Red, White and Blue Only for Peacock

So the suits at NBC plan to televise not the 2002 Winter Olympics but a prime-time, Olympic-flavored MTV video, awash in flag-waving and bubble-headed commentary. No surprise here; the American media’s xenophobic dumbing down of the Olympics reached new heights (or depths) during the 1984 L.A. Summer Games and hasn’t let up since.

Of course, NBC could do the right thing and sell comprehensive coverage rights to cable TV. But my guess is they won’t. Network execs regard cable as the Great Satan, having already lost millions of viewers to cable’s smarter programming.

Myself, I plan to invest in a satellite system and hope I can pick up Canadian TV next February.

Bonnie Sloane

Los Angeles

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NBC says it’s planning to cover the Winter Olympics in a patriotic, unabashedly pro-American style. How is that different from any other Olympic coverage?

Rob Schmidt

Culver City