hungarian weightlifter Baranyai János, whose arm popped out of its socket as he attempted to hold a 300-pound barbell above his head.

The presence of NBC News anchor Brian Williams in Beijing didn't stop its top sports anchor from making news. President Bush stopped by the NBC broadcast center for a little chat with Costas, presumably about such topics as meeting with the Redeem Team. Instead, Costas grilled him for a very long eight minutes about China's human rights record and its refusal to let a prominent dissident in the country, as well as demanding an update on the deteriorating situation between Russia and Georgia.

Finally, Costas asked what sports Bush was going to see on Monday.

"I'm going to swimming here -- if you'd ever let me off this set," Bush said in his kidding-not-kidding way.

Costas is an excellent observer of the media. I'm sure he's aware that some of the frankest interviews with the president have happened when he wasn't expecting a full-court press. The resulting give-and-take was yet another Olympic highlight from week one.

Comments

[Z1]

China was going to show the world how great they are, yet they lie, cheat, and steal at every opportunity. If you have ever done business in China, you know this is par for the course there. They think we are stupid and not worthy of the truth anyway. So they feel justified in making the “means” fit their end.

Using under-age girls for many purposes has long been part of the “good of the People” (read Party members). China is not a communist state, but the ultimate capitalist state, where 800 Party members own and control everything, including the media and government. At least 40% of the labor is China is forced (read slavery).

The $40 Billion that China has spent came largely from International Monetary and World Bank loans, which are largely funded by US taxpayers. China wants it both ways; to be seen as a world power, but also as a third-world country to qualify for low-interest loans, for which it has yet to make its first payment.

Who knows where the “donations” for the earthquake went. Most Chinese companies do not pay taxes for their US business activities, they use accounts in the Grand Cayman Islands and Switzerland. They are de-foresting Africa rapidly for lumber for furniture which gets sold by IKEA and others. Darfur is about Chinese oil interests. Anyone who is in their way gets “quieted.”

China is the largest polluter on the plant, just passing the US recently. They stopped production in factories months ago in order to try to have an image of clear skies for the Games. Yet they cry foul at the US for not signing the Kyoto treaty, which they openly violate. The pollution from China goes up into the jet stream, and falls over the US and Canada. But they say it is our problem, not theirs.

Most Americans are incredibly naïve about China. China was President Clinton’s largest indirect campaign contributor (and Hillary’s this time). Read The Year of the Rat by William C. Triplett II and Edward Timperlake (more below).

Nineteen ninety-six was the Chinese Year of the Rat, and according to William C. Triplett II and Edward Timperlake, the rats were so plentiful at the Clinton White House that only a thorough house-cleaning will rid the place of the Chinese intelligence agents and mobsters to whom the Clintons are beholden. Their main thesis will not surprise readers of TAS: Bill Clinton made a series of Faustian bargains with the Communist Chinese and their agents in the United States, trading national security for hefty campaign contributions that ultimately financed Dick Morris's now infamous media blitz in late 1995 and 1996. Clinton's betrayal ranged from leaking classified intelligence documents to wittingly assisting the modernization of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). The authors give new substance to Senator Fred Thompson's cryptic suggestions of a methodical game plan organized by the PLA, China's intelligence services, and the Chinese mob to infiltrate and ultimately control the American political establishment.

[offal]

Z1, spitting your hatred won't earn your respect

It is us who bought, used, and wasted most of the products made by poor Chinese ppl and left them the greatest pollution in the world that kills thousands of them everyday.

Now you pretend to care about forest in Africa and blame Chinese for pollute the earth.

Look your soul and your hands, my pal, are they as clean as you said above?

You are the ppl who makes our American look ignorant and ugly to the rest of the world.

[Tom Wolper]

This might be a variation of "nobody ever leaves a show humming the set," but I'm surprised how many people (especially in the media) are taking NBC's high production values for granted. The opening ceremony stories will and should be forgotten someday. The video records of the sporting events will be complete and in high definition. Viewers feel empowered, with both cable and online options, to find the sports they deem interesting and watch events in their entirety.

I think the higher-than-expected ratings NBC is getting reflect the high quality work they are doing. It's a shame that once the Olympics are over NBC will return to The Biggest Loser, Dateline, and fourth place in the ratings.

