Olympics! But only for REAL Americans.

Brought to you by A Certain News Conglomerate Scrooge

I'm not going to say their name out loud. But I have recently been thwarted by a certain news company and what follows is a rant about the recent restrictions about access to information for those of us living in a foreign country.

It sucked when I couldn't watch House.
It was terrible when they took down videos of ANTM.
It completely blew when I couldn't get Medium.

But generally speaking, I could watch the news. I could stay in touch, just a little. I could find out what was happening in MY country. In my home. And with the Olympics happening, I was really excited. The time difference makes it almost impossible for me to watch anything real time. How would you like to wake up at 3 am on a work night so you could watch your favorite event? Yeah right. So I did what any person of my generation would do: I went on the web.

I wanted to check out the moguls. Those have always been a personal favorite. I found an add for a certain news conglomerate and followed the link. I located a very nice schedule of all the events, and lo! There was a link to complete event coverage, even if the event had ended.

Thinking myself incredibly luck, I clicked it, only to have a message appear. In essence, it said "You cannot access this video because you live in a foreign country. Click here for the videos we will let you watch. Niiner Niiner HaHa."

And I became so incensed that I went to their feedback page (which I always think about but never do) and wrote them a message that it's terrible that they will deny Americans in a foreign country from watching their own country's Olympians from competing. On their page it tells us to look for 'our own country's' website and Olympic coverage. I don't know about you, but America is my country, dammit. I am American! I'm not in America, but I'm AMERICAN.

So I told them in my message I'd start looking for this country's Olympic coverage just as soon as I learned how to read the damn thing. I also said that they edit their Olympic footage here too - Guess who they cut out? Yeah that's right; they favor their own athletes here too, and I don't have any idea where to see footage of Americans. They won't show all the events I want to see either. I'm sorry, but in Japan, their best sports are not the same as America's best sports. So who do you think they cut? One guess. No take-backs.

Adding to the insult, after I'd sent the message, a screen popped up and told me that due to the mass amounts of feedback I might not get a reply message but that I should feel secure that someone had read my message. All I have to say to that is: Riight. I've sent detailed questions to sights before about a problem I was having with their page, and I've received reply messages which were obviously sent by someone who did not read my email. They sent me links to information I had not requested or told them I had tried and it had not worked. And this is when I get a reply. And yet this site is now telling me I should feel certain that my feedback has impacted things somehow. Sure.

Thus to all the News Companies out there; and I say Companies, because lets face it, people don't make the news anymore. I'd like to say Screw You. Who do you think is going to steal your crappy video over here? They don't care about your footage. They don't even like the same events we do. Do you think they can understand your crappy commentary?

I can understand why you won't show sitcoms and dramas to foreign countries. I don't like it, I don't agree with it, but I can understand why in your little mind you need to do this. But the news? The Olympic coverage? That's just low. That's pond scum low. Thanks Scrooge. When the ghost of Christmas past comes to get you I hope he takes everything from you and leaves you in a small town, in the middle of no where, in the opposite time zone and no way to contact anyone. See how long you last.

All these companies (and one in particular) care about is just saying 'It's mine! It's mine! Don't touch it! You can't have it! I only let my friends see it from time to time!' Is that really what the web is about? That's all our society is about anymore. I have it and I'm so afraid that I'll lose it that I have to protect it with stupid rules and tricks. I'll be as petty as I want because I have it and you don't.