Bryant Gumbel's Olympic spirit.

[GenericKen]

http://newsbusters.org/node/4057

There were some eye-opening remarks from Bryant Gumbel on the most recent episode of HBO's Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. According to a transcript posted by a television columnist named Seth Frelich, Gumbel said the following in his closing monologue last week (emphasis mine):

"Finally, tonight, the Winter Games. Count me among those who don’t like them and won’t watch them ... Because they’re so trying, maybe over the next three weeks we should all try too. Like, try not to be incredulous when someone attempts to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention. Try not to point out that something’s not really a sport if a pseudo-athlete waits in what’s called a kiss-and-cry area, while some panel of subjective judges decides who won ... So if only to hasten the arrival of the day they’re done, when we can move on to March Madness — for God’s sake, let the games begin."
Jimmy the Greek was fired 20 years ago for something much lighter. This story has been completely swept under the rug.

Surprising? Not really. We are too liberal in this country to actually voice our opinions unless they are the PC thought of the day, and we kiss too much minority a.s. I'm sure that most liberals here will not agree with this and will possibly even be upset by it. OTOH, the more conservative members of the LL (I believe the last count was 6 1/2 conservative members) already know this anyway, so I am not breaking new ground here, I know.

However I just wanted to give a nice example of the way things are today. Imagine Bob Costas saying that there are too many blacks in the Summer Olympics and that it looks like an NAACP convention.

Edit - I forgot to mention that his wife is white, heh.
-A
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You're overreacting man. His show is on non-basic cable. The reason nobody's kicking up a fuss is because nobody knows or cares.

I was personally rather surprised at the number of blacks I saw at the winter olypics this time around, so I've got no problem believing that Gumbel's not watching.

I've got to agree about the problems with subjectivity though. Also the questionable "sport" nature of the games. Curling is a hypnotic watch, but it's really a great deal more of a "game" like billiards than a sport. Same with the new Snowboard cross; it more resembles motor-racing than sport.


Doc> I think you've been watching too much skating.