TVSquad

Yes I agree.
Olympic has nothing to do with politics. He broke the rule, unfortunately.

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I completely agree. I like the oddball references and trivia. Did you know that Patrick Singleton of the Bermuda Olympic Skeleton team lives in Japan and works for Bloomberg news? Or how about Georg Hackl, "The Flying White Sausage?" He is a german luger that is appearing in his 6th Olympic games. That kind of stuff is interesting and appropriate for the moment. References to political unrest, etc. are not.

Just one more reason he is the inferior Brian Williams.

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Since the Cold war ended, there are no "bad guys" to compete against. Williams was being too heavy-handed about, but I think he was trying to create drama. There won't be a Miracle on ice moment anytime in the near future unless Al Qeada fields an Olympic team. Sometimes you've got to make your own fun.

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I think the olympics got ruined when NBC started referring to "Turino." They're either insufferably pretentious or they're banking on muscle-car enthusiasts tuning into this lame-ass mash-up of crap.

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it's funny, in canada brian williams ruins the opening ceremonies every year. and the closing, and the events, and the athlete interviews.

different brian though.

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The athletes aren't from a magical fairy world where nothing bad ever happens. The Olympics do not occur in a vacuum (Munich? Atlanta? The '36 Olympics in Nazi Germany?). The Olympics are supposed to be about coming together on a common ground; that doesn't mean we have to ignore what's really going on in, and the tensions between, the countries that participate, and I'd argue that the Olympics, and, frankly, the idea of a world community, are pointless if we do. I'm going to guess that it wasn't Brian Williams's choice to co-anchor the Opening Ceremonies. I didn't think his comments were especially intrusive. I'm glad that he did what a news reporter is supposed to do and didn't perpetuate the myth of total harmony in Olympics Land like a corporate hand puppet. I love the cheesiness and the positive energy of the Olympics, and I don't think that's "ruined" or negated by a few references to current events.

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Cable or broadcast...egos..gone wild they want to be THE NEWS...to get true reporting, not opinion journalism on TV you need to watch pieces that are produced by ITV Independent Television News....who sells to many outlets such as PBS...Even with what is said about PBS bending to the left.. there is fair and balanced reporting on New with Jim Lehrer..guests are great a the cover the 3 or 4 topics of the day that you need to know...Charlie Rose is out...he can never stop looking at himself in 1 of two monitors and he is starting to answer all of his questions before the guest can say anything. Larry King is doing better at questioning....so what's new.??

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I'm glad I live in Canada and get the CBC coverage of the Olympics. Ironically, the CBC coverage of the opening was covered by Brian Williams (the Canadian one), and Peter Mansbridge. During the parade of nations, they provided info about each country's Olypmic history, who the flag bear was, and other interesting triva. Sure, there was some current events tid-bits, but not like NBC's bias. I've often heard of Americans living near the boarder prefer to tune into CBC over the airwaves to get the really good coverage. Go Canada!

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Yet another reason why the CBC coverage is perennially better than the NBC coverage. Not only was our Brian Williams better than the American one, but the News Department anchorman that CBC sent (Peter Mansbridge of The National) was far superior to the American news anchor. Mansbridge carried his weight in the commentary far more than Williams did - at times I wondered if the American Williams was even present in the stadium and when the female host came on I wondered if Williams had left the broadcast position. That said Williams had one virtue over Katie Couric, and that is that he knew when to shtu up!

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I 100% agree. B-Will had no business at last night's opening ceremonies. He was dishing out the stuffy negativity at such a rapid clip, I thought I was watching a SNL "Debbie Downer" skit.

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I disagree. Brian Williams seized an opportunity to inform many who pay little or no attention whatsoever to world news events. Too many Americans live in their own bubble. The world at large effects us all.

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Yes, but people who bother to tune in to the opening night of the games, have already heard the news on dozens of other outlets throughout the week and on Friday..those folks who do not know what is going on in the world are probably not watching Olympic coverage of any sort.

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i agree, he stated the things we know and really didn't watch the olympics to hear about...

Geeee but I do miss the east germans and soviets...

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you miss the point...the amazing thing about the olympics is that enemies can suspend animosity and sit together. the one exception in summer when iran refused to let its rep compete against israel. this is not only about athletics.......it is political and hopeful that we can really live together!

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Bob Costas and Katie Couric were a winning combination at the Salt Lake Olympics. If it ain't broke - don't fix it.

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He's ignorant. I just flipped away from NBC. It's a sporting event, not political bashing, you moron. This is why most of us (who'd admitted it) got satellite hookup or Tivo-ed away from this sort of satire crap. Thanks for ruining the Olympic, Williams.

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As an Air Force public affairs officer, I had the opportunity to meet and work with NBC's Brian Williams in the spring of 1991.

You know him today as host of the NBC Nightly News; back then, however, he was a rising star, working as evening anchor for WCBS, CBS’s flagship TV station in New York City.

I was serving as chief of public affairs for the 347th Tactical Fighter Wing at Moody Air Force Base near Valdosta, Georgia. [Note to file: For you trivia buffs, the base is located about 30 minutes down the highway from the site where they filmed the swamp scene in the movie, Deliverance.]

Operation Desert Shield was about to turn into Operation Desert Storm – a.k.a., the first Persian Gulf War – and Mr. Williams wanted to do an up-close-and-personal story about the folks who would soon be flying their F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft into harms way over the skies of Iraq. The folks at the pentagon sent him to our sleepy little base deep in the heart of South Georgia.

In addition to arranging interviews with fighter pilots and others at the base, we were told to provide Mr. Williams with a ride in the backseat of an F-16. Before anyone rides in the back of a fighter jet, however, he has to have a physical and complete pre-flight training that includes learning how to get out of the jet in the event of an emergency. Part of that training was something we called “hang and harness” training.

Hang and harness training is just like it sounds. A person hangs from a harness to get an idea of what it feels like to use a parachute. Standing on a platform several feet off the ground, Mr. Williams had a parachute pack strapped on his back and was connected by cables to a mechanical rigging device suspended from the ceiling.

The gear worn by Mr. Williams included two main straps, each of which extended from his shoulder area, down across his chest and under his crotch where they passed by his “family jewels” – one strap on each side – and continued up his back side where they connected with the bottom of the parachute sack.

Despite being told more than once by his Air Force instructors that he should tighten those straps until they were very snug, the anchor-man ignored the advice. When the time came for him to jump from the platform to the ground below, simulating the feel of a real jump, the anchorman’s less-than-snug straps suddenly became snug – and in an oh-so-painful way.

These days, I can’t even watch him on the NBC Nightly News without thinking back to that painful moment which, by the way, he didn’t even mention in his story. Thanks for the memories, Mr. Williams.

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I wish that NBC would stop interupting the commercials with all those Olympics breaks.

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Eeyore does Geography during the Opening Ceremony....

"here's denmark, (sigh) they're responsible for the cartoon that everyone hates. here's iran, they want the bomb (sigh) and are going to destory israel. has anyone seen my tail?"

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