Friday, March 29, AD 2024 10:40am

Pivotal Experiments

Christopher Johnson at Midwest Conservative Journal, a non-Catholic who has taken up the cudgels so frequently for the Church that I have named him Defender of the Faith, takes a look at how NBC refers to Communism, an ideology that has a murder total of one hundred million and counting:

 

Last evening, NBC opened its Olympic coverage from Russia with the following montage:

The towering presence, the empire that ascended to affirm a colossal footprint. The revolution that birthed one of modern history’s pivotal experiments. But if politics has long shaped our sense of who they are, it’s passion that endures. As a more reliable right to their collective heart. What they build in aspirations lifted by imagination. What they craft, through the wonder of every last detail. How magical the fusion of sound and movement can be. How much a glass of distilled perfection and an overflowing table can matter. Discover the Russian people through these indelible signatures. Discover what we share with them through the games that open here tonight.

Watch the video.  As the highlighted words above are spoken, take careful note of the image that appears on the screen.  And then thank God that Germany isn’t scheduled to host an Olympics any time soon.

Go here to read the comments.  If the Third Reich had survived World War II and were now hosting the Olympics, I am certain that NBC would be producing video about Nazi controlled Germany that would make the below look like searing commentary by comparison:

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Philip
Philip
Sunday, February 9, AD 2014 12:44pm

Nihilism Broadcasting Corporation.
News and information you can trust….almost.

Elaine Krewer
Admin
Sunday, February 9, AD 2014 3:36pm

I would argue that calling the Bolshevik Revolution a “pivotal experiment” is NOT the same as saying that the experiment was a success or that it was a great idea. Sounds more like damning with faint praise to me. Calling something important, influential or critical is not necessarily a compliment (e.g., Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, a distinction earned by Adolf Hitler and, I believe, Ayatollah Khomeni).

Note also the next phrase: “If politics has long shaped our sense of who they are, it’s passion that endures, as a more reliable right to their collective heart.” In other words, Communism didn’t represent the whole of Russian culture or national spirit — and I agree. Yes, maybe NBC is sucking up to Putin more than they ought to but it’s the Olympics, so what did you expect?

Suz
Suz
Sunday, February 9, AD 2014 5:51pm

Nuts Broadcasting Communism?
The audience expressions at 2:21 in Springtime are priceless.

Mary De Voe
Monday, February 10, AD 2014 5:15am

Suz: “Nuts Broadcasting Communism” . not “?”

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Monday, February 10, AD 2014 7:19am

They also had a big hammer/sickle. Imagine the liberal pomp and circumstances if at 1972 Munich they ran out a big, black swastika, or a knight’s cross?
.

This is my dull my life. After Mass yesterday, I was watching the cable NBC Sports. The so-called reporter was interviewing the coach of the Ruskie hockey team who was a starter on the 1980 Soviet (Army) hockey team that lost to the USA. The dude didn’t mention that half the team was walking point in Afdhanistan the week after they lost.

It’s just that they’re taking a break from their 24/7 tongue-bathing of Obama.
.

The truth is out there. It’s not with ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, et al.
.

Anyhow, NBC couldn’t comment on the pivotal horse-stuff and stay in Sochi . . . But, I can.
.

“In 1932-33, the Ukraine, formerly the breadbasket of Russia, was turned into a desolate wasteland during the ‘Holodomor.’ Malcolm Muggerage wrote in his book, War on the Peasants, ‘On one side, millions of starving peasants, their bellies often swollen from lack of food; on the other, soldiers, members of the GPU (secret police) carrying out the instructions of the dictatorship of the proletariat. They had gone over the country like a swarm of locusts and taken away everything edible, they had shot or exiled thousands of peasants, sometimes whole villages, they had reduced some of the most fertile land in the world to a melancholy desert.’ More than 7 million people died so that their farms could be collectivized by Moscow.”

Philip
Philip
Monday, February 10, AD 2014 8:17am

T. Shaw.

Q: Is this the same utopian model that the elite Lib’s wish on AmeriKia?

My gut feeling is that it is!

Pinky
Pinky
Monday, February 10, AD 2014 9:44am

I thought it was fine. I basically agree with Elaine, that it handled the elephant in the room as well as they could. What stood out to me was the frequent religious imagery.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Monday, February 10, AD 2014 9:55am

Phillip:

The death of the middle class; weak economic growth; low paying jobs; death panels; unemployment is “liberating”; . . .

We are living the lib, utopian nightmare.

Dave W
Dave W
Monday, February 10, AD 2014 11:07am

Sounds like more was expected. I agree, the treatment seemed rather neutral, which is what we’d expect for an Olympic broadcast. Now maybe when the Bolshevik history tribunal is aired we’ll see some sparks!

Jeanne Rohl
Jeanne Rohl
Monday, February 10, AD 2014 2:59pm

Thank You T. Shaw

Philip
Philip
Monday, February 10, AD 2014 3:25pm

Thanks for sugarcoating it T. Shaw.
Famine gulags and cheap vodka…can’t wait! 🙁

Pinky
Pinky
Monday, February 10, AD 2014 5:34pm

I dunno, T Shaw. I’m thinking that the coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympics must have included some stock footage from the 1936 games, and some kind of vague references.

Elaine Krewer
Admin
Tuesday, February 11, AD 2014 7:06am

The ’72 Munich Olympics were, of course, overshadowed by the (Palestinian) terrorist massacre of Israeli athletes. That story was handled with calm and dignity by the late, great sportscaster Jim McKay.

I was only 8 years old during those Games and so don’t remember watching that story directly. I do, however, remember reading an interview with McKay years later in Sports Illustrated in which he said that all during the hostage crisis, the one thing he kept in mind was that the parents of one of the Israeli athletes lived in Ohio, and he would be the one who would have to tell them whether their son was alive or dead. I have a hard time imagining today’s talking heads having that much compassion or empathy for their viewers.

Pinky
Pinky
Tuesday, February 11, AD 2014 1:41pm

Yeah, Elaine, I was looking around for coverage of the 1972 games to back up my theory, but the only things I could find were about the terrorist attack.

It really is depressing how many times we’ve failed at creating a non-political international sporting event. I guess some people see a stage and can’t imagine not being on it.

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