Last year, we said we'd stop harassing our readers -- all nine of them -- to cough up their money for charity.That was 2009. This is 2010.
If you've been watching the Westminster Kennel Club (WKC) Dog Show, you've undoubtedly seen the advertisements for the Pedigree Foundation, a 501(c)(3) philanthropic organization dedicated to finding "forever homes" for dogs in need. The Pedigree Foundation will match your donor's gifts dollar-to-dollar up to $500K. Do the math: That's $500K from us who are diverting our beer money and $500K from Pedigree. Whatta deal.
Tonight's WKC Dog Show broadcast includes the Best of Show competition at the evening's end. It's counter programming to NBC's tape-delayed, "live" coverage of the Winter Olympics. True to form, NBC is stockpiling the "marquee events" for prime-time Olympics coverage from 8 pm to midnight. We on the West Coast have to wait until 8 pm to see what our friends in Trenton, NJ, Raleigh, NC, or Meriden, CT saw three hours earlier. So the downhill and snowboard competitions that took place earlier in the day -- and whose results have been posted online for several hours earlier -- don't air until 10 or 11 pm. Aspiring Dorothy Hamills or Kristi Yamaguchis with normal bedtimes don't get to watch their idols skate for the gold.
And do you really want to go to bed with Bob Costas, aka "Mr. Know-It-All"? Maybe 20 years ago when he was a hip, clever sports announcer and quirky late-night, talk-show host... as opposed to the smug and smarmy media celebrity that he has become.
We never understood NBC's broadcast strategy. Yes, they "save" the high-ticket events to run against broadcasts of Grey's Anatomy, CSI Miami, American Idol, and Gossip Girl. But an intrepid online surfer can watch a video of an Olympic event hours before NBC's broadcast. If this were the 1970s, NBC would tape delay the Watergate hearings for broadcast opposite Love, American Style, All in the Family, and Mannix. If NBC had broadcast rights to the Masters Tournament, we'd be watching the green jacket ceremony at 11:40 pm.
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