[Bill Warriner]

RE the Olympics coverage by NBC sports, the network deserves kudos for handling a monumental job smoothly. That's what we expect them to do. But there's one glaring problem that nobody seems to notice: the inability of most NBC announcers to pronounce the names of Chinese athletes. With Russian or Polish names they do OK, Lithuanian names OK, Lower Slobbovian names No Problem. But Chinese names are consistently mispronounced and that glaringly reinforces the ancient “ugly American” cliché just one more time (sigh).

Chinese Olympics honchos must be biting their tongues and buttoning their lips with politely repressed anger.

It really ain't hard to do this part of the job right. It would have been easy to coach the announcers before they went on air with errors that sound to a native like fingernails on a blackboard.

I’ll give you 2 examples:(1) the gymnast Yang Yi-lin’s surname (Yang) has been consistently pronounced to rhyme with "yank" as in “Yankee.” But the letter “A” in romanized Chinese should sound like an “A” in French, Italian, Spanish or any other European Romance language: it’s “A” as in “father.” The “A” in the name “Yang” should rhyme with “ah.” Is that so hard?

(2)Another example is the name of the women’s springboard diving phenom, Guo Jing-jing. Her surname (Guo) has consistently been pronounced to rhyme with “go” (long “O”). The correct pronunciation rhymes with “aw” as in “paw.”

To make matters worse, the onscreen graphics listed her given name as her surname. That's like listing Michael Phelps as “Michael” instead of “Phelps.” The onscreen graphics listed her as “Jingjing” instead of “Guo.” The NBC staff could use some lessons on how not to commit international social gaffes.

Doesn't everybody know by now that in Chinese, the first name (e.g., Hu as in Hu Jin-tao) is the surname? Anybody with an IQ above body temperature should be able to get that. Our president is President Bush, not President George. The Chinese president is President Hu, not President Jin-tao.

There are literally dozens upon dozens of other mistakes going on air. If my criticism seems trivial, on the international stage it is not. This stuff offends the Chinese as it would offend anybody. In world cultures, ignorance equals arrogance. NBC has demonstrated once again that Americans are arrogant about their ignorance.

NBC needs to put a few bucks in their multi-gazillion-dollar budget for a multilingual voice coach.

Bill Warriner
Marlborough, Massachusetts
Phone 508-481-2727
e-mail bewarriner@comcast.net

[Cassie]

I think the saddest commentary about all of this is that the Chinese government appears to have an insane hunger for the pursuit of perfection, with no regard for the price to be paid, be it a monetary or human one. They exploit their own citizens and obviously other countries to achieve their goals, what ever they might be. As far as the opening ceremonies go, I could only think of this - that country's leaders were so concerned with perfection that they spent millions and millions of dollars on presenting a perfect image, yet so many of their citizens are so poor. Just consider that for a minute.

[To Z1]

Oh please Z1, give us a break, you're talking like a Democrat now. You're acting like you know a lot about China and you actually been to the place before.

If China really spent the $40 billions from the WB and IMF, I don't think the world media would give China any space to breathe anyway.

China overtook the US as the largest polluter, does it mean the US is not guilty of the same crime ? The US is a fully developed country, China is still a developing country. and if the US wants people to follow, it has to set a good example first.

The French are also active in Africa for oil there. And again hypocrisy, deforestation in Africa for IKEA, and who buys from IKEA ? it is us. so why trying to act like we are innocent ?

You said 40% of China labour is forced, and you have any proof ? then why migrants workers keep flocking to big Chinese cities every year if they are forced to work ?

I agree with offal that seriously people like you Z1 really embarasses American people. if you keep on acting like this on the net, God knows when the US will become the most hated nation on Earth.

seriously dude, your logics of argument just does not work for me.

Peace !

[sam]

Z1 SAID :

"China was going to show the world how great they are, yet they lie, cheat, and steal at every opportunity. If you have ever done business in China, you know this is par for the course there. They think we are stupid and not worthy of the truth anyway. So they feel justified in making the “means” fit their end"

I then ask Z1 this question :

"Then why international corporations keep comming to China to open manufacturing plants and R&D design centres (yes Siemens) and Airbus already outsourced their only overseas manufacturing and assembling plant to China, Intel opened a Chips plant in China ?"
and these are only a few examples I give you.

Z1, you seem to a smart person, I hope you can answer these questions.

[WillF]

Interesting comment by Bill W. about pronunciation. It would also probably help if the announcers pronounced "Beijing" correctly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GE4dkpOdPw