This may come as a shock to all six of my readers but I have become obsessed with the winter Olympics and am TiVo-ing everything I can get my remote on.
With Al Gore’s invention of the Internet and our reliance on DVRs came the invention of the spoiler alter- a term used to describe crucial elements of a movie, book, or in this case, the results of the Olympics. Those simple words can help a person avoid the pain of finding out a result before they are ready. I still am scarred from the summer of 2003 when I walked into a room at camp and learned that spoiler alter Sirius Black was the character to die in Order of the Phoenix.
Wednesday was a big day for the Olympics with Lindsey Vonn, Shani Davis, Shaun White, and Apolo Ohno all competing. I took Mum to see Valentines Day after school so I did a quick email check before leaving work and boy did I regret it. CNN sent me an update announcing Vonn’s gold for downhill! If that wasn’t bad enough as I got in my car the people on the radio wouldn’t shut up about Vonn’s historic win. These people at CNN and MPR could learn a thing or two from Nightly News’ Brian Williams who announces a spoiler alert each night during his broadcast as he reports on the Olympics. What makes me even more angry is that NBC hadn’t even aired Vonn’s win yet!
Despite having the results of the downhill ruined for me I still enjoyed watching Lindsey ski to gold and watching White win gold after his first run. Tonight we have more Lindsey, Shani and Apolo and I can’t wait!
have been having the same problem! and the same surprising obsession with the olympics this year! i think all the other news stations are bitter that NBC has the rights to air the olympics so they are trying to ruin their viewership by pre-announcing the results. that’s why NBC nightly news announces a spoiler alert but no one else does. just my theory.. but sooo annoying!
By: Becky on February 21, 2010
at 11:37 pm