Well, after a week of being back in the U.S. of A, I remembered some of the reasons why I was happy to leave. Apart from urine-streaked subway stations and portion sizes that rival the weekly food production of entire small countries, the news media continues to stick in my craw.
I really enjoyed living in the States during the last presidential election. As a covert Canadian (only my MEC bag and the occasional “aboot” signaled my true citizenship) living on a largely Democratic Ivy League campus, surrounded by colleagues studying politics and the media, I had an all-access pass to the hoopla. Hell, I even went to John Kerry rallies and watched Jon Stewart every night. It was different. It was fun. It was revelatory.
But I’d forgotten how incredibly dense the media down there is. And how obsessed it is with the electoral process.
Some would argue that, just like love means never having to say you’re sorry, democracy means never having to apologize for saturated media coverage of the democratic process. That’s okay. I don’t want an apology. I need some other options. I want to be able to go to a news channel and not be bombarded by pundits saying the same things about Obama, McCain, potential running mates, and superdelegates over and over again, ad nauseam.
It’s no wonder that Americans as a whole are criticized for being insular and uninterested in the world outside their borders—it’s because they don’t get to see that world on TV!
At dinner with friends in Philadelphia last Sunday, I asked people how they thought Euro 2008 was going so far and got blank stares. But ask a question about Living Lohan, and you can’t shut them up. These are Ivy League Ph.D. students in communications! Yeesh.
But in about seven weeks, The Olympics will begin in China, and Americans will pretend to be interested in other countries for once, but only in the way that their citizens can dominate them.
The irony, of course, is that the Chinese aren’t exactly scrambling to welcome all these spectators. And the networks have taken notice. Some broadcasters have already announced that they will be scaling back their coverage of the games because their equipment continues to get held up in Chinese ports—if they can even get past the labyrinthine paperwork in the first place. The Chinese government has placed fierce restrictions on coverage of events outside the events themselves—particularly shots of Tiananmen Square, where they hope to put the kibosh on any impromptu protests.
China is expecting half a million visitors for The Olympics, and they’re increasing their security and police force by just as many, in addition to the 30,000 members of the foreign media. While the Party welcomes the revenue to an increasingly urbanized industrial country, it sure doesn’t want the freedom of expression and democratic rights that often accompanies development.
But if any country can pull off the forceful propaganda that is the Olympic Games, it’s China. I’m sure it’s overstating things to say that this year’s Olympics will be closer in tone to Berlin in 1936 than any other happy, fuzzy Games.
Yes, the Chinese will whitewash the Olympic Games this summer. And the American audience won’t know the difference. After all, they’ll all be watching Living Lohan.
