Ours is the only terrorist attack worth mourning
by digby
I watched the Olympic opening ceremonies BBC feed at a local pub with a friend of mine yesterday. (Any excuse for an early Friday beer fest.) Anyway, I had no idea until today that NBC cut out a big portion of the program for American audiences.
The major transitional element of today’s London Olympics opening ceremony was a downtempo performance of adoptive sporting anthem “Abide With Me” by Scottish singer Emeli Sandé. The song and accompanying dance were a tribute to the victims of the 7/7 terror attacks in London that claimed 52 victims days after the 2012 Summer Olympic hosts were named. (It’s also been suggested the performance was a memorial to the war dead.)
Regardless, it was a rather significant and emotional moment in the opening ceremony, coming just before the parade of nations—and it wasn’t aired in the United States. Instead, viewers were treated to a lengthy and meaningless Ryan Seacrest interview of Michael Phelps. NBC regularly excises small portions of the opening ceremony to make room for commercials, but we’ve never heard of them censoring out an entire performance—especially to air an inane interview…
Here’s the prepared BBC remarks as aired:
Ladies and gentlemen, please pause silent for our memorial wall for friends and family who can’t be here tonight. The excitement of that moment in Singapore seven years ago when England won the games was tempered the next day with sorrow from the events of July 7th that year. A wall of remembrance for those no longer here to share in this event.
It was clearly a tribute to the victims of the July 7th terrorist attack. WTF? Who replaces memorials to the dead with inane interviews?
Apparently, American broadcasters believe there’s no purpose in showing any tribute to victims of terrorist attacks that aren’t 9/11. (We sure as hell have no problem showing those. Over and over.) I think this is pretty disrespectful. The rest of the world has been forced to endure our wallowing in our victimhood for over a decade. To cut away from that particular portion of the program is in poor taste. Romney-esque poor taste.
Plus, the song was quite moving. It’s not like it was difficult to watch.
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