One last bit on the Olympics ...
Here's a photo of Ann Curry after she got fired from the Today Show ...
Just to show you that NBC doesn't just exploit Bode Miller's emotional breakdown. They eat their own too.
But since I've slammed NBC and parts of its Olympic coverage several times over the last week or so, I should, in the interest of fair balance, say something about Bob Costas. Of whom I'm fond.
My boy Bob channeled Sasha Fierce the other night (after he'd survived his pink eye disaster) in one of those interludes where he's just sitting in the chair on the main set talking into the camera. And in doing so he laid into Vlad Putin to such a degree that I was concerned whether he'd ever get out of Russia. I mean, he let him have it, urging the audience in very specific terms not to confuse the general bonhomie of the Olympics with the actual state of human rights in Russia. I was quite impressed.
A number of years ago a friend of mine's ex-wife hosted some charity thing where Costas was the keynote speaker.
That's a stupid phrase -- keynote speaker.
Yes it is.
Anyway, her report back was that he was a bit full of himself. At which I have a hard time throwing too many stones. Hell, people think I'm insufferable ... and I'm just me. I'm sure that if I was Bob Costas I'd be literally insufferable. And I mean literally. As in you couldn't be in the same room with me. Hell, I probably wouldn't let you in the same room with me in the first place, so maybe the point is moot.
Regardless, this is my salute to Bob for, in a world of mealy-mouthed television announcers, stepping up and saying something significant.
I tried to find the bit on U-Tube but came up dry. So you don't go away empty handed (which, oddly enough, is exactly what Derek Jeter says when he hands a one-night-stand her gift bag), here's Costas talking about gun control ...
You should hear him on the subject of the Washington Redskins.
I'm not sure there's anybody else in sports with such an impressive combination of a bully pulpit and the willingness to use it. Olbermann, maybe, at one point in his career. But a little of that guy goes a long fucking way. Costas is a bit easier to consume.
But since I've slammed NBC and parts of its Olympic coverage several times over the last week or so, I should, in the interest of fair balance, say something about Bob Costas. Of whom I'm fond.
My boy Bob channeled Sasha Fierce the other night (after he'd survived his pink eye disaster) in one of those interludes where he's just sitting in the chair on the main set talking into the camera. And in doing so he laid into Vlad Putin to such a degree that I was concerned whether he'd ever get out of Russia. I mean, he let him have it, urging the audience in very specific terms not to confuse the general bonhomie of the Olympics with the actual state of human rights in Russia. I was quite impressed.
A number of years ago a friend of mine's ex-wife hosted some charity thing where Costas was the keynote speaker.
That's a stupid phrase -- keynote speaker.
Yes it is.
Anyway, her report back was that he was a bit full of himself. At which I have a hard time throwing too many stones. Hell, people think I'm insufferable ... and I'm just me. I'm sure that if I was Bob Costas I'd be literally insufferable. And I mean literally. As in you couldn't be in the same room with me. Hell, I probably wouldn't let you in the same room with me in the first place, so maybe the point is moot.
Regardless, this is my salute to Bob for, in a world of mealy-mouthed television announcers, stepping up and saying something significant.
I tried to find the bit on U-Tube but came up dry. So you don't go away empty handed (which, oddly enough, is exactly what Derek Jeter says when he hands a one-night-stand her gift bag), here's Costas talking about gun control ...
You should hear him on the subject of the Washington Redskins.
I'm not sure there's anybody else in sports with such an impressive combination of a bully pulpit and the willingness to use it. Olbermann, maybe, at one point in his career. But a little of that guy goes a long fucking way. Costas is a bit easier to consume.
posted by Geoffrey at 1:37 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home