A note on the Olympic opening ceremony

I’ve been watching NBC’s coverage of the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony this evening as I’m working (and as I’m typing this blog entry). The United States contingent was just shown coming through moments ago. Something of note that I thought bore mentioning. The announcers have been quick to mention political issues involving many countries as they have paraded in, including references to international political connections to the United States. As I’ve noted before on this blog, I’m all for recognizing the intersection of politics and sport, so I’m happy to hear these issues at least being mentioned, even if they are often watered down, as the commentators mention them. At one point, as Iran was entering the stadium, one of the announcers mentioned that one of the things that China and the Bush administration agree on is that Iran should not have nuclear weapons. He mentioned that this was one more of the many connections between politics and sports that have been mentioned. Unfortunately, he then immediately issued an apology for bringing those connections up. Fortunately, the connections have not stopped.

UNFORTUNATELY, though, as the United States delegation walked through, the closest thing to a political connection made was simply showing Laura and George W. Bush waving to the athletes. Rather than mention of any political issues of relevance to the United States (such as the economic recession, the state of American foreign relations … heck, even mention of the upcoming election), we saw many celebrities (from Kobe Bryant to Lindsay Davenport to Jennie Finch) pointed out to us, we heard mention of hairstyles and fashion, and so on. Sure, the announcers have not mentioned politics for every country, but given the amount of time devoted to the United States, which is to be expected on NBC’s telecast, this seems disproportionate. I wonder if the latent message is that the capitalist system of the United States is with few if any flaws and that the United States has solved all of the problems that “ravage” other parts of the world. First, it is inaccurate to imply that all is peachy in the United States. Second, to suggest a society that exists without political disagreements would seem to run counter to the promotion of a rich, engaged public sphere of discourse.