Faster, Higher, Snarkier

E very four years, we come together as a nation, united by a common purpose. We all want to bag on NBC's coverage of the Summer Olympics. NBC's promos are too mushy. Its talking heads are too pro-American. The sports are too, um, delayed. Twitter, home of the hashtag #NBCFail, is now the place we go faster, higher, snarkier. Americans might hate-watch the Oscars, we might pound our keyboards during the Super Bowl, but only at the sight of Bob Costas and company do we speak with such a homicidal, enraged voice.

We've become a nation of … sports media critics. You know, those writers who go sniffing for bonehead color commentary and network drama. For 17 days in late summer, their dirty pleasure is ours. Our emotional progression goes something like this:

Stage 1: Innocence. We start the Olympics as happy critics. "Watching the Today Show because I have unironic Olympic fever," @mattyglesias tweeted on July 27. Our excitement is based at least partly on an expectation of novelty. Events like fencing and diving are different — quirkier, less commercial — than the NFL games and sports roundtables we usually get on TV. This, we think, is gonna be awesome.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8237067/media-criticism-twitter-olympics