London Summer Olympics 2012

TeamUSA said:

It looks like the final medal count is going to be an American BLOWOUT. Victory in every category.

The Chinese tried so hard (to the point of weirdness), wanted it so badly (also to the point of weirdness), and still lost. Serves them right, I think.

I believe these games are a good paradigm to whom the 21st century will belong. China might have 4 times as many people, train with ruthless, amoral, and abusive tactics, and have a mammoth top-down state apparatus that spends more on national prestige projects like the Olympics than anyone else. (This of course to distact from the real problems like unsustainable, unbalanced, or unequal economic growth or corruption). But they still lose.

America wins precisely because its approach is decentralized, transparent, merit-based, and ultimately more balanced and sustainable. It is less concerned with topping meaningless rankings at all costs (like the Chinese are, whether in Olympic medals, high-speed rail, or GDP), than doing the best possible job with the resources at hand and then measuring success later. One approach leads to short, unsustianable bursts followed invariably by catastrophic failure, the other leads to real and lasting victory.

Congratulations to Team USA on a job well done. You went out onto the world and conquered all before you. You put the Chinese in their place. You showed the entire world which nation is still, beyond a doubt, the greatest nation in the world.

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plawolf said:

Well the rules were specifically changed to prevent China from making a clean sweep of the medals as would be the case if they just set the system up as any other sport, where the players were seeded and drawn based on skill.

One of the most ridiculous part of the media coverage about the badminton players being DQed was the almost complete omission in reporting that the primary reason the Chinese pair tried to loose was because they did not want to face their compatriots in the next round.

All the other pairs were trying to loose because they did not want to be drawn against either of the Chinese pair, so they were trying to loose to get an easier draw, the Chinese pair were the top seeds and were not afraid of playing anyone. They didn't want to loose to face weaker opponents but rather to try to avoid having to knock out their team mates - because of the way the officials changed the draws.

However, in the reporting of the story, not only did the western media omit all but the barest minimum mention that other teams were also DQed and focus almost entirely on the Chinese pair, they also completely failed to report the real reason why the Chinese pair were trying to loose and instead imposed the reason the other teams were trying to loose on the Chinese pair.

The deeper you look into this, the worse it stinks.

Had the media reported the actual reason the players were trying to loose, I think there would have been far more public sympathy and understanding for why they did what they did. I am positive that had this happened to any western players, the media reporting would have focused on their 'noble intentions' and pinned the blame entirely on the officials for putting the players in that situation with such a badly thought out system.

The bias and double standards could not be demonstrated more clearly than with the ridiculous, baseless doping allegations made against Ye compared to the American teenager who won the 800m. Some pundits made claims that Ye 'came out of nowhere' out of ignorance that she had won the world championships the year before as justification for their baseless acquisitions, yet the American actually did come of nowhere, having never won anything of note before her Olympic gold.

Some are still harbouring 'suspicions' about Ye, while not one word has been said about the American teen other than to heap praise on her.

It is absolutely clear that the western media cannot be trusted to report the news fairly and objectively, nor can anyone expect any western government to ever impose any sort of professionalism or basic standards of competence on their media because of the power 'free' media hold over politicians in the west.

I think the only way things will improve is if China makes it costly for western media organisations to continue behaving the way they are.

I think China should set up a media accuracy agency and call journalists and their employers to task for inaccurate or biased reporting.

Reports should be made to own up to, and pay for their mistakes like everyone else.

If you made an error in one of your stories, you need to either issue a retraction and apology if it is minor. A fine will be issued if the error was significant or suspected of being intentional.

A strikes system should also be set up, whereby a journalist would have his credentials revoked if he made more than 3 serious errors in his reporting in a year, and the journalist would not be allowed to file any more stories until he/she has passed a competence test to earn back their reporter's credentials.

Maybe if China is successful in this programme, other countries will follow suit and issue their own set of rules and standards and the press finally gets cleaned up and made fair and competent again.

