Generally, I like sports. Generally, I don't like sports coverage. I'm not a big fan of schmaltz, so obviously NBC's Olympic coverage leaves a lot to be desired from my perspective. Give me athletes competing! I don't give a crap about, say, competitive weightlifting, but every four years I want to cheer for some pipsqueak Turkish guy who can lift like 800 pounds over his head! And I especially want to see rowing, but that's just me.

But my point here ties together two other things I don't like about sports reporting. The first is the over-focus on race. The second is lazy reporting. I've been reading about how the US had this guy Aquil Abdullah in the heavyweight doubles (sidenote: a double is two people with four oars, a pair is two people with two oars) is . the first black US rower. That would surely be news to Anita DeFrantz. What's stupid here is that she's pretty damn prominant IN OLYMPIC CIRCLES! She's Vice President of the IOC! She probably sitting in the stands rooting for Abdullah! It's just stupid reporting.

(I'll stipulate that sports aren't all that important, and that it's more important for non-sports reporters to check their facts than for sports reporters. But still.)