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In Olympics or debates, viewers sick of 'sizzle'

By Joan Vennochi, Globe Columnist, 10/3/2000

T'S OUTRAGEOUS. People don't watch network television the way they used to. They tuned out on the Olympics, and many may tune out tonight's presidential debate. Don't they know what's good for them?

As many as 90 million Americans are expected to watch Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore go head-to-head. As for the rest: Some may be working. Some may be too lazy or dull to care. And some may be so tired of the hype, sizzle, and naked quest for advertising dollars that are so much a part of the network television experience, they would rather monitor the weather channel, or even roll socks.

NBC happens to be at the center of the current controversy over who watches what and why. Its executives absorbed much criticism lately for two decisions - the first, to virtually abandon live coverage of the Summer Olympics in favor of broadcasting tape-delayed events, and the second, to decline to carry the season's first presidential debate.

The network backed off its second decision, to the extent that it is now giving local affiliates the option of either carrying the debate or a baseball playoff game. But that still doesn't placate an ever-cantankerous cast of media critics and an entire cottage industry of consultants, advisers, and strategists who want to define the business of politics the way they always have - their way.

Don't they get it? Their way is a large part of the problem.

From a strictly practical point of view, trying to force the national TV viewing audience to watch any one thing is an effort doomed to failure. Given today's multiplicity of viewing choices, it simply cannot be done.

The Olympics are a case in point. But NBC's low ratings can be explained by more than the alternatives offered on cable TV or the 15-hour time difference between New York and Sydney.

Someone has to say it, even if it's sacrilegious: People are sick of the Olympics.

That doesn't mean they can't be inspired by a story of great individual or team accomplishment or saddened by an athlete's gut-wrenching defeat. They may even find themselves mildly, if briefly, enthralled by the ridiculous-looking sport of Greco-Roman wrestling.

But the road to Sydney is so long and oversold that it is incredibly anticlimactic when we actually get there. Besides, we've all been there before - maybe not to Sydney, but to a mind-numbing blur of Olympiads over the years, where skaters, swimmers, gymnasts, hockey players, and pole vaulters forced their ways into our hearts. As for this time around - sorry, NBC, been there, done that.

It's less sacrilegious, but equally true to say that people are also sick of politics as packaged and sold by the mainstream media. Just like the road to Sydney, the road to the White House is too long and too over-hyped.

All the sizzle and spectacle along the way numbs rather than energizes. It makes it harder to distinguish one spectacle from the next and harder, ultimately, to focus on truly defining moments, like debates.

This presidential campaign is already a haze of allegedly defining moments. They include Al Gore in earth tones, passionately kissing Tipper and choosing as his running mate the first Jew to run simultaneously for vice president and US senator.

Other significant images include George W. Bush in cowboy boots, kissing Oprah and choosing as his running mate a man who sometimes forgets to vote, but always remembers to get a stock option.

With so many defining moments already in play, why would anyone be outraged that one television network would choose to give viewers a pleasant alternative to tonight's debate?

We have long since passed the point where we should be shocked that any business, especially the media business, would put sizzle over substance, packaging over content, or profit over principle.

Therefore, given the reality of what is offered up, why should anyone be shocked when the target audience for it all drops off and tunes out?

National political coverage is an overprocessed blur, just like the Olympics. During the Clinton dynasty, it got even blurrier, from Whitewater to Monica.

The blur makes it easy for the American public to say, been there, done that - even at critical moments in time like tonight's debate, when it definitely isn't true.

Joan Vennochi's e-mail address is vennochi@globe.com.