I watch a sum total of three sporting events: the Olympics, the FIFA World Cup and the Tour de France. That's it. Yet, as I watch more and more of NBC's coverage of this year's Olympic games in Beijing, I find it more and more irritating. It has reached the point where I may give up on the Olympics altogether, regardless of how much I liked Bob Costas' interview with 43.

NBC seems to think Americans still live in the pre-Internet age. I can understand, after paying as much as they did for the broadcast rights to air the Olympics in the United States, that NBC would want to arrange the most popular events in such a way as to give its advertisers the most possible eyeballs. At the same time, however, NBC acts as if the Internet and World Wide Web are still the exclusive province of research universities when it tape delays its primetime coverage of the Olympics for viewers in the United States' two western time zones. The results of every event show up live on any number of websites, be they the pages of domestic media operations or the foreign media outlets who air the games live.

I might have more sympathy for NBC if they were tape delaying some of the more popular content because of the time difference between North America and East Asia. This year, however, NBC managed to strong arm the Olympics organizers into holding popular events early in the morning, which happens to correspond to the evening here in the United States. While people in the United States' two eastern time zones do see those specially-scheduled events live, those of us lucky enough to live in Pacific or Mountain time see the primetime coverage at a three hour delay.

What's more, NBC further insults its viewers in the Pacific and Mountain time zones by keeping a gigantic aston reading, "LIVE," in the upper right corner of the tape delayed feed. The geniuses at NBC, of course, would claim that, by briefly flashing a tiny blob of white text reading, "pre-recorded," in the upper left of the screen for half a minute, at the top of every hour, everyone can still sing songs together around the campfire. On the other hand, I see it as an insult to viewers' intelligence. I know of no other media outlet in today's world of instant information who would be so idiotic as to keep the "LIVE" badge on pre-recorded footage. Someone should sue.

And, while I tear apart NBC's coverage of the Olympics, let me pose this question: why must American media lace its coverage of sport with cloying personal interest pieces before the athletes performance? Have we become so addicted to reality television?

I have no problem with a commentator slipping interesting tidbits into the program. That someone broke her ankle just two months before the games makes her remarkable performance all the more exciting and noteworthy. But I have no need to watch a ten-minute feature backed with swelling violins to explain how much Marie-Cécile Smith worried about her chances when she broke her leg.

Yet again, I wish I could receive the BBC.