By Will Bettmann

A couple of days ago, one of my co-workers was walking through the Main Media Center when she looked up to see hundreds of journalists and cameramen thundering toward her.

The Canadian figure skaters had just entered the building and everyone wanted a piece of the action.

That same day, another of my co-workers had a casual conversation with Alexei Yagudin, a Russian figure-skater who had just won a gold medal. Yagudin had been walking through the media center unmolested by journalists.

Now certainly, the Canadian figure-skaters made for an interesting story, but the fact they they seemed to draw almost all of the attention of almost all of the journalists seems to me to be very unbalanced.

It reminds me of the Gary Condit/Chandra Levy story, which completely monopolized political coverage for a month.

Am I overstating the case or has journalism actually devolved to the point where it is primarily about scandals to the exclusion of other newsworthy events and people?

On a completely unrelated, and more positive note, a pair of Australian comedians named Roy and HG are running the best commentary show on the Olympics.

Unfortunately, their show is broadcast only on Channel 7 in Australia, and on the closed-circuit stations within the media center, but when I walked through the center last night around 10:30 (they're on from 10 to 11), I noticed that almost every TV was tuned to Roy and HG.

They were watching clips of figure-skating and commenting on each maneuver, for which they have off-color names.

At the end of the show they displayed their medal count: Australia, 1, New Zealand, 0.

If you happen to own a nuclear-powered satellite system for your TV, and you pick up Channel 7 in Australia, please watch Roy and HG. You will enjoy the Olympics more.

MS
MS

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