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 gorgon wrote:
The point of being a reporter is to show up and report.

Kind of agree with you on that as well.

If someone is "disgusted" with Russia for whatever reason (and why the disgust btw?), then they can show their disgust by not watching or supporting the games, trying to deny them to other people is bit too much though.

Why the disgust? For one their government sanctioned witch hunting of homosexuals, coinciding with the banning of any foreign athletes of that disposition from publicly acknowledging it. Besides that we have their other social problems, including Putin's little cult of personality and putting the thumb down protest groups and political detractors. Then there's the international issues like the Russian government siding with war criminals that kill their own people and foreign aid workers.

Anyone have that chart of the locations and amount of illegally taken money for the Sochi Olympics? I'm sure there's one of all the injuries people suffered during the construction and actual outset of the events too. So to sum up; Yes, people will watch these Winter Olympics for their own sake, the sports. They did it for the Chinese games too, though citing other times when people have chosen to be ignorant over these things isn't the strongest of arguments (oh we didn't do anything then, so why should we now?). For one I don't care for the Winter Games in any case, but I suppose I'd be miffed if athletes started pulling out my favourite one over those damn moral issues.

 Wyrmalla wrote:
Why the disgust? For one their government sanctioned witch hunting of homosexuals, coinciding with the banning of any foreign athletes of that disposition from publicly acknowledging it. Besides that we have their other social problems, including Putin's little cult of personality and putting the thumb down protest groups and political detractors. Then there's the international issues like the Russian government siding with war criminals that kill their own people and foreign aid workers.

Anyone have that chart of the locations and amount of illegally taken money for the Sochi Olympics? I'm sure there's one of all the injuries people suffered during the construction and actual outset of the events too. So to sum up; Yes, people will watch these Winter Olympics for their own sake, the sports. They did it for the Chinese games too, though citing other times when people have chosen to be ignorant over these things isn't the strongest of arguments (oh we didn't do anything then, so why should we now?). For one I don't care for the Winter Games in any case, but I suppose I'd be miffed if athletes started pulling out my favourite one over those damn moral issues.

So all the usual reason for selective "disgust" that some westerners decide to randomly impose on foreign cultures that they dislike but that miraculously don't apply to their own countries or its allies? Gotcha...

Carry on then.

Governments do bad things, yes. I'm not standing up for any of the gak my own one pulls either. Internationally though Russia's chosen to rile up quite a few countries with their malarkey. Evidently you don't have these lofty western morals, or maybe its just that you don't think others should act in a civil manner because its "culturally ingrained" or some gak. Yes, different countries have different attitudes to things, but I don't suppose I would be fine being publicly ridiculed for not doing anything other than being black, gay, a woman, Christian, or whatever.

 d-usa wrote:

Why would you have to hope? You just explained their medical system

I say hope, because if they can't finish buildings on time, they may not have gotten an adequate supply of "medical vodka" to give to the wounded

They are reporters, who really cares? If I were Putin I would treat them all to a free 2 week stay in an old Stalinist Gulag.

 necrovamp wrote:
They are reporters, who really cares? If I were Putin I would treat them all to a free 2 week stay in an old Stalinist Gulag.

*facepalm*

Nevermind the hole stymieing free speech thing...

These are the people those are responsible for shaping public opinion, and they've had a giant dump taken on them. What do you think they are going to write about?

The Olympics are about PR, and this was the absolute biggest PR bungle they could have made.

I thought the Olympics were about corporate sponsorships and commercials, with occasional deeply inciteful personal stories of athletes overcoming some damn thing or another to compeet, all for the glory of the olympics (and not big time phat contracts with said advertisers to be multimillionaires.)

Bah, they never show the the long distance skiiing and shooting thing. Ironical to be doing that in Mother Russia. If I were the Finnish team I'd wear a pic of Simo Hayha with "We invented this sport baby" emblazoned across it.

Did anybody else think the opening ceremony was ironically gay?

 djones520 wrote:

 necrovamp wrote:
They are reporters, who really cares? If I were Putin I would treat them all to a free 2 week stay in an old Stalinist Gulag.

*facepalm*

Nevermind the hole stymieing free speech thing...

These are the people those are responsible for shaping public opinion, and they've had a giant dump taken on them. What do you think they are going to write about?

The Olympics are about PR, and this was the absolute biggest PR bungle they could have made.

Again, not all reporters are in agreement about the supposed "debacle." And it's not even close to the biggest blunder they could have made. The whines of reporters will be forgotten as soon as the competition begins. The biggest blunder would obviously be allowing a terrorist attack. And FWIW, I doubt there'll be one at the site. I could see one somewhere within driving distance, away from the umpteen zillion police and military personnel.

News reports right now of an attempted hijacking of a plane in connection with the Olympics.

 djones520 wrote:
News reports right now of an attempted hijacking of a plane in connection with the Olympics.

The report.

A drunk guy from the somewhere was acting foolishly on a flight that originated in the Ukraine.

 Retrogamer0001 wrote:
Such is life in an impoverished, dictator-lead country...

Imagine Russians reading that comment? like say... oh yes... me! I'm half russian from my mothers side. I don't deny Putin is a tyrant but you could at least phrase that less like a preach of hate and more like constructive criticism.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Image snipped

That amuses me greatly.

 dogma wrote:

 djones520 wrote:
News reports right now of an attempted hijacking of a plane in connection with the Olympics.

The report.

A drunk guy from the somewhere was acting foolishly on a flight that originated in the Ukraine.

Sadly, Aeroflot pilots don't have a very good reputation overall.




[/joke]

 dogma wrote:

 djones520 wrote:
News reports right now of an attempted hijacking of a plane in connection with the Olympics.

The report.

A drunk guy from the somewhere was acting foolishly on a flight that originated in the Ukraine.

Fantastic.

I don't like Putin either, but scaremongering and gross misrepresentation is very bad form IMO.

 djones520 wrote:

 necrovamp wrote:
They are reporters, who really cares? If I were Putin I would treat them all to a free 2 week stay in an old Stalinist Gulag.

*facepalm*

Nevermind the hole stymieing free speech thing...

These are the people those are responsible for shaping public opinion, and they've had a giant dump taken on them. What do you think they are going to write about?

The Olympics are about PR, and this was the absolute biggest PR bungle they could have made.

Nobody should 'shape' public opinion. The reporters always take the negative and twist it to sell papers in order to make themselves money. Rarely a reporter can be QFT. I'd rather hear from the public that were there, not a reporter with a personal bias for making money. Reporters rank alongside politicians when it comes to twisting the truth.

The Olympics are about PR. However i'd rather hear about it from the PUBLIC and not a reporter.

I found the NBC coverage of the opening ceremony really, really bad.

Not only did the commentators clearly lack any knowledge of Russian history, but they deliberately mocked it; including a comment about how the boyar representations looked like they belonged outside a used car lot.