Jug Of News (08.08.12): Kynard’s High-Flying Silver, NBC’s Face-Planting Coverage
By Jameson
Welcome to our humble abode. Pull up a seat and grab a glass for a sip from today’s Jug of News. Hit the jump for one last Olympics-intensive update and another outlet seriously underrates KSU’s 2012 football team.
First, the (very) good news: Erik Kynard surprised a lot of the Olympic “talking head” types by winning a silver medal. He did it in style, American flag socks pulled high. Surprisingly to me, he wasn’t expected to make it to the medal stand, despite his ranking of 6th in the world in the event. Never underestimate the heart of a champion, though, and Kynard was not satisfied with silver. I would be fairly shocked if we don’t see him on this same stage in four more years.
Now, for the bad news. NBC has constantly tried the patience of hardcore US Olympics fans this summer. Their tape delay strategy may keep the soccer moms, who “just want to see those precious girls do the gymnastics” happy, but not those of us who actually give a damn about, you know, the sporting side of things. (That’s not a slap at gymnastics, which is definitely a sport. It’s a slap at a certain type of Olympics “fan.”)
Well, in covering Kynard’s silver medal push, NBC failed even harder. After showing several of the high jumpers (including Kynard and both other Americans, Jesse Williams and Jamie Nieto) easily go over a couple of initial heights, they left the high jump for over an hour. When they returned, it seemed they focused more on the failure of Kynard’s fellow American to even clear 7-06.00 (which Kynard went easily over) than they did on Erik’s crowning moment. They took maybe three minutes to recap the entire high jump final. It was a towering display of ineptitude, and a complete disservice to Erik Kynard.
The coup de gras, as it were, was when NBC had the gall to tweet, shortly after they finally aired at least a portion of Erik’s performance–and fully 10 hours after he actually did it–that he had won a silver medal. This lunacy inspired a rare bit of snarkiness from even GoPowerCat’s normally level-headed D. Scott Fritchen.
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, another poll came out yesterday. This one was of various ESPN staffers, including Big 12 blogger David Ubben. Well, they call it a “power ranking”, as if it were about anything other than the collective opinion some uninformed blowhards (Not you, David, you’ve been cool to us, so far.) Suffice to say I was not pleased (though I was unsurprised) about the fact that they placed us at #20, the 6th out of 6 Big 12 teams ranked. These people will never ever ever never learn.
CODA: Kevin Kietzman–and his son, Spencer–are lying liars, who tried to convince people that former K-State great Jacob Pullen is a serial criminal. Just keeping that little tidbit front-of-mind, in hopes that people will pressure them both into issuing a full retraction and an apology.
Some older stories, in case you missed them:
Erik Kynard Wins Silver In The High Jump At London Olympics
Jameson Talks KSU Football On The c3 Show With Joe Bendiez
Kansas State Olympians: More Than Just Erik Kynard
The Big 12 Media’s Preseason Poll: Statistically Breaking Down How They Put KSU 6th
Bill Snyder Laughed SO Hard…: I was an Olympian (sort of)
K-State Researchers Play Role In Discovery Of Higgs Boson “God Particle”
Kansas State Baseball In The Pros: July 17
Kevin and Spencer Keitzman Claim Jake Pullen Is A Serial Criminal
Meditations On The Dark Knight Rises, In Light Of Aurora