- Home
- About Us
-
Archives
- The Occupy the Rose Parade Action
- The War OF Terror's Deadly Embrace, the Drums of War, and What Time It Is
- Why People Aren't Mainly Motivated by Money
- On Elections and the Sources of Real Political Power
- The National Defense Authorization Act and the Eviction of Occupy LA
- Obama, Congress, the People and the NDAA
- Statement on the 10th Anniversary of Guantanamo
- Why “The Lesser of Two Evils” Isn't
- Who’s to Blame for Urinating Marines?
- What's Newt - and the GOP - Up To?
- Dirty, Pretty Things: Apple, Inc. and China
- On Obama's SOTU Speech
- Dirty, Pretty Things Part 3
- Aggressive War: the Supreme War Crime
- Occupy: What It's Done and What Remains to Be Done
- Jeremy Lin, "Coming from Nowhere," and Hiding in Plain Sight
- Jeremy Lin, Racist Headlines, and Drone Attacks
- Burning Qurans and Burning Empires: Afghanistan in Turmoil
- The Separation of Religion from the State and the Overthrow of the Anti-Woman Islamic Regime in Iran is the First Step toward Women’s Emancipation!
- Rush Limbaugh on Sandra Fluke
- Killed Buying Skittles While Black
- This is What Liberation Looks Like: U.S. Massacre in Afghanistan
- Greg Smith, Goldman Sachs, and the Predatory Culture of the Financial Giants
- Banks and the Crisis of Capital: What Greg Smith Noticed
- Is Democracy an End in Itself or a Means to an End?
- Kendrec McDade, Another Young Black Man, Gunned Down
- An April's Recantation
- Strip Search My Ass
- George Zimmerman Charged with 2nd Degree Murder
- Waterboarding and Hoodies: Which One of These Doesn't Belong?
- Reflections on Ashley Judd, Hunger Games and Trayvon Martin: Misogyny and Racism
- Sweatshop Star: Project Runway, Fashion Star, and the Missing Working Class
- The War on Black Women and Children
- GDS Book Talk and Panel Cal Poly Pomona April 9, 2012
- Liars in High Places: John Brennan, Obama, and Drone Attacks
- Rupert Murdoch and the Phone-Hacking Scandal: Unfit to Lead? Willful Blindness?
- War Criminals to Meet in Chicago, But Somehow Protest Will be the Danger?
- Concrete v. Abstract Thinking
- "Capitalists and Other Psychopaths": An Opinion Piece at The New York Times
- The Indiana Pacers v. the Miami Heat: Lessons about Contests
- Losing Facebook / Losing My Religion
- Fukushima: A Possible Global Catastrophe is Unfolding
- "Stand Your Ground" and Threats Against Your Neighbors (Families & Countries)
- Democracies and Bureaucracies: Strange Bedfellows
- Selfishness, Co-operation and Leadership: Gossip and Other Forms of Social Suasion
- Aaron Sorkin’s “Newsroom”
- Julian Assange and What Is At Stake
- Food and Drug Scandals in China: the Wonders of the "Free Market"
- Sexual Predators and Predator Drones: Is One Abhorrent but the Other OK?
- Dark Night Rising: James Holmes, the Aurora Massacre, and the Other Massacre
- The Nazi Origins of the Olympic Torch Relay
- In Remembrance of Alexander Cockburn (1941-2012)
- High Fructose Corn Syrup: Why NBC Won't Show the Olympics in Real Time
- Shock and Awe Comes Home to Roost: Six Sikhs Killed in Milwaukee
- Too Much Beach Volleyball on NBC?
- Olympic Games: Carrying the Torch Deeper Into the Perilous Austerity Forest
- On the Attack on Teachers' Tenure
- Todd Akin, We Wish You Were As Smart as a Uterus Too
- A Call To Stand Together To Oppose The Obama Administration’s Dangerous Assault On Fundamental Rights
- U.S. DOJ: Prisoners Tortured by U.S. Can’t Reveal That They’ve Been Tortured … Because It Will Reveal “National Security Secrets”
- People Board Their Homes as Romney and Ryan Preen for the RNC
- The Fundamental Lie Behind Mitt Romney (and the Financial Elite)
- 12-Step Recovery Program from the "Lesser" Evil
- What Does Mitt Romney Want Us to Think?
- Grand Old Misconceptions
- Michelle Obama: A “Killer” Speech and the Democrat’s Secret Weapon
- Tom Hayden on Obama
- Not Everything Is What It Seems: Obama, Romney and the Political Process
- Collecting Student Debt Like It's Child Support
- 9/11: "The Deafness Before the Storm" and the Storms Now Brewing
- 9/11: "The Deafness Before the Storm" and the Storms Now Brewing, Part 2
- Government Officials Are Gangsters with Far More Power
- The Innocence of Imperialism: Upheaval Spreads to 20+ Countries; U.S. Officialdom Wonders Why
- A Few Observations About OWS on Its One Year Anniversary
- "My job is not to worry about those people." – Mitt Romney
- The Threats Against Iran
- MNF Debacle: Replacement Refs and the "Free" Market
- Feminism & Politics: Why Are We Still Fighting Over Reproductive Rights?
- Torture and the Presidential Campaign
- And the Winner Is ...
- The First Presidential Debate: Energy Independence?!
- Dennis Loo's Opening Remarks at UCLA's "Inside Out: Social Justice, Activism, and the 2012 Vote"
- Who is Barack Obama Really? An Examination of Obama’s Domestic Policies
- God's Answer to the Global Warming Doubters
- For Those Who Think That They Must Vote for Obama Because Romney’s Such a Threat
- "Beware the Worser Evil! You're Not Voting? Are You Crazy?!"
- What's Sexy Now? Obama, Surveillance and Civil Liberties
- Whatever Happens Today ...
- What the 2012 Election Was ... and Wasn't
- Hopes, Dreams, and Fantasies: the Aftermath of the 2012 Elections
- If It Makes Me Feel Bad, Does That Make It Untrue?
- A Duck By Any Other Name: Obama and Terrorism, and the Terror of Infidelity
- They Can't Help Themselves
- Noam Chomsky: On Gaza and Israel
- Is Rush Limbaugh Losing It? Is Socialism Becoming More Popular Than Capitalism?
- Human Rights First?
- Turmoil in Egypt. Morsi aka Mubarak.
- Sandy Hook Massacre: The NRA Isn't The Main Problem
- A Teachable Moment: the Sandy Hook Massacre
- Fear and Loathing Unto Death: Extreme Individualism, Shredding the Social Fabric, and the Sandy Hook Massacre
- Two Confounding Items in the News Regarding the Murdering of Children
- Zero Dark Thirty: Bigelow's "Civilized Lunch"
- The Price of Illusions
- Red Herrings and Deadly Consequences: Mass Domestic Murders and Mental Illness
- Sophisticated Philistine: Stephen Asma and "The Myth of Universal Love"
- Zero Dark Thirty: Journalism? Art? Propaganda?
- Zero Dark Thirty and Truthiness
- "Justifiable" Torture and "The Ends Justify the Means"
- On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2013
- Lemon Juice, Presidents, and Empires
- Man Tell Tale 'O
- Extraordinary Pollution in Beijing, Lights Out at the Superbowl, and Other Signs of the Apocalypse
- The Red Queen's in Charge: Murdering People and Due Process Via Drones
- Why “Equal Opportunity” is Not What It Seems
- Two News Items About Drones Requiring No Comment
- Sports and Politics. Force and Politics.
- Oscar Pistorius, Reeva Steenkamp, and the Locked Toilet Room Door
- The Academy Awards: The CIA and the National Security State in Fact and Film
- "It's Only a Movie"
- US Supreme Court: The Government Can Spy On You All and You Can't Sue
- Pvt. Bradley Manning and the State of Our Society
- An Ever-Tightening Noose: Anyone Who Interferes with Business As Usual is a "Terrorist"
- Sunsara Taylor's "A Powerful Day of Defiance"
- Eric Holder: It's Ok for POTUS to Assassinate Americans on American Soil
- Holder Flip Flops on Drones But the NYT and NPR Don't Take Notice
- Droning Out Any Opposition
- 10 Years of an Unjust War and Occupation
- NATO Commissioned Report: Killing Hackers is OK
- Support the Gitmo Hunger Strikers
- The Boston Marathon Bombers: Their Terrorist Actions Were Heinous, Their Outrage Explicable
- Daenerys Targaryen: "Strike the chains off every slave you see."
- Obama to Gitmo Prisoners: "Welcome to the Hotel California"
- "Courting Catastrophe: Neoliberalism's Provoking of Disasters on the Micro and Macro Levels"
- White House Advisor: If someone else used drones on US, this would be an “act of war.”
- Close Guantanamo NOW
- Pakistani High Court: US Drone Strikes are "War Crimes"
- Buy Globalization and the Demolition of Society
- GDS Book Annotations
- Interviews & Talks
- Podcasts Archive
- A Reader Comments
- Reviews of GDS
- Upcoming Talks
- Guest Articles
- Search this site
- How Come Obama Needs Congress to Close GTMO, but Not to Use Drones?
- Starving for Justice Video
Too Much Beach Volleyball on NBC?
Too Much Beach Volleyball on NBC?
By Dennis Loo (8/8/12)
I remember back sometime in the 1980s when I was watching the Olympics, I kept pleading with the TV, to no avail, to show us some volleyball (in a gym). A fascinating and exciting sport.
This was before BEACH VOLLEYBALL made its appearance as an Olympic sport, and before Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor were barely born. This was before Misty May became Misty May-Treanor.
And it was before Kerri and Misty turned the world upside down and became the darlings of NBC coverage.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL is NBC's version of SI's Swimsuit issue. You know, an excuse to show more female skin. And to show the U.S. dominance in such a very important sport.
What would happen, god forbid, if the unthinkable were to occur and Kerri and Misty were to ... lose?
NBC might have to actually show us more of the wide world of sports!
I don't have anything personally against Kerri and Misty, although it was kind of distressing to see Kerri blissfully hobnobbing with Torturer-in-Chief George W. Bush in the stands a few years ago.
I am sick to death of watching them both though and hearing the NBC announcers say, "And today, we have more BEACH VOLLEYBALL!"
How about some wrestling, archery, fencing, ping-pong, weight-lifting, long jump, you know, those other sports?
The world of sports isn't defined by what Americans are all so great at. I mean, if we're getting so many medals, that must mean that we're great. And if the Chinese are beating the U.S. in the medal count, well that just means that they're cheating.
Now, if only Michael Phelps would take up BEACH VOLLEYBALL, then NBC wouldn't have to show us anything else at all.
Then they could rename themselves BVN: BEACH VOLLEYBALL Network.
Comments
I agree that two person beach volleyball's not my idea of a gripping sport to watch. Far from it! And my point about the comparison to SI's swimsuit edition wasn't that these athletes are the most gorgeous but that for NBC it's a skin show in part. I do agree, though, that the Track and Field athletes are amazing physical specimens though!
RSS feed for comments to this post