You didn’t really think that the Beijing Summer Olympics would go on without a little bit of controversy would you? Of course not! We’re only four days into the Olympics and the common theme that seems to be coming out of this event is the word “fakery”. Yes.. fakery.. but not on the athletes ironically enough.

Two of the controversial fake events actually took place during the opening ceremony Friday night. First off, there was a section during the ceremony where fireworks were going off above and around the Bird’s Nest stadium. NBC showed an aerial flyby view of the fireworks (which resembled footprints in the sky), which honestly, didn’t look quite right. In fact, it turns out it wasn’t even real (though fireworks did go off)- the video clip was created in advance because officials were afraid of shooting live near a helicopter (are they sure they weren’t afraid of the possible smog conditions making the footprints look a tad bit hazy instead?)

Yet what made things worse was what the announcers said during the flyby. Matt Lauer had this to say:

“You’re looking at a cinematic device employed by Zhang Yimou here. This is actually almost animation. A footstep a second, 29 in all, to signify the 29 Olympiads”

Bob Costas said the following:

“We said earlier that aspects of this Opening Ceremony are almost like cinema in real time. Well this is quite literally cinematic.”

“Almost animation”, and “almost like cinema in real time.” Come on people – just say it like it is. “What you’re seeing isn’t real. It’s fake. It’s been pre-rendered. We didn’t want to risk the helicopters. We weren’t sure if it was going to be hazy.” If they would simply be up front with viewers, there probably would have been less of a controversy here.

Now of course, the controversy is probably overblown here since I’m sure only a small percentage of viewers actually noticed the images weren’t real.  Ah.. but if only the fakery stopped here..

Yes.. there was more around the corner. Remember that cute little girl singing “Ode to the Motherland”? That cute smile.. that beautiful voice.. oh wait.. it wasn’t her voice afterall! In fact, Lin Miaoke was lip-syncing to the sound of 7 year old Yang Peiyi. Why didn’t we see Yang Peiyi? Put simply, she wasn’t cute enough.

Chen Qigang, the ceremony’s musical director had this to say: “The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feeling and expression. … Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects.”

You’re telling me that in a nation of 1.3 billion people, they couldn’t find a single cute girl who could also sing? Yet more importantly, what does this convey to all the little girls growing up in China? Just because you can sing doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get center stage? You need to be cute in order to be seen? Gee.. and here we thought Hollywood was bad at times!

Controversy number three – the “Live” tag in the west coast video feed of the Olympics on NBC. There are more than a number of peeved off viewers who are ticked that NBC even has the gall to say “Live” on the broadcasts.. when in fact, the broadcasts are taped delayed in the west coast (though they are live in the east coast). NBC does state at times that the video is pre-recorded but still leaves the “Live” tag on the corner.

While we can’t necessarily blame NBC for wanting to make money, at least remove the “Live” tag from the video stream. Of course the better course of action would be to show the Olympics in real time. The die hards will go home at 5pm or wake up at 5 am if they really want to watch a certain event. The casual users will catch it online or record it on their DVRs. Ah.. but good ol NBC wants to maximize their ad revenue gains by making sure the events are shown during the peak viewing hours – that’d be prime time hours.

Can you imagine the World Series or Super Bowl or the NBA Finals shown in tape delay? Yeah I didn’t think so.

If NBC was truly innovative, they would go all the way and offer up 24 hour coverage of the Olympics during these two weeks. Let’s be real – how many people are actually watching soaps during these two weeks? Just splice in some new casts in between.. but make the rest of time focused on the Olympics. Imagine the ad spots they would be able to command then??

Four days in.. and certainly more to come.

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