Mark Wright’s Blog

A report on CNN.com on Wednesday, reported that Olympic organizers for the upcoming Beijing Games have been backtracking on their promise to provide journalists with complete freedom.  Websites such as Amnesty International and anything mentioning the word Tibet have been blocked despite repeated promises that journalists would have the freedom that they would need to do their jobs. 

There was a significant amount of opposition to allowing China to host the Olympics due to their past human rights record.  Many feel that the International Olympic Committee and its sponsors overlooked this and allowed China to host the games due to their booming economy.  There has also been criticism against the IOC for not putting more pressure on the Chinese government. 

Sponsors of the games such as NBC, who paid $900 million for the rights to broadcast the games have faced roadblocks, red tape and changing rules as they prepare to cover unexpected events away from the venue, according to the article.

So basically if I understand this correctly, a country with a horrible human rights record wants to do something to show the world how modern and forward thinking they are so they decide they want to host the Olympics.  They make a bunch of promises and once they get what they want, they don’t keep them.  Hmmmmm!  And this is supposed to be shocking how?  It’ not like they are going to take the Olympics away from them.  China routinely blocks internet access to its own citizens so why would they think that they wouldn’t do it when the international press comes to town.   

I hate the whole idea of website censorship or any other censorship for that matter but this is China.  What did you expect?  I put the blame on the squarely on the IOC.  I love these folks.  The IOC has maintained that the Olympics are a sporting event and they should not intervene in politics, according to the article.  Wait a minute.  Isn’t this the organization that tried to ban Iraq from competing in the games because of the IRAQI GOVERNMENT’S INTERFERENCE?  Wow, don’t know about you but that sounds a little political to me. 

I used to love watching the Olympics.  I remember Frank Shorter winning the marathon in Munich in 1972.  I remember Bruce Jenner winning the decathlon at Montreal in 1976.  I also remember the United States not participating in Moscow in 1980 and Russia returning the favor in 1984 at Los Angeles.  From the 1936 Berlin Olympics in which Hitler wanted to show off his “Master Race”. I remember the terrorist organization Black September kidnapping 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich games and all of them being killed.  It hasn’t been about competition for a long time.  When the first Olympics were held in Athens, it might have been about that.  Now it seems to be nothing more than politics, greed, cheating and everything but athletics. 

You have taken something that I loved and ruined it.  Thanks a lot.