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Mr T said:

You have it backward. Definitely one of the best Olympics in recent history.

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TeamUSA said:

It looks like the final medal count is going to be an American BLOWOUT. Victory in every category.

The Chinese tried so hard (to the point of weirdness), wanted it so badly (also to the point of weirdness), and still lost. Serves them right, I think.

I believe these games are a good paradigm to whom the 21st century will belong. China might have 4 times as many people, train with ruthless, amoral, and abusive tactics, and have a mammoth top-down state apparatus that spends more on national prestige projects like the Olympics than anyone else. (This of course to distact from the real problems like unsustainable, unbalanced, or unequal economic growth or corruption). But they still lose.

America wins precisely because its approach is decentralized, transparent, merit-based, and ultimately more balanced and sustainable. It is less concerned with topping meaningless rankings at all costs (like the Chinese are, whether in Olympic medals, high-speed rail, or GDP), than doing the best possible job with the resources at hand and then measuring success later. One approach leads to short, unsustianable bursts followed by catastrophic failure, the other leads to real and lasting victory.

Congratulations to Team USA on a job well done. You went out onto the world and conquered all before you. You put the Chinese in their place. You showed the entire world which nation is still, beyond a doubt, the greatest nation in the world.

Click to expand...

TeamUSA said:

It looks like the final medal count is going to be an American BLOWOUT. Victory in every category.

The Chinese tried so hard (to the point of weirdness), wanted it so badly (also to the point of weirdness), and still lost. Serves them right, I think.

I believe these games are a good paradigm to whom the 21st century will belong. China might have 4 times as many people, train with ruthless, amoral, and abusive tactics, and have a mammoth top-down state apparatus that spends more on national prestige projects like the Olympics than anyone else. (This of course to distact from the real problems like unsustainable, unbalanced, or unequal economic growth or corruption). But they still lose.

America wins precisely because its approach is decentralized, transparent, merit-based, and ultimately more balanced and sustainable. It is less concerned with topping meaningless rankings at all costs (like the Chinese are, whether in Olympic medals, high-speed rail, or GDP), than doing the best possible job with the resources at hand and then measuring success later. One approach leads to short, unsustianable bursts followed by catastrophic failure, the other leads to real and lasting victory.

Congratulations to Team USA on a job well done. You went out onto the world and conquered all before you. You put the Chinese in their place. You showed the entire world which nation is still, beyond a doubt, the greatest nation in the world.

Click to expand...

TeamUSA said:

It looks like the final medal count is going to be an American BLOWOUT. Victory in every category.

The Chinese tried so hard (to the point of weirdness), wanted it so badly (also to the point of weirdness), and still lost. Serves them right, I think.

I believe these games are a good paradigm to whom the 21st century will belong. China might have 4 times as many people, train with ruthless, amoral, and abusive tactics, and have a mammoth top-down state apparatus that spends more on national prestige projects like the Olympics than anyone else. (This of course to distact from the real problems like unsustainable, unbalanced, or unequal economic growth or corruption). But they still lose.

America wins precisely because its approach is decentralized, transparent, merit-based, and ultimately more balanced and sustainable. It is less concerned with topping meaningless rankings at all costs (like the Chinese are, whether in Olympic medals, high-speed rail, or GDP), than doing the best possible job with the resources at hand and then measuring success later. One approach leads to short, unsustianable bursts followed invariably by catastrophic failure, the other leads to real and lasting victory.

Congratulations to Team USA on a job well done. You went out onto the world and conquered all before you. You put the Chinese in their place. You showed the entire world which nation is still, beyond a doubt, the greatest nation in the world.

Click to expand...

solarz said:

LOL, I was expecting to see this kind of patheticness, on par with Leonard's comments on Ye, in mainstream media in the next few days. I didn't expect to see someone joining this forum just for the purpose of posting this flamebait.